The Zenith Angle - Bruce Sterling [121]
The Chinese translator spoke up. “Mr. Liang would like to ask a question.”
“Of course! Ask me whatever you like.”
“Mr. Liang would like to ask a question of Mrs. DeFanti.”
Tony was startled. “I, uh, yield the floor.”
“Mrs. DeFanti, please tell us something. Is this strange device responsible for the many unsightly forest burns that we witnessed in your husband’s rural properties?”
“Yes, Mr. Liang,” said Mrs. DeFanti in English. “The laser here caused forest fires on my ranch, and elsewhere. There were a number of incidents. The laser also burned up two of the communications blimps.”
“One can’t expect pinpoint accuracy from an airborne blimp,” Tony said. “But that’s one feature only! Much more remarkable is the laser’s fantastic ability to project colossal holograms. Here one combines the laser beam with an airborne chemical compound that fluoresces in infrared light. Spray that chemical across the sky, and you have psychological warfare effects previously undreamed of. Imagine the effect on the morale of enemies unprepared for an illusion of that size!”
Now it was Mr. Gupta’s turn to object. “How do you place these pollutants up into the sky?”
“That’s a very simple matter! Jet exhaust! Chemtrails!”
The Indian actor spoke up. “You put adulterated fuels in that jet? You never told me you had spoiled the jet’s engine with contaminants.”
“I didn’t harm the jet,” said Tony, shocked. “It’s not a Space Shuttle. Boeings can burn anything.”
“But it’s a matter of principle,” said the actor. “You did not disclose to us that you had subjected my property to unclean fuels! The Bharatiya Janata Party will have to reduce its price accordingly.”
Tony was angry. “Sanjay, you’re letting this go to your head! I know you’ve taken pilot training, and I know that’s rather hard to get in America, these days. But the condition of the Boeing Business Jet is completely a side issue. I think Mr. Gupta and his superiors in New Delhi can speak for themselves.”
Mr. Gupta removed his bristly ear from his brick-shaped Iridium phone. “Oh, no, no.” He chuckled richly. “Sanjay Devgan is not merely our movie hero, don’t you know? Inside the Research and Analysis Wing, Sanjay Devgan also happens to be our hero. Our brave young colleague has our fullest support!”
Mrs. DeFanti spoke up. She seemed irritated. “Gentlemen, I know you are all jet-lagged. But if you squabble in this way, we’ll be up here all night. I want to see this ugly matter resolved. My husband is too troubled a man for such complex affairs. I want this situation liquidated.”
Liang ran this speech through his Chinese interpreter. Then he replied. “We Chinese are not interested in some remote device in the rural mountains of America. We do have some interest in the plans and the hardware. Could you ship?”
Mrs. DeFanti grew peppery. “All right. I am merely a housewife. It’s not my fault that we Chinese suffer a Two Chinas policy! I am very weary of having my family in Taiwan required to sabotage visual imaging chips, just so that major heat sources in a narrow band of laser wavelengths cannot be detected on the ground by spy satellites. It was very tiresome and difficult to get those Taiwanese chips designed, bought, and installed in American spysats, just so that this spacewar laser would not be