And now here he stood, stuck between his professional obligation to his superior, something his culture took very seriously, and the upstart American woman who had so boldly driven the project to its current state, its current very successful state. He was obligated to tell his superior that the prototype was complete, but that did not mean that he also had to confess his duplicity to the fearsome American woman. So he had decided it was best not to anger her, even if only to save his own hide from her considerable wrath.

It had seemed like the best solution when he had come up with it. But now he stood facing Mr. Matsuoka, unable to operate the machine without Madeline’s assistance, and to make things worse he knew that Madeline would be arriving any moment, like she always did. A quivering in his gut told him that this was not going to be pretty.

“Mr. Matsuoka, if I may,” said Ito meekly, “while the team has been working very hard to build the machine to the specifications given to us by Madeline-san, she has also been careful not to reveal all the details of its operation to us.”

Shinobu whirled to face the man, staring at him, “You mean I have invested $6 million dollars in a machine that not one of my employees knows how to use? This is unacceptable, Mr. Hanso. Completely unaccep …”

Matsuoka stopped as Ito Hanso turned suddenly to the laboratory’s door. He had been alerted by a faint beeping. Someone was using the keypad outside to type in the entry code.

Oh dear.

The door swung open and in wafted Madeline, all focus and purpose, her excitement at the experiments to come leading her to thoroughly ignore the two men as she headed for one of the tables to deposit her jacket, hat, and gloves. October in North Dakota was very different from the balmy weather she had enjoyed as a child in Florida, and she had been forced to bulk up her insulation accordingly. Glancing up, she took in the project manager standing looking concerned but did not really register the president of the firm standing over by the machine.

“Ah, Ito, good. You’re here. Let’s get started, shall we?”

She was already powering up her computer when Ito finally drummed up enough confidence to talk. He was being made all the more nervous by the clear indignation the president was showing. The important man was not used to being ignored.

“Umm, Madeline-san, we have an honored visitor.” said Hanso quietly, stuttering slightly as he did so.