“No.I’m sure that was the reason our PR company was hired, though, right?”She shrugged, leaning in to get a better look at the caption.“Sounds like the plans went through, but then there was some glitch that caused the construction to grind to a halt.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t say much about why that happened.All it says here is that a city government official pulled the building permit until the issues could be resolved.”
“What issues?”Bryn shook her head.“Like using too many natural resources?Or something else?”
“No idea.”There was a picture on the screen of a shell of a building with a large backhoe sitting off to the side as if the operator had literally been dragged off the machine in the middle of his shift.“Possibly a paperwork glitch of some sort.”
“Maybe.Looks like the construction was halted almost four weeks ago.”She arched a brow.“That was right when Damien started meeting with the guy from the Wild Prairie Data Center.”
“Do you remember his name?Maybe we can dig into his background a bit.”He figured it was worth a shot.
She frowned in concentration, then nodded.“I remember now, he had two first names.I remember being confused at first if his first name was Phillip or Justin.Turns out his first name was Phillip.”
“Okay, let’s see what we can find on Phillip Justin.”He typed the name into the search engine, along with the phrase “data center.”
An image of a smiling man in his mid-forties bloomed on the screen.Beneath the photo was the caption, “Phillip Justin, spokesperson for the Wild Prairie Data Center, is scheduled to present his case to the Wild Prairie city council.”
“Does he look familiar?”He turned the screen so she could see better.“Did he come by the office to meet with Damien?”
“Yes.”She glanced at him.“But I only met him once.Damien took him out to lunch several times, but they only met in his office for the initial meeting.”
“He’s the spokesman, but that doesn’t tell us who the owner is.”He tried another search to narrow in on the organization behind the development.Another article caught his eye, and he realized there were hundreds of data centers across the US.So many that one more being built in Wild Prairie shouldn’t have been such a big deal.
He worked for the next fifteen minutes without finding anything useful.He took a break when his stomach rumbled with hunger.They hadn’t stopped for groceries, so there was nothing in the cabin to eat.
“We should order a pizza or something.”He offered a wry grin.“I can’t think clearly on an empty stomach.”
“Don’t you need a credit card to order a pizza?”She frowned.“I think we’re better off going to pick one up.Maybe that town we drove through has a place that serves carryout pizzas.”
“Yeah, okay.”He glanced at his watch.The hour was going on five o’clock.They hadn’t eaten since breakfast.“I’ll work for another twenty minutes, then we’ll head out.”
“Okay.”She sighed.“I get the feeling we’re spinning our wheels with nothing to show for it.”
He couldn’t deny it.Still, he would feel better if he could at least identify the owner of the data center.If the building was being constructed by one of the big tech gurus, he figured they were less likely to be involved in anything nefarious.
After another search, he discovered the name of the company was Global Sun Technology.He frowned, wondering if the Global portion of the name was a subtle reference to some other country.
He continued searching and finally found yet another reference to Phillip Justin and a man by the name of Jin Yong Wu.“Bryn?What about this guy, Jin Yong Wu?Did you meet him?”
“No, I don’t remember meeting anyone by that name.Or arranging any meetings with him.”She spread her hands.“Does it matter if a person with a Chinese-sounding name is involved in the data center?For one thing, we can’t assume he’s not an American citizen.For another, even if he is from China, they’re heavily invested in technology, right?”
“They are, yeah.”He stared at the name for a long moment.“My point here is that I don’t think anyone would be happy to know that a data center that they didn’t want in the first place was owned by someone from China.”
“I’m not sure why the nationality matters.”Bryn looked confused.“Regardless of who owns it, the data center is being opposed because of resource consumption.Not because of the origin of the company.Technology is a part of our every day lives.No matter how much we might not like to admit it, we couldn’t really function in a world without our phone, TV, internet, and other computer programs.”
“True.”Maybe she was right, and he was heading down the wrong path.Just because cyber crimes were on the rise, there was no reason to suspect a company owned by China would carry a higher risk of causing trouble for the community than any other data center.
Hackers were everywhere, here at home and abroad.
“Maybe we should eat,” Bryn said.
“Yeah, we should.”He didn’t move, though, as a new theory crept into his mind.“Did Damien say anything about the data center to lead you to believe he’d changed his mind on the project?”
“No, why?”She searched his gaze.“What are you getting at?”
“This could be nothing more than a wild theory, but let’s just talk it through for a moment.”He gathered his thoughts.“What if Damien discovered something about the data center that would put their company at risk?Something criminal that he felt he couldn’t afford to ignore?”
“What’s criminal about a data center?”Bryn asked.
