Page 51 of Mastermind

“Data centers are often located where power is the cheapest. If you ever look on satellite images, you’ll find them in some surprising locations. And some of them aren’t exactly public. There are a number of companies that run shadow colocation facilities in case of disasters or attacks,” says Encyclopedia Theotannica.

He’s far from annoying. He’s flat-out interesting.

There’s the Theo who says whatever comes to mind, and then there’s the Theo who tries to self-censor. The more obsessed he is by a problem, the less capable he is of keeping his mouth shut.

As we drive, his eyes wander to the flora and fauna around us. Asking him what he’s thinking can lead to a graduate-level dissertation on how microbiomes can be more revealing about an ecosystem than the macro environment. One explanation typically leads to another—like how you can tell more about the level of industrialization by looking at the contents of our stomachs than satellite photos . . . or something to that effect.

A question leads you down a rabbit hole, and then suddenly you’re discussing the rabbit hole itself.

And every answer, it seems, leads to two more questions.

Still, not once in our time together has he asked me a personal question. Nothing about boyfriends, relationships, kids, relatives, or anything else. I don’t think it’s indifference; I just think there’s mind stuff and there’s human stuff, and Theo prefers to live in the world of the mind.

I check the GPS on my phone. “We should have seen it by now. At least the road leading to it.”

I’m not sure what he was expecting, but I was thinking we’d find a big sign or an industrial park. All we’ve seen so far has been the occasional farm and patches of jungle.

Theo takes out his phone and looks at a satellite map. “I think it’s a kilometer back.”

I turn the car around, careful not to land us in a ditch. I have no idea how reliable the Thai version of AAA is out here.

We continue back and pass a few small side roads, but nothing that says DATA CENTER THIS WAY, DUMMIES!

I bring up a thought I’ve been trying to avoid. “You don’t think it’s possible that the website is fake and the address isn’t real?”

“It’s occurred to me,” replies Theo. “Still, let’s look a little further.”

“Anything on the map?” I ask.

“There’re a lot of sections with construction. It could be one of those. Often these images are quite old.”

We continue for another kilometer with no sign of the facility. “Now what?”

“Stop the car,” says Theo.

“Okay. Need to take a leak?”

“A look.”

Theo gets out and walks up to a concrete telephone pole and squints up at the wires and cables. He then gets back into the car. “That’s a fiber-optic junction. Let’s keep going.”

We continue driving with Theo craning his neck to look at the cables. Occasionally the wiring will lead down another road, but he doesn’t say anything until we’re almost back where I first noticed that we hadn’t noticed anything.

“Turn right,” says Theo, pointing out an almost-invisible side road.

I oblige.

“The fiber-optic goes this way. It’s our best bet,” he explains.

“At least we know we’ll get good Wi-Fi.”

A fraction of a second later, he smiles. God knows what kind of process my little joke went through in his brain. Did he consider telling me that fiber-optic internet doesn’t necessarily equal a wireless internet connection? Or did he get it was a joke right away? Do words appear in his field of view like the Terminator? Has he been sent from the future to kill me?

The road is narrow but paved. Trees line either side, but they’ve been cut back to allow cars and trucks through. Occasionally I run over a branch, which tells me the road hasn’t been maintained in the last few days.

We reach the end of the road and a large metal gate blocking the entrance to a dirt parking lot. At the far end stands a three-story, metal-sided building with no windows and only the numbers 88077 on the side.

“I think we found where they hide the aliens,” I remark.