Solution Nassau part 5

Mark dialed down to the front desk. "Mister Julian Thorne, please," he said. He waited a while. Finally he spoke, "Hey dad. What? Yeah. It's me. Stop yelling. Okay. I know. Fuck your mother," he cursed and slammed the phone down.
Mark tried to salvage as much of his clothes as he could and searched around in the woman's luggage for anything he might possibly wear. The only thing he could find was a teal green hoodie four sizes too large. He gave up trying to be presentable and left the room.
Down at the lounge in the hotel lobby, his father was standing near a pillar. He scowled as Mark approached.
"You're a disgusting mess. We were supposed to meet yesterday. What happened to you?" he asked.
Mark raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. "I arrived late yesterday but then I got robbed," he began. His father looked concerned so his story was working. "Some waitress saw me open my wallet and I think she got her friends to roll me. I was out cold until this morning on the beach."
Julian frowned. "That may be true," he said. "But it could also be true that you partied all day and night then got drunk and realised you were supposed to give me the data we asked you to collect."
Mark reached into his hoodie pockets instinctively to indicate he was searching for something. "That's the thing... They rolled me and I think they stole my flash drive as well."
"You lost the data?" Julian thundered. The bartender and concierge looked up and stared at the two men. Julian tried to lower his voice. "Why didn't you put it in your luggage and keep it safe?" he asked.
"I was trying to keep it safe," Mark lied and didn't have to struggle much to have tears water up under his eyelids. "It doesn't matter anyway," he said. "I think I lost my luggage too. That fucking limo driver probably stole my bags."
"Son... Why... For Christ sake..." stuttered Julian. He took a deep breath. "I've put up with a lot of incompetence from you, son," he said. "I got you into LYU. I went to LYU when I was your age. I got into LYU on my own academic accomplishments. I didn't get a free ride from my father like you did. I raised myself up by my bootstraps so that when dad died, I inherited the money I deserved. Unlike you, I should think. Unless you straighten out..."
Mark stood in a contrite pose.
Julian continued, "When I was your age, I had to fight. We didn't have it easy back then. I had to earn my place in the world. When I got into LYU, the other kids thought I must have used race or affirmative action to get in. I didn't. I used my head and worked my tail to the bone. I had seen white people before I got to LYU, but I never knew there were so many of them. I had to fight!" Julian raised his fist. "Anyway, I was too soft on you. I never pushed you hard enough like my father did. It's my fault. I made you soft."
"I'm not soft," Mark said. "Honest, dad, I had the flash drive and I got rolled. It was at the casino, and they must have it on cameras. I can recognise the waitress and we can find out where my stuff is. I lost my passport, my clothes... She knows what happened and who did it."
"Maybe," said Julian. "She's not working alone, though. The whole staff probably has a network of thieves they work with. Never mind about the data, they'll never know what to do with it. The results are all scientific data no one will be able to understand. There's nothing incriminating in it anyway."
"Then why did you make me steal it?" Mark asked. "You said it was going to ruin our company."
"I thought it might. I've been talking to Mathiason. We don't think it's the manufacturing process or the materials. It could be worse than that."
"Worse?"
"Much worse. The universe is telling us that it's breaking down before our eyes. We don't have any hope of understanding it, much less stopping it."
"I don't get it."
Julian sighed. "Did you hear about the cruise ship?"
"Which cruise ship?"
"You were supposed to be on it in less than four hours."
"Oh shit, I forgot," Mark said.
"Never mind. The ship never arrived. It's been missing at sea. Like the damn Bermuda triangle is acting up or something."
"Missing? I... That can't be. I saw it yesterday when I came in."
Julian shook his head. "No, it's all over the news. The ship left Bermuda two days ago. The GPS track on the map starts to look like Morse code after a while. Then it just stops about 85 miles northwest of here. It's been spotted a few times by search planes, but they circle around and it's gone."
"How many people were on board?" Mark asked.
"A couple thousand. Listen, we make nearly every piece of electronics on that ship. They'll blame us. But we already talked with Samantha Griffen and the folks at CERN. It's a fundamental change in the laws of nature that are taking place. We're going to have to adopt a new version of reality from now on."
"That's nonsense," said Mark. "You can't change reality."
Julian laughed. "Ha, good one son. We change reality every day. Humans built this hotel and resort out of sand. We dig holes and build highways and shoot rockets into space. 'We can't change reality.' Good one, son. Good one indeed."
Mark said, "That's not what I meant. We can't alter physics just by wishing it so. The parameters of our existence are so fine tuned that any small changes will destroy our way of life, much less the whole planet. Heck, the whole solar system couldn't exist. Our galaxy could collapse."
"Well, believe it. It's here. And we're just beginning to see the effects. We had some guys at the NSA move the Hubble and we've seen the effects of the tests we wanted Griffen to check out. Our solid state materials have been giving us bad data for five years and now we know why."
"That's crazy, dad."
"I know. Hey, listen. I'm sorry I was so hard on you. I'm sorry you got mugged. Why don't you enjoy yourself here for a few days until you can get your passport at the embassy? I have to leave to meet the board. We're going to be subpoenaed by a congressional oversight committee soon. I need to prepare with the lawyers."
"I still can't believe it's as bad as you're saying. It must be a mistake."
"There's no mistake. Even if there is, we are still going down for liability or product safety or something."
"I need some clothes," Mark said abruptly.
Julian nodded. He pulled out a black American Express card from his wallet. "Here, get yourself some stuff and stay out of trouble if you can." Mark took the card. Julian continued, "You should visit your mom. She wants to see you and you can't avoid her forever."
"No thanks," Mark said.
"You haven't seen her for a long time and you don't want to visit her and find out it's too late."
"I'll visit her when she's dead to pay my respects. That way I can get it all over in one shot in a single trip."
Julian frowned. "I don't know why you two didn't get along. Anyway. Take care, son."
"I will," said Mark. "Hey, are you going to Washington D.C.?"
"Yes, probably. Next week."
"I'll go with you," Mark said.
"Okay, son. That will be good. You can see how it's done, learn the ropes. Maybe you'll own the place one day," his father joked.
Mark nodded. They parted and Mark arranged with the concierge to send up a personal shopper to Mark's room. Up in his room, Mark got an inspiration and called Samantha on the hotel phone. He heard a gangster rap song refrain start playing from somewhere inside the luggage in his room. He hung up.
"Fuck me," he said.
He dialed his own phone number. It went immediately to voicemail. He hung up.
"Fuck me," he said again.