There was only one way to get the foam out of the tube and into drains in the concrete floor, so as the team enjoyed the success of the tests, and the fact they had gotten to use the giant airline fire engines, Neal walked quietly over to the tube’s rotation controls.

“OK, enough celebrating, let’s get back to business,” he shouted, “time to clean this place up.”

And with that he pressed the control that rolled the tube through 100o, its top hatches opening as it turned over.

Fifty-five thousand gallons of fire retardant foam flooded out, washing the team off its feet and covering them from head to foot. Twelve coughing, laughing snowmen got slowly up off their butts, wiping the harmless foam from their faces and surveying the foot-deep white pool that now stretched the length of the huge space.

Neal had held on to the wall mounted control panel and was only wet to the knees. He was now slowly moving toward the door, laughing, his relatively clean clothes the only color in a sea of white. James was the first to react, turning and sloshing after him. But Madeline was nearer the door and came to cut Neal’s exit off as he laughed obscenities and tried to run.

“Come on, Mr. Smith,” they all laughed as they pounced on him, “give us a hug!”

Chapter 11: Tested But Not Found Wanting

Drill Sergeant Shih considered the files in his hands. He had been working with the officer candidates for ten weeks now, and as usual, he had been summoned by the base commander to discuss their potential. While all were equal in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, he was discreetly tasked with identifying who among each class were more equal than others.

As the drill sergeant always did, on the first day of training Shih had looked for a strong candidate to abuse in order to set a standard of excellence for the group. Pei Leong-Lam had seemed to have all the required characteristics: strength, drive, and a measure of arrogance. But it had turned out his arrogance, if that was what it was, had been well placed.

Pei Leong-Lam was one of three candidates he had selected to present to the Base Commander, but Pei was as far removed from the other two as they were, in turn, from the rest of the class. He had consistently exceeded all targets for the school, coming close, but never quite breaking every record the base had. This final failure had not seemed to faze him, in fact his drive seemed to be utterly unflappable. The drill sergeant’s shouts and abuse had also not served to allay his progress, nor make him angry. He had continued, utterly unaffected by Shih’s deliberately unreasonable abuse.