This room, too, had an elevator, but unlike the more conventional box on a cable, its transparent plastic walls were egg shaped. There were seats for four people of ordinary stature. The door hissed shut, and the elevator passed through blackness, then descended into a deep blue. Watching the fluid interplay of light and shadow through the transparent walls, Francesca realized they were sinking into water. The blue became darker until, all at once, it was as if they were caught in the beam of a searchlight.

The door opened, and they stepped out. Francesca could hardly believe her eyes. They were in a brightly lit, circular space hundreds of feet across. A curving roof arched overhead. The exact size of the room was difficult to estimate because it was filled with thick pipes, coils, and vats of all sizes. A dozen or so white-frocked technicians moved quietly among the conduits and tanks or were bent over computer monitors.

“Well, what do you think?” Brynhild said with obvious pride.

“It's incredible.” The awe in her voice was real. “Where are we, at the bottom of the sea?”

The giantess smiled. “This is where you'll do your work. Come, I'll show you around.”

Francesca's scientific mind quickly made order out of her chaotic first impression. Although the pipes went off at different angles, there was definitely a scientific organization to the madness. No matter which way the pipes went, they eventually led toward the center of the room.

“This controls the various conditions that affect the core material,” Brynhild said, pointing to the blinking lights on a control board. “This underwater facility stands on four legs. Two of the support legs double as intake pipes, and the other two as out flow. Since we are on a fresh body of water, we first infuse the liquid we pump in with salt and sea minerals from those containers. It is indistinguishable from actual seawater.”

They walked toward the center of the chamber. It was occupied by a massive cylindrical tank some twenty feet across and ten feet high.

“This must contain the anasazium,” Francesca said.

“That's right. The water is circulated around the core, then returned to the lake through the other two supports.”

They walked back to the master control console.

“Well, how close are we to duplicating the Cabral process?”

Francesca examined the gauges. “Refrigeration, electrical current, heat monitoring, all good. You were close, very close.”

“We have subjected the anasazium to heat, cold, and electrical current, but with only limited success.”

“I'm not surprised. The sonic component is missing.”

“Of course. Sound vibrations.”

“You have the right idea, but the process won't work unless the material is subjected to a certain level of sound waves in concert with the other forces. It's like removing the cello from a string quartet.”

“Ingenious. How did you come up with that technique?”

“It was simply a matter of thinking in unconventional terms. As you know, there have been three main methods of desalting be fore this. In electrodialysis and reverse osmosis, electrified water passes through membranes that remove the salt. The third method is distillation, which evaporates the water the way the sun's heat turns the ocean to vapor. All require tremendous expenditures of energy that made the cost of desalting prohibitive. My method changes molecular and atomic structure. In the process it creates energy and becomes self-sustaining. The combination of forces must be exactly right. The process won't work if it is off by a hair.”