"What department did you say this lady worked in?"Al was a little taken aback by the question, but answered immediately. "She was in the dihedron manu...acturing department."Art looked stunned. "You know I said I had been out on a bad call earlier this morning?"Al and Bonnie both nodded, and Art resumed his pacing. "A Japanese guy, who was in charge of the dihedron manufacturing department at Mitsutronics cut his own guts out using a short sword. There seems to be no doubt it was a suicide. All. Was for the money, not the power." You're going to move the office to Washington?" he asked. "I'm not so sure that's any better than Los Angeles." It won't be for a while, yet," Heather said. "We've got to get this whale project going, to regain some credibility, and that'll be handled better from Los Angeles." I've got a job," he protested. "I'm just taking administrative leave." You also have gotten yourself qualified for your retirement benefits," she said. "You don't want to go back to. "Naomi laughed."Well," Julian sighed. "My treatment period is almost over anyways." Okay, well let's go for a bike ride," she said almost reflexively, only partly thinking about all that could entail.*The following Friday, Naomi booked the day off work. She hooked her mountain bike up to the back of her Jeep Liberty and met Julian outside his complex at 8 a.m. With his bike added to the rack, they drove west to Huddart Park and the hills. Julian knew a place, he said, that would be perfect.. I was called in to demonstrate how to measure the resonance points of our reserve stardrive coils and modify the computer routines to safely bring up the fields. I also went through the program designed to unload the fields. I asked Vernon to inquire as to the alien's understanding of a stellar-level energy release, and what could happen if the field power supplies were interrupted before they were gracefully brought down. In his pride, Vernon told the alien that I had designed and built the.