Pitt found Yaeger at his desk, which sat on a raised stage and revolved in the center of the vast room. Yaeger had it specially constructed so he could keep an all-seeing eye on his billion dollar domain. He was eating a pizza and drinking a nonalcoholic beer when he spied Pitt and jerked to his feet with a broad smile.
“Dirk, you’re back.”
Pitt climbed the stairs to Yaeger’s altar, as his staff called it behind his back, and they shook hands warmly. “Hello, Hiram.”
“Sorry to hear about Soggy Acres,” Yaeger said seriously, what I’m real happy to see you’re still among the living. God, you look like a felon just out of solitary. Sit down and rest yourself.”
Pitt gazed longingly at the pizza. “You couldn’t spare a slice, could you?”
“You bet. Help yourself. I’ll send out for another. Like a fake beer to wash it down? Sorry I can’t give you the real stuff, but you know the rules.”
Pitt sat and put away a large pizza plus two slices from Yaeger’s, and three beers without alcohol the computer genius kept in a small refrigerator built into his desk. Between bites, Pitt filled Yaeger in on the events leading up to his rescue, stopping short of his flight to Hawaii.
Yaeger listened with interest and then smiled like a skeptical judge on a divorce trial. “Made a quick trip home, I see.”
“Something’s come up.”
Yaeger laughed. “Here we go. You didn’t rush back to eat my pizza. What’s swirling in that evil mind of yours?”
“I’m expecting a relative of mine, Dr. Percy Nash, to arrive in a few minutes. Percy was one of the scientists on the Manhattan Project, which built the first atomic bomb. A former director on the Atomic Energy Commission, now retired. Together with your supercomputer intelligence and Percy’s knowledge of nuclear weaponry, I want to create a scenario.”
“A conceptualization.”
“A rose, et cetera.”
“Involving what?”
“A smuggling operation.”
“What are we smuggling?”
“I’d rather spell it out after Percy gets here.”
“A tangible, a solid object, maybe like a nuclear warhead?” Yaeger asked smugly.
Pitt looked at him. “That’s one possibility.”
Yaeger lazily rose to his feet and started down the stairs. “While we’re waiting for your uncle, I’ll warm up my CAD/CAM.”
He was gone and away on the computer floor before Pitt thought to ask him what he was talking about.
23
A GREAT WHITE BEARD flowed down Payload Percy’s face and covered half his paisley necktie. He had a knuckle for a nose and the set brows and squinting eyes of a wagon master intent on getting the settlers through Indian country. He beamed at the world from a face that belonged in a TV beer commercial, and seemed far younger than his eighty-two years.
He dressed natty for Washington. No regimented gray pinstripe or blue suit with red tie for Percy. He entered NUMA’s computer complex in a lavender sport coat with matching pocket kerchief and tie, gray slacks, and lizard-skin cowboy boots. Sought and intimately entertained by half the attractive widows within a hundred miles, Percy had somehow managed to remain a bachelor. A wit who was in demand as a party guest and speaker, he was a gourmand who owned a wine cellar that was the envy of every society party thrower in town.
The serious side of his character was his tremendous knowledge of the deadly art of nuclear weaponry. Percy was in on the beginning at Los Alamos and stayed in harness at the Atomic Energy Commission and its succeeding agency for almost fifty years. Many a third-world leader would have given his entire treasury for Percy’s talents. He was one of a very small band of experts who could assemble a working nuclear bomb in his garage for the price of a power lawn mower.
“Dirk my boy!” he boomed. “How good to see you.”
“You look fit,” Pitt said as they hugged.
Percy shrugged sadly. “Damned Motor Vehicle Department took away my motorcycle license, but I can still drive my old Jaguar XK-One-twenty.”
“I appreciate your taking the time to help me.”
“Not at all. Always prime for a challenge.”
Pitt introduced Percy to Hiram Yaeger. The old man gave Yaeger a shoe to headband examination. His expression was one of benign amusement.
“Can you buy faded and prewashed clothes like that off the rack?” he asked conversationally.
“Actually my wife soaks them in a solution of camel urine, liverwort, and pineapple juice,” Yaeger came right back with a straight face. “Softens and gives them that special air of savoir-faire.”
Percy laughed. “Yes, the aroma made me wonder about the secret ingredients. A pleasure to meet you, Hiram.”
“The same.” Hiram nodded. “I think.”
“Shall we begin?” said Pitt.
Yaeger pulled up two extra chairs beside a computer screen that was three times the size of most desk models. He waited until Pitt and Percy were seated and then held out both hands as if beholding a vision.
“The latest state-of-the-art,” he instructed. “Goes by the name CAD/CAM, an acronym for Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing. Basically a computer graphics system, but also a supersophisticated visual machine that enables draftsmen and engineers to make beautifully detailed drawings of every mechanical object imaginable. No dividers, compasses, or T-squares. You can program the tolerances and then simply sketch a rough outline with an electronic pen on the screen. Then the computer will render them in precise and elaborate solid forms, or in three dimensions.”
“Quite astounding,” Percy murmured. “Can you separate different sections of your drawings and enlarge details?”
“Yes, and I can also apply colors, alter shapes, simulate stress conditions, and edit the changes, then store the results in its memory to be recalled like a word processor. The applications from design to finished manufactured product are mind staggering.”
Pitt straddled his chair and rested his chin on the backrest. “Let’s see if it can lead us to the jackpot.”
Yaeger peered at him over his granny glasses. “We in the trade refer to it as conceptualization.
“If it’ll make you happy.”
“So what are we looking for?” asked Percy.
“A nuclear bomb,” Pitt answered.
“Where?”
“In an automobile.”
“Expecting one to be smuggled across the border?” inquired Percy intuitively.
“Something like that.”
“By land or by sea?”
“Sea.”
“This have anything to do with the explosion in the Pacific couple of days ago?”
“I can’t say.”
“My boy, I’m unbeatable at Trivial Pursuit. I also keep up on nuclear affairs. And you know, of course, that, except for the President, I’ve carried the highest security clearance they’ve got.
“You’re trying to tell me something, uncle?”
“Would you believe I was the first one Ray Jordan consulted after the Pacific detonation?”
Pitt smiled in defeat. “Then you know more than I do.”
“That Japan is hiding nuclear weapons around the country in automobiles, yes, I know that much. But Jordan didn’t see fit to enlist an old man for his operation, so he merely picked my brains and sent me packing.”
“Consider yourself hired. You’ve just become a dues-paying member of Team Stutz. You too, Hiram.”
“You’ll catch hell when Jordan finds out you’ve taken on reinforcements.”
“If we’re successful, he’ll get over it.”
“What’s this about Japanese bombs in cars?” asked an incredulous Yaeger.