“I expected it to be in an alien script,” Nat said. “This is English. And Calibri font, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Funny thing,” Sheldon replied. “Turns out Unicode doesn’t contain the Lorannic alphabet. Who knew? In any case, I imagine the Loranna work in English exclusively, not only from necessity, but also out of simple prudence.”

After a few seconds, the page changed to a Gantt chart. It contained at least a dozen different development paths, with the word continued at the bottom.

“I’ve created a larger graphic combining all the chart segments,” Sheldon said. The window expanded to take up the entire screen, with a massive amount of detail.

“Look at all those separate paths,” I said. The chart had the look of a major software project for a bank or government department. I could spot at least six critical paths, linking at major milestones.

“Yeah, but this is the part that’s really important,” Nat said, pointing to the end. All the various paths merged at the right side of the chart to a single milestone, labeled “Takeover Complete.” Nat’s finger traced upward to the timeline displayed along the top of the graph.

“Shit,” Patrick said. “That’s less than five years away!”

I stood and moved closer to the chart, peering at some of the details. “Unfortunately, a lot of these task labels are meaningless or even nonsensical. Sheldon?”

“It appears that the text uses acronyms or jargon that would be unfamiliar to an outsider,” Sheldon said. “I suspect some terms are nothing more than Lorannic labels, spelled out phonetically. Even I can’t make sense of most of the individual items. Although the milestones tend to be more straightforward.”

“Uh, yeah, takeover is pretty clear,” I said. “Some of these other items are at least ominous. What’s interesting is when the pandemic subproject was projected to start.”

“Off by less than three months,” Nat said. “Oh, that can’t be coincidence.”

“So this means … ” Patrick gestured helplessly at the graphic.

“A complete breakdown of human society sometime in the next five years. Everything and I mean everything is set to peak at the same time. This,” I pointed, “looks like a major environmental catastrophe, although it’s hard to tell exactly what.”

“Jaysus.” Patrick closed his eyes briefly. “Any other slides, Sheldon?”

“A few. I think you’ll find them interesting.”

“As opposed to … ” Patrick waved a hand at the Gantt chart.

“Even so,” Sheldon replied.

Several slides popped up in rapid succession, with images of well-known politicians, media figures, and wealthy individuals. Under each picture was some text. Sheldon flashed the images too quickly for anyone to read more than a word or two. By the time the slide show stopped, I’d given up counting them.

Nat had to take a moment to compose herself. “And those were … ”