Ignatius Hannan had made few friends among his fellow electronic billionaires, but then there only were a few who survived the almost daily revolutions that rendered yesterday’s epic breakthrough obsolete early this morning. It was no industry for observers. The few at the top were at least as inventive and resilient as anyone they hired. Still, Hannan did not find his peers congenial, and doubtless vice versa. They were, after all, competitors, and they had all been personally narrowed by their abstract imaginations. When they turned to philanthropy other differences emerged. Bill Gates promoted contraception, Hannan the Catholic Church, the former with accompanying press releases, Hannan sub rosa, as he had learned to say. But Don Ibanez had become as close a friend as Hannan had. When Ibanez heard of the replica of the grotto at Lourdes that Hannan had built on the grounds of Empedocles, he asked him to come out and see his own replica of the basilica in Mexico City. Hannan made a special flight to see it, bringing Laura and Ray along.
