Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Praise for Linwood Barclay
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
“What we set out to do here on Garrett Island was to create a perfect environment for the autonomous car, a test community where every car is, how can I say this, like-minded. We all remember when Oprah said to her audience, ‘You get a car! And you get a car!’ That’s what we did here when we gave everyone an Arrival, and that’s why I have invited you all here today, to see what we have achieved on Garrett Island in a few short weeks. We see what a success this bold, visionary experiment has been. Now, there are several issues I want to get to today, but I thought I’d take a moment in case there were any questions.”
The lights came up again. A woman Sandra recognized as someone from a CNBC business show had raised her hand. When Lisa pointed to her, the woman stood and asked when self-driving cars would become affordable for average buyers.
“They already are,” Lisa said. “Our latest model undercuts the list price of Tesla’s most recent offering by more than five thousand dollars.” She pointed to another reporter, a woman with a lanyard that read rebecca geary.
Sandra recognized her, too. Another TV person.
Geary asked, “How do you respond to accusations from Brandon Kyle, inventor of the Gandalf, that you conducted industrial sabotage against his company, and which left two people dead?”
Lisa bowed her head slightly, as if acknowledging the tragedy. “It was a terrible, terrible thing that happened to those two people in the Gandalf. Tragic. My heart goes out to their families. And quite honestly, my heart goes out to Brandon Kyle, too. He’s a visionary in every sense of the word. A brilliant man. But sometimes, brilliance is one side of the coin. It’s too often balanced out with negative qualities, like paranoia, irrationality. Kyle’s accusations against me and the Arrival corporation are baseless, and his failure to get the courts to see things his way are evidence of that fact. But at some level, I can understand his wanting to lay the blame elsewhere. Perhaps if it were me, I’d want to do that, too. The difference is, I wouldn’t. I would accept responsibility and act accordingly.”
The man wearing the ben stapleton nametag glanced up only briefly, then put his head back down as he tapped away silently on his laptop.
“A follow-up, if I may,” Rebecca Geary said. “Mr. Kyle also alleges that the death of Rhonda Templeton was no accident, that she was in fact—”
“That,” Lisa Carver said, emphatically, “was thoroughly investigated by the police, and is without doubt the most scurrilous of Brandon Kyle’s accusations. I would like to get back to our real focus today, and that is how Garrett Island is lucky enough to be on the cutting edge of history in the—”