Nathan and Branko leave Bacon's office. Branko is fuming over Bacon's racial insults:
“I know what you're brooding over, buddy. I'm sorry… I really am.”
“The problem is, nothing will ever change. Nothing! You have no idea how close that man came to death today. I don't know what held me back. I don't know where I found the strength to control myself. I pictured it in my head, Nathan. I was grabbing him by the neck and smashing his face into the desk until every single bone in his skull was shattered!”
“Branko, I understand, but you know but I'm glad you didn't react.”
“I'm not happy at all, though! Where has my Mutate rage gone? I've become a wimp from holding back so much!”
“You know it's not like that. It's not your anger or your Mutate pride. You held back because it was right.”
“That's just great. Damn!”
“It’s the Agency calling. Nathan here…”
“It’s Sigmund. If you're done with your foray to Bacon, then you'd better get back here. I opened Powell's secret files.”
“Sigmund did it, it seems.”
“Come on, then. I'm curious to see what we're dealing with.”
“But you… are you okay?”
“I'm fine, I'm fine. You wanna move?”
(Sigmund meets them at Alfa Agency HQ) “Sirs, behold Powell’s secret. To your left, that huge basin of nearly nine square miles.”
“A huge underground lake!”
“Indeed. A huge basin probably fed by a source which, in his notes, Powell rightly calls the “Secret Spring.”
“Given its size, it is an almost inexhaustible reservoir which could irrigate the entire area of desert under which it rises.”
“As you can see, the spring feeds many smaller basins through channels that flow in the rock for tens of miles.”
“The smaller reservoirs, in turn, feed the large dam that supplies water to New Alamo.”
“Let me get this straight. The smaller reservoirs don't have their own springs, right?”
“That's right. The water that fills them comes from the primary source. The problem is that the dam is emptying those reservoirs much faster than the source can replenish them.”
“This explains the drop in water flow from the dam to New Alamo. Bacon, unlike Powell, does not know where the primary source is.”
“How is this possible? With modern detection tools, just as the secondary basins were found, the source should have been found as well.”
“The answer is in Powell's notes. First of all, the source is very far from the other basins. A hundred miles from the dam, in fact. But there is more, of course.”
“These are Palomar readings, the most modern satellite water research technology, and they were done a year ago.”
“Powell and Bacon were looking for other sources, in addition to the basins they had already found.”
“Indeed, but the readings were negative. And only later did Powell discover the reason. There is a kind of reflective magnetic field that protects the secret of the source from any research.”
“A defense mechanism. But is it natural, or man-made?”
(Their boss walks in) “That's what you'll find out when you go there.”
“Solomon…”
“Sigmund has already explained everything to me. I was just in Hangar A, telling Mendoza to quickly prepare your expedition into the desert.”
“The infinite supply of the secret spring is more valuable than gold to Bacon and the unscrupulous businessmen of New Alamo.”
“Of course. For such wealth, one might kill!”
“Powell knew that, and he was killed because he did not want to reveal the secret of the spring.”
“A correct hypothesis. But how did Powell discover the spring? And why did he keep its location secret?”
“Perhaps we will find the answer by going to the spring. Now we know where to find it.”
“You will leave tonight. We have no time to waste because, just as we decrypted Powell's data, someone else could have done it too.”
“Well, not in such a short time.”
“I realize that. But in any case, I want to close this investigation as quickly as possible. Call May too. Set up a tactical meeting to prepare, and by four o'clock I want you operational. That will be all.”
