Birnam Wood

When Mira comes home, she thinks that Shelley has finally left, revealing that she knows Shelley wants to leave. She thinks of using the tracking app but feels bad invading Shelley’s privacy. She admits to herself that she’s never had a best friend and always liked being the center of men’s attention. This makes her feel guilty that she got along with Shelley so well because Shelley wasn’t competition. She wishes she could go back, treat Shelley with respect, and admit that she loves and needs her. She begins to pack for Thorndike.

Mira is excited by Thorndike because it could provide produce on a large scale. Mira has been frustrated with their limited resources in the past. She imagines the benefits of being caught trespassing on the Darvishes’ land and explaining their mission to the world. Mira wants to do this trip alone. She leaves and texts Shelley to say where she is going. She arrives and spends the night in a campground, where ignores the honesty box for camp fees and makes sure to wear a broken analog camera so that people think she is a hiker. She finds a back entrance to the land, explores, and concludes that no one is around, though she’s surprised to see a plane parked on an airstrip that wasn’t in the internet photos. When she goes to check, her phone is dead. She discovers abandoned animal pens to use for tools and shelter, and is about to leave, when a man steps out from behind the plane.

He is lean, middle aged, American, and wears expensive-looking clothes. She lies and says that she’s a movie scout, but he doesn’t believe her. He is cold and demanding with his question about what she’s doing there. When he calls her by her real name, Mira cracks and tells him her real identity and goals. When he doesn’t respond, she gets frightened and runs away. Back at her van she is disturbed and embarrassed by her behavior. He’s the only person whom she’s failed to charm. She plugs in her phone and searches for information. A link from Darvish Pest Control leads her to an American company called Autonomo, which makes drones. The man whom she met is the CEO, Robert Lemoine, a venture capitalist and billionaire. As she searches, a black SUV pulls up behind her. It’s Lemoine returning her broken camera. He reveals that he knew her name because “mira’s iPhone” showed up on his Wi-Fi signal page, and he cautions her that she should keep it turned off when trespassing. He says that if she stays out of his way, he will stay out of hers. When Mira asks why he would allow her to work, he says that she interests him. He promises not to tell the Darvishes and gives her the gate code before flying away in his plane.

Lemoine watches Mira turn off the main road and immediately begins to hack into her phone. After 20 minutes he has full control and can see all her search, text, and call history. One of his drones follows her. He is pleased that no one ever notices the signs of being followed and their phones being hacked. At his hotel he reflects that it’s fun to interact with a stranger who doesn’t know that he’s rich and so doesn’t grovel. He thinks Mira is like him, a criminal, and likes that they both have plans for the Darvishes’ farm.

Lemoine is not doing what he told the Darvishes, which is to build a doomsday bunker on their property. After using his drones to survey the national park for the government, he discovered that the land is full of rare-earth minerals. His real goal is to remove the minerals from the national park and Darvish land. He is already doing this secretly in the park without the government’s knowledge, and it’s his mining that caused the landslide. If he’s successful, he will be the richest person who ever lived. He gleefully refers to the earthquake as “an act of God” (82) and reasons that, compared to the atrocities happening in other places where rare-earth minerals are mined, specifically China, five dead is nothing. Lemoine’s crew is made up of professional ex-special ops who think that they are working for the American CIA and undermining China’s attempt to monopolize the world’s rare-earth sources.

Lemoine thinks that becoming a stereotype is the best way to stay hidden, as people quickly judge you and don’t expect anything else. He spies more on Mira’s search history and sees her research on his company and wife’s death. Through his drones, he watches her fill water bottles for planting. He then goes to dinner with an obnoxious, disgraced media personality and his producer wife, who are eager for financial support. Lemoine is bored and thinks that he will sponsor Birnam Wood instead. He’s caught up in his own thoughts until his dinner guest worriedly points out that he is laughing at nothing.

It’s been three weeks since Shelley failed to seduce Tony, and she hasn’t seen or heard from him. Mira has also been gone, and Shelley debates if she should tell Mira that Tony is back. She continues to look for a job and updates Birnam Wood’s Facebook page. She sends out reminders of the coming meeting and gets a message from Mira that she will be back and has big news.

Amber, a member of their group and a manager at the cafe that hosts Birnam Wood’s meetings, responds in a petty way to Shelley’s emailed group invitation, causing Shelley to waste time by publicly appeasing Amber’s ego. Shelley sees that Tony’s email address is part of the group and wonders if he will come. When Shelley arrives at the meeting, she finds everyone eating and Tony dominating the conversation. He is debating Amber while constantly looking toward the door for Mira. He offends Amber, and eventually the entire room is annoyed by his pontificating.

Mira walks in on a tense meeting and is surprised to the point of cursing when she sees Tony. Amber and Tony are clearly upset, and the rest of the group is uncomfortable, but they go forward with the meeting. Mira tells them that Lemoine wants to give them $100,000 if they can become a functioning organization. He’s already put $10,000 in Mira’s bank account. Mira says that she understands that he raises red flags and acknowledges that he is probably using them for citizenship, but he also believes in their project. Tony is furious. He says that Lemoine is the opposite of everything they stand for and his money from drone surveillance is blood money. He and Mira argue in front of the group. Tony thinks that Mira should give back the money and Mira says that they need to compromise to do good things. Shelley vocally supports Mira, saying that she’s excited about the money. Tony leaves after the group votes against him.

Shelley and Mira prepare to leave their flat for an extended time and head to Thorndike on the same day that Owen Darvish is knighted.