“Uh, sir, did you see that?”
Jacob glances up from his magazine, an eyebrow cocked.
The intern stares back at him. His glasses are dense with condensation. Heavy breathing sends a stray blob of snot flying. Disbelief fits perfectly on his face, which is as young and dumb as it ought to be.
Jacob sighs, and kicks his swivel chair across the room. The wheels squeak in violent protest.
But he can’t hear them. Not over the thunder.
He leans over the steel desk, peering at the kid’s security terminal.
The intern clears his throat.
“Something just triggered the motion sensors in Paddock...”
Jacob can barely see the enclosure through the rain. A pit sits on screen. It is large and rectangular, with four floodlights erected in each corner. None of them have been turned on, though.
The darkness consumes everything. Only the dunes are visible, the sand painfully bright and white.
Big dunes. Small dunes. Dunes with knife-sharp crests. Dunes with flat crests. Dunes that don’t move. Dunes that do move, are moving, sliding down…
Jacob’s eyes go wide. He smiles, then flips a switch.
He slaps the intern on his back.
“I think it’s your lucky day, kiddo!”
“A-and why,” the kid mumbles. “Why is that?”
Jacob can’t help but laugh. A loud, cavernous sound as deep as the pit. It quickly fills the small security room.
“‘Cause you get to see Ol’ Mongo!”