American security agents, suspecting Dr Zhang is hacking into U.S. computers, try to abduct him. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is also interested.
And Murga is back in town with a proposition. I agree to tests of my super normal flyi...
'I am 'ere!' Kozak's voice came from under my feet. 'But I cannot hold on.'
He must have climbed over the rail because he was dangling from a pipe below the catwalk. Below him was a 10 metre drop onto a maze of pipework.
'I can't reach you,' I said with alarm. 'Can you sidle along to where the pipe bends. From here it looks like you can stand on that steam pipe. Do the monkey bar swing.'
'What is a monkey bar?' he asked but he manage to edge sideways by sliding his hands along the pipe. 'Now, 'ow do I get back up?'
'You will have to slide down that pipe.' I pointed. 'We will meet you down the stairs.'
Beryl and I ran down the stairs expecting to meet Kozak at the bottom but, when we looked up, Kozak was draped over an insulated steam pipe about two metres above us. 'What are you doing?' I asked.
'I am drying my clothes. It is very warm here.'
'Kozak! We're supposed to hide. Come down.'
He swung a leg over the pipe, and slipped off. I could see him smashing into the pipework below but his jacket caught on a support bracket and he dangled there, his clothes steaming, until I climbed up a steel frame and released him.
We both slithered down onto a maze of mostly horizontal pipework and joined Beryl underneath the pipes. I was worried someone would see the steam rising from Kozak's wet clothes but if no one looked carefully, we were probably well hidden.
A few minutes later Sergei appeared on the stairway and softly called, 'Kozak, Beryl, Ziff.'
Kozak jumped to his feet and promptly jammed his ankle between a valve and another pipe. He swore, 'Ouch, ouch, ouch. I am stuck. Tabernoosh.'
Sergei climbed down to meet us and started laughing when he saw Kozak's predicament. 'Ha, ha, ha. I can't leave you alone for two minutes.'
I pulled the pipe sideways far enough to release his ankle.
Sergei said, 'I told the guards you had gone to visit the reactor. It is not far, so they will be back as soon as they don't find you there. We must leave quickly. We will take the car to the calutrons.'
The plant was about ten miles away but there was little traffic on the Oak Ridge Turnpike so we soon reached the huge buildings. Sergei parked the car and carried his tool bag with him as we checked in with the bored looking security guards.
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Inside was a long row of calutrons, the electromagnetic machines used to separate U-235 from U-238 one molecule at a time. The row was interrupted by a gap where two workers had removed one of the Dee-shaped calutrons using an over-head gantry crane.
As they moved away Kozak suggested, 'Sergei, you can slip in between the magnets and crack-open the vacuum valve. That will allow air into the calutrons which will stop the entire line.'
