"Huh?" Remo asked.
"The one you and Smith were discussing," Chiun said. "The British enjoy their cults. If it is not Freemasons, it is Druids-if not Druids, Anglican Catholics. Smith's friend must have felt right at home here."
"Ye-es," George Jiminez said slowly, color rising in his cheeks. "You're referring to the Jamestown tragedy. Jack James was American, not British. And I'm sorry, but that's not a topic we like to discuss." Jaw clenching, he turned full attention on the road.
"Nice going, Little Father," Remo whispered. "Anyone else you want to tick off at us?"
The old man's hazel eyes were still trained on the back of the bus. He was watching one man in particular-a nervous-looking Asian.
"The day is young," Chiun replied ominously. His suspicious gaze never wavered.
Chapter 9
Mike Sears was not good under pressure.
He should have been able to keep up a confident front. After all, as the official mind behind the Vaporizer, the world now considered him a genius. But he just didn't seem to have the confidence to pull it off.
Not that he was an intellectual slouch. His credentials were top-notch. He had been hired as a developmental scientist for Lockheed after graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1980s. He had worked on some of the new tiles, as well as the remodeled booster system for the space shuttle after the Challenger disaster. From there he had gone on to help develop new titanium Mach shields for the Air Force's top secret Aurora Project.
Such important work should have given him at least some grace under fire. But the stress of the Vaporizer project, getting the device up and running, and now the busloads of experts and foreign officials who were being hauled hourly up to the site for demonstrations-it was all becoming too much for him to handle.
Mike Sears felt a grumble of nervous bile in the pit of his empty stomach as he stood in the cramped room.
"Grid four, section thirteen," Sears said into a microphone. The words echoed across the Vaporizer pit.
Sears was in the control booth above the Vaporizer. The booth was nestled in a niche carved into a small hill. On a monitor screen he watched a man in a white lab coat scurry over the removable scaffolding on the unit's black wall.
"Four, thirteen," the man responded.
The speaker next to Sears crackled with static. A residual effect of proximity to the device. "D-four," Sears said.
Through a remote camera, Sears watched his assistant as he worked on the Vaporizer. The man was Japanese. His dark black hair shone in the sun.
Toshimi Yakarnoto had been uncomfortable going into the machine ever since it had gone online. His face betrayed his anxiety as he inched along the interior wall.
Yakamoto found the problem nozzle and went to work on it with a tool that resembled a pair of tiny forceps.
Sears spun in his chair. Sharp green images on another computer screen offered a three-dimensional image created by sensors buried in the frictionless black walls.
"Careful," Sears warned into the microphone. "You've gone too far."
Yakamoto readjusted the nozzle again. Even on camera, beads of sweat were visible on his broad forehead. They rolled down his anxious face.
"Is better now?" he asked hopefully.
In the control booth the computer image showed the problem nozzle in perfect alignment.
"That got it," Sears said. "Lock it down and get back up here. We've got company."
On the security camera he saw Deputy Minister Jiminez's bus coming through the front gate.
The bus was loaded with thirty more scientists. Thirty more chances that Sears's secret might become known.
"Play it cool, Mike," he muttered to himself. Leaving the booth, he went down the fence-lined path to the parking lot. The visitors were already getting off the bus. Two men had gotten off first-a young Caucasian and a very old Asian. The rest seemed to be avoiding these two. They stumbled off almost desperately, forming a fearful group away from the first pair.
George Jiminez was the last one off.
"Ah, Dr. Sears," the deputy finance minister said. "Are you ready to dazzle your latest guests?"
"Of course," Mike Sears said, a nervous smile plastered across his face. He turned to the group of scientists. "Welcome to the future, gentlemen. I'm sure your governments will be fascinated by your reports. If you'll come this way." He and Jiminez began herding the scientists into the Vaporizer compound.
Remo and Chiun brought up the rear. Remo was sniffing the air. "It stinks worse here than it did back in the city," he complained. "You'd think they'd figure out a way to zap the stink when they zap the garbage."
When he got no reply, he glanced at his teacher. Chiun was still studying the Asian man he had singled out on the bus. The man was Japanese. His name tag identified him as Dr. Hiro Taki. Dr. Taki seemed nervous and jumpy. Remo assumed it had to do with first being assaulted on the bus, then drawing the exclusive attention of his assaulter.
"Remember, the war's over, Chiun," Remo warned.
"I am not an American who thinks it is highminded to turn a blind eye to human nature," the old Korean replied. "That man is up to no good."
"Could be," Remo said. "Or it could be he senses he's being targeted by a known Japanese basher."
"Is it bashing to point out that all Japanese are liars and thieves?"
"Yes," Remo said. "Especially when there's actual bashing involved, which there most times is. And while we're at it, wasn't the guy who founded Sinanju Japanese?"
Chiun tore his eyes from Hiro Taki's back. "Why do I even talk to you?"
Quickening his pace, he shuffled ahead of his pupil.
A hurricane fence surrounded the area. Beyond was the exterior wall of the Vaporizer.
Special reusable boots were issued to the group from a large bin inside the fence.
"These will keep you from losing your footing inside," Mike Sears explained, forcing a smile as the men slipped the boots over their shoes. "I doubt any of you want to fall in."
Wearing the protective boots, the group stepped through the gap in the outer wall and out onto the deck of the Vaporizer. The black pit yawned before them.
"You'll notice that the walls around us are of the same material as the Vaporizer itself," Sears said. "This upper level will eventually be part of the unit, almost doubling capacity. For tests until now we have dumped single loads into the device. That's good for demonstration and experimentation, but isn't cost-effective. When we settle into daily use, the main pit and upper level will be filled to capacity before the unit is activated. Hundreds of tons of waste will be removed in the wink of an eye."
Some members of the group were touching the walls. Their faces grew surprised. Remo and Chiun tried it, as well.
There was barely any sense of anything at all. The strange coating seemed to dissipate Remo's touch across the surface. It was almost like touching air.
"It's a kind of rubberized tile," Sears explained. "We use some of the same principles used by defense departments, NASA, the computer industry. The walls were tricky. We had to design them so that the process itself didn't swallow up the unit. If we got it wrong, when we switched it on, it would theoretically destroy itself along with most of the hill we're standing on."
Some of the braver men edged toward the fence that surrounded the pit. The capped nozzles in the black walls glinted in the sunlight.
Workmen were in the Vaporizer pit. An Asian scientist was just climbing out. His face glistened sweat. Other men drew up the scaffolding he had been working from.
"Dr. Yakamoto was just making some minor adjustments," Mike Sears explained. "I think he's all set now."
Yakamoto nodded.
"Great," Sears said. "Maybe you'd like to see a demonstration before we get into Q and A. Please come this way."