The screen was blotchy with green and black with frightening pockmarks of white and violet. Worst of all, it was loading slowly. Sam shook his head again, it never failed. His first real vacation in years and all hell breaks loose back home.

His boat was calm, the water almost like glass. It should have been difficult to match the weather back home with the very placid setting he was in but he’d grown up on those plains. He knew what it was like when the sky kept getting impossibly darker and it looked like God himself would step down from heaven and start smiting things.

His beeper had gone off about an hour ago. He had left a list of reasons to contact him and possible tornadoes had been at the very top. With the aid of his laptop and a satellite connection, he was soon fully in the loop. The speaker in his ear tried to reassure him that no one could know where a twister would land, so they didn’t know if there was any danger.

The uncertainty didn’t help Sam at all. He could only watch the screen and listen for more details. They were doing the real work back home.

At the first warning of severe weather they cleared The Tower. The ramps were both set to go downwards and most people just walked their way down. The elevators did their bit, helping as much as they could. This had been practiced and drilled for and employee response had been very good.

Not long after the top level had been cleared, Sam guessed that Aeolid would come out to scan the skies for himself. What he’d be looking for was anyone’s guess. Well, the looking probably wasn’t as important as the listening. Or maybe it was the speaking that made the difference.

Sam gave up. He had no idea how he’d do it. He only knew that he’d entrusted his Tower to random fate and the skills of this young man.

The screen refreshed again. Like most of the really violent storms, this one was very fast moving. The good news was that it would be over soon. He wondered how up to date the pictures were. Why hadn’t he ever asked that question before?

The picture on his laptop had an ‘X’ to mark The Tower. The dark green had been brushing up against it before. Now there was a white blotch right over it. Sam’s heart jumped into his throat. Was he watching it all being destroyed? He furiously stabbed at the refresh button.

Back into the green. The speaker again, it looked like the leading edge had gone past without any bad news. There was hail and quite a bit of water but nothing damaging. They’d keep an eye out for awhile but it all looked good. Sam suddenly realized that he’d been holding his breath.

This had been the first real test of his ‘insurance policy’. It looked like everything was ok. The storm had been sung off course or something like that. He took another look around him. It was beautiful and calm. There was smooth sailing ahead.