Ayala and Madeline half-smiled, half-frowned at each other, then shook their heads and decided to ignore the man. “Now, that’s the logistics out of the way, let’s talk shop.” She took Madeline’s arm and said, “How much do you think you understand about this nano-medical device that Mr. Hunt gave us the design for?”

This woman didn’t mess around, Madeline thought. OK, she could keep up. She was a professional engineer. She had three different masters in Chemical Engineering, Marine Biology and Physics. Let’s see if this woman could beat that, “Well, Ayala, I think I have a pretty good grasp of how it’s supposed to work. It is essentially a biomimetech device that takes the concept of an antibody to its logical, if exponentially more advanced, conclusion, employing various, frankly very straightforward, if very, very small tools that each facilitate and enable selected functionalities of autonomous diagnosis and treatment. It is self-replicating, and operates using a hive mentality, each unit being but a part, albeit a very versatile part, of a greater system, which alters and develops itself as it senses new threats. Once deployed, it is, by design, almost completely self-sufficient.”

Madeline took a breath, then went on, “Once we develop the manufacturing tools that John also provided specs for, I think we can make it. In fact, I think we must. This machine…well…there’s really no way to overstate its importance. This machine, if it works as John says it does, will be, by far, the biggest medical advancement in history.”

Madeline stopped, looking at Ayala to see if she was impressed. But Ayala was not one to compete with people. In her field she was as good as any, but nano-mechanics was most certainly not her field.

“Good,” she said, “because I didn’t have a fucking clue about any of it, so I think you are going to have to come to Japan with me.”

Japan? Madeline glanced a question at Neal, as she was led to the computer bank by the formidable woman, but he just shrugged. He had grown somewhat used to the way the ex-spy worked, and he found it was best to just stop worrying about it and try to keep up.

* * *

A few days later, Madeline and Ayala were, indeed, on a plane to Japan. Ayala had explained that if they needed production and research facilities, the best way to get them was to ‘seed’ the idea.

It was an old concept, used most effectively by the Nazis before World War II. In order to speed up the development of tools and technologies that Hitler had envisioned needing for his planned expansion, he and his Third Reich had seeded German companies with subsidized scientists to fuel their research in specific areas.