"Say again?"
"No bodies. If you had bodies sticking up from the glass, they'd stay with this story till April Fool's Day."
Bulla shrugged. "I don't want bodies. I want the goddamn media out of my hair."
"Now all you have to deal with are the Feds. And they're not going to accept the lightning-bolt hypothesis."
"Screw them," Bulla snorted.
Pulse lifted his white Stetson, replacing it at a cockier angle than before.
"Whether you're the screwer or the screwee, I don't know. But history tells us the federal government has pretty much the upper hand in screwing folks. I'd be prepared for the worst."
Then Amos Bulla felt a hard tapping on his shoulder, and a cold voice that made him all but jump out of his skin said in his ear, "Remo Kobialka, EPA."
"Where'd you come from?" Bulla sputtered, whirling.
"The taxpayers. They want some answers to some questions."
"You just missed Dr. Cosmo Pagan," Bulla said, deciding to toss the ball into another court entirely. "He said it was aliens."
"You believe that?" asked Remo Kobialka, who looked as much like an EPA investigator in his white T-shirt and tan chinos as Tom Pulse in his white Stetson and snakeskin. boots looked like a scientific consultant on earthquakes, volcanos and other Earth hazards.
"I'm only a glorified PR agent. Dr. Pagan is a world-renowned expert," Bulla answered.
"Who once predicted that the firing of the old wells in Kuwait would turn Africa into a winter wonderland," said Remo Kobialka.
"Well, he was off his subject. If it's up in the sky, Pagan knows it inside and out."
"What's your theory?"
"Lightning."
Behind Bulla's back, Pulse shook his head in a slow negative.
"I want to talk to you," said Remo, picking Pulse up bodily and depositing him off to one side. like a barbershop pole.
"You can't," Bulla insisted. "He's a hired consultant. Answerable only to BioBubble Inc."
"What are you getting an hour?" Remo asked Pulse.
"One-fifty."
"Not bad. I pay five hundred. Up front."
"Sold."
They left Amos Bulla sputtering.
"What's your take?" asked Remo, drawing the man closer to the BioBubble remnant.
"You got me. It's not lightning. It's not a meteor impact or any of that stuff. Something up there turned a ray or force of something very, very hot on the BioBubble complex."
"How hot?"
"Somewhere between 1400 to 1600 degrees centigrade."
"Where do you get that figure?" Remo wondered aloud.
"Steel melts at between 1400 and 1500 centigrade. To turn raw sand to glass like this, you're talking anywhere in the 1400 to 1600 range. Those are the BioBubble structural components with the highest melting points. Of course, it could be higher."
Remo looked around the site, frowning.
"What's EPA's stake in this?" Pulse wondered aloud.
"The BioThing was full of different environments, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"EPA watchdogs the environment. Something like sixteen pocket environments just went the way of the dodo. This is exactly what the taxpayers pay us to investigate."
"It is?"
"Today it is. Tomorrow we may be giving mouthto-mouth to the spiny dogfish or doing other important rescues."
The US Geological Survey expert looked Remo up and down, taking in his white-light-deflecting T-shirt and freakishly thick wrists and was about to remark that Remo wasn't exactly dressed for the Arizona heat, when an even more unlikely apparition came fluttering around from the other side of the BioBubble. An ancient Asian with a face like a reanimated mummy's.
"Uh-oh," Pulse muttered. "Looks like the advance man for the harmonic-convergence crowd. I was wondering when the Dodona loonies would start showing up."
"That's Chiun," said Remo.
"You know him?"
"Consultant."
"What's his specialty?"
"Figuring out stuff I can't," said Remo, walking up to the tiny Asian.
If Remo was dressed for one season, Chiun was attired for another. His brocaded kimono was heavy and swayed thickly as he moved. Neither man sweated, which was amazing.
"Find anything?" asked Remo.
"Yes. Melted glass and steel."
"Funny. Besides that, I mean."
Chiun looked around with eyelids slowly compressing until only black pupils showed. "A terrible force did this, Remo."
"No argument there."
"One not of this earth."
Interest flickered across Remo's high-cheekboned face. "Yeah..."
"It can be but one thing."
"What's that?" asked Remo.
"A sun dragon."
"Sun dragon?"
"Yes, unquestionably a sun dragon wreaked this terrible havoc."
"I know what a dragon is, but I don't think I've heard of a sun dragon."
"They are rare, but they appear in the heavens in difficult times, presaging calamity. I myself have seen several in my lifetime. One famous sun dragon twice, at the beginning of my life and again more recently."
"You saw a dragon?"
"A sun dragon, which is different from a landcrawling dragon."
Tom Pulse listened to this as if they were making perfect sense.
"Back up," said Remo. "What's a sun dragon?"
"There is a Western word for this. Stolen from the Greek, of course."
"Yeah?"
"The word is 'comet.'"
"A comet did this?"
"Yes. For they breathe fire, as do certain species of land-dwelling dragon. Only sun dragons breathe fire from the tail, not the mouth."
Remo gave Chiun a skeptical look. "A fire-farting dragon?"
Chiun made an offended face. "Is there not one lurking in the heavens even now?"
Remo shrugged. "Search me."
"He means Hale-Bopp," said Pulse, joining the conversation.
"He does?"
"Comet Hale-Bopp has been visible most of the year. It's on the other side of the sun right now, but it's still up there. When it reemerges, they say its tail will be a sight to see. Brighter and better than Comet Hayakute II was."
"It is not lurking behind the sun," Chiun snapped. "It has pounced upon this place, melting it with its withering breath as a warning to Westerners to mend their ways."
"What are Westerners doing that would upset a comet?" asked Remo.
Chiun composed his face thoughtfully. His hazel eyes narrowed in interesting ways. "They are mistreating Koreans, that is what."
Remo threw up his hands. "I should have seen that one coming."
"Do not become upset, Remo. Doubtless the comet has not taken notice of your existence. You are safe. Especially if you remain dutifully at my side."
"Comets are millions upon millions of miles out in space."
"If this is true, why can they be seen from Earth?" countered Chiun. "If they were so far away, they would be unfindable to all but the keenest of eyes."
"They're very big and they glow. No mystery there."
"So is the den of inequity called Las Vegas. It is not so very distant from here. Yet I cannot see it. Can you?"
"No," Remo admitted.
"Nor can I see many-towered Boston, a mere three thousand miles east."
"That's because of the curvature of the earth."
"A myth. I look in all directions and I see flatness. I look into the sky and I see no so-called comet, though many beheld its fiery tail in the sky not very many weeks ago. Therefore, it has descended to earth."
"Comets when they get too close to the sun are hard to see," Remo argued.
"They are dragons which live in the sun and venture out to punish the wicked. One swooped down upon this very spot, wreaking justice and righteousness."
"It killed thirty people."
"Deserving people," countered Chiun. "Were they not imprisoned for an allotted period of time?"
"Look, let's just save this for another time," said Remo in an exasperated voice. "For right now, all you have to offer is a comet sideswiped this place?"