Hail took another sip of wine and continued, “My first ships were mainstream cargo ships. At that time, we hauled a massive amount of nuclear material. But once the majority of the nuclear waste had been removed from the United States, I didn’t need the entire ship to be devoted to that task. That’s when I built my new ships, like the one we’re on now. These new ships were designed from the ground up to serve two tasks. We still haul nuclear waste and deliver precast nuclear reactors. But we also serve a second purpose, which you will soon see. That’s why I needed to hire a specialized crew. That’s why I needed a Google type of atmosphere.”
“You have more than just one of your ships outfitted like this?” Kara asked.
Hailed replied with a simple yes, but didn’t expand on how many such ships he had.
“So what’s the deal with you and nuclear power? Other than the profit, what’s the attraction?”
Hail like the question, because he liked talking about nuclear power.
“Power is power,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Power can change everything. Power can make weak countries powerful. Power can solve all of the world’s problems.”
“How so?” Kara asked cynically, reaching over and tugging loose a piece of bread.
“Diamonds are expensive, right?” Hail said as more of a statement than a question.
Kara nodded as she buttered her bread.
“If you have enough cheap power, you can make diamonds inexpensively. After all, making a diamond only requires two things, pressure and heat. If you put enough pressure and heat on a banana, it will turn into a diamond. However, it takes a massive amount of pressure and heat to make a diamond and that takes a lot of power. If the power costs more than the diamond, then it’s not practical to make them. But if the scales flip the other way, then a diamond will no longer be expensive, let alone a commodity because they would be inexpensive to make. That’s how power can turn the world on its ear.”
Kara chewed her bread and thought about Hail’s little speech.
She swallowed and asked, “Can someone make gold if they have enough power?”
Hail shook his head no. “That’s very tricky, because gold was made in a cataclysmic event known as a short gamma-ray burst, such as the collision of two neutron stars. Gold can be man-made but none of the processes are economical and most are comical.”
“How so?” Kara asked.
“For example, gold can be made in a nuclear reactor, but the gold that would be produced would be highly radioactive. Walking around with an ounce of gold in your pocket that that is burning a hole in your leg isn’t a good thing.”
Kara laughed.
“It’s also possible to make gold in a supercollider, one atom at a time. Even with virtually free energy, it would take a hundred years to create one ounce of gold in a supercollider, therefore that method is not practical either.”
“Well, at least gold is one commodity that will stand the test of time, or should I say stand the test of Hail Power Industries,” Kara said.
Hail shrugged off the comment and said, “But the real payoff is in solving other problems that are facing the world. For example, let’s take the global fresh water shortage. That’s not really a water problem, that’s an energy problem. We have an ocean full of saltwater and all it takes is energy to turn it into fresh drinkable water. So cheap power solves our water problems as well.”
Kara looked at Hail and commented, “Interesting.” She plucked another piece of bread from the loaf.
Not sure he had made his point, Hail added, “People only need a few things to live; food, water and air. Antibiotics extend life as do other medications, but the basics are food, water and air. So what do we do when we run out of oil? What are we going to use as fuel for the tractors to plant and harvest the massive amounts of food our world requires? What fuel are we going to burn in the trucks that bring the harvest to our inner-city stores?”
“I don’t know,” Kara said honestly. “Batteries?”
“No, but that is a good guess. Actually I think that hydrogen will be the new fuel that will replace petroleum based products. The only problem is that hydrogen takes an enormous amount of energy to produce. Currently, using older energy technology, hydrogen takes more energy to make than it produces. But if you have an abundance of cheap electrical power, then all of a sudden hydrogen becomes economical and all our cars and trucks and tractors can be switched over to burn hydrogen. And the beauty about hydrogen is the waste product that falls out your tailpipe is pure water. You can drink it.”
“That is wonderful,” Kara agreed. She picked up her glass and took a sip of wine. Hail did the same.
“So why wouldn’t all cars run on electricity; you know, batteries?” Kara asked.
“Well, first of all, batteries are very heavy and don’t hold much power. They also take a lot of energy to manufacture and are made from expensive materials. And batteries don’t last very long before they have to be replaced. And secondly the world has an infrastructure problem when it comes to electricity. For example, if tomorrow an electric car magically appeared in the garage of every American, and they all plugged them in at the same time, then the entire power grid in the United States would fail. See, the power companies just don’t have the infrastructure or capacity to facilitate that scenario. But hydrogen could be kept in pretty much the same type of gas stations where gasoline and diesel fuel are currently dispensed.”
“Interesting,” Kara said.
“So cheap and clean electrical power completes the circuit,” Hail said, summarizing his thoughts. “We burn our old nuclear waste in a reactor that turns that hideous stuff into low level waste that can be stored safely. With new cheap electricity, we can create hydrogen to power our machines and they output water, so we are now preserving our air. With cheap and clean power, we can desalinate water from our oceans. Food, water, air, the Hail reactor solves all of our problems.”
“Almost all of our problems,” Kara reminded Hail.
“Yep, there is still a people problem that needs to be solved,” Hail said, reading the CIA woman’s mind.
“More like a people removal problem,” Kara corrected.
Hail chewed on his bottom lip and nodded his head.
The door from the kitchen opened and Sarah appeared toting an armful of dishes. Once she had reached the table, she carefully set down each dish in front of its new owner. Sarah reached across the table and removed the rose from its vase and set it on the table.
“Is there anything else I can get for you?” Sarah asked.
“No, this looks great,” Kara said.
“Thank you, Sarah,” Hail told her.
Sarah looked pleased and turned and left the room.
Hail used his fork to cut the corner off his slab of lasagna. As he lifted the pasta to his mouth, his phone rang. Holding his fork in the air, he used his other hand to take his phone out of his pants pocket. He saw it was Renner calling. He set his fork back down on his plate and took the call.
“This is Marshall,” Hail said into the phone.
“You don’t have me on speaker, do you?” Renner asked.
“Nope,” Hail said flashing a I’m sorry look at his breakfast companion.
“Do you want the run down on the contents of your new buddy’s purse?”
“Yes, what do you have?”
“Well, the purse itself is clean. No bugs, no wires, no batteries sewn into it. Everything else is clean as well except for three items. Her phone is sending out a tracking beacon. Even if it is turned off, it is still sending out a beacon. We x-rayed her phone and it has two battery sources; one factory battery and the other is a custom job, straight out of the CIA handbook.”
“OK,” Hail said.
Renner continued. “Her compact is a communications device as well. It has a satellite receiver/transmitter and lots of different modes of sending messages. Video, audio, photo and so forth. The deal with her compact is that it has to have clear air to communicate with a satellite. So if she is inside, then it’s useless unless she hangs the compact out a porthole on the ship.”