Luger sneered. "Don't you know anything about stealth characteristics?"

Fursenko let out a resigned sigh and, searching the attendees, let his eyes rest on a man sitting as unobtrusively as possible in the back of the room. The man noticed Fursenko searching for him, and he smiled with great amusement at the scientist. The man in the back of the room made a gesture at Fursenko as if to say, "Answer the man, Doctor."

But before Fursenko could, Luger proceeded: "Stealth isn't just a factor of the structural or material composition of an aircraft. You can't just build anything you want out of composites and call it stealthy. You'll always have radar reflections because of structural members beneath the skin. But even if the entire thing were built out of plastic, it doesn't mean you'll have a stealthy aircraft. What you got there doesn't even come close. I haven't run a computer model of the aircraft with those stabilators, but just judging by the light reflecting off those things, you don't have a stealthy bomber there.

"The key is to channel whatever radar energy is reflected into lobes, with specific direction and amplitude, and you have to be careful not to let the lobes cross with other lobes from other parts of the aircraft. If you can aim the lobes away from the emitter, bingo! You have a stealthy design. The lobes are real, and they're powerful, just like regular RF energy-if you cross them or blend them, you'll destroy whatever stealth characteristics you had. Is that clear now?"

"Thank you for your input, Doctor Ozerov," Fursenko finally said to Luger. "You have certainly explained your arguments... er, succinctly and positively..."

"So run your computer models again, but this time you have to plot the lobes from the vertical stabilizers in every possible position, then combine it with the lobe structure from the main mission-adaptive wings in every possible position and see if you have any cases where the lobes enhance or blend with each other."

"Thank you, Doctor Ozerov."

"It may take a while, but it'll be worth it," Luger said, his voice more excited, his words more clipped. "You can compute the lobal propagation for the plane by hand, but it'll take weeks.

But if you freed up the computer a little, I'd run the model for you and have an answer in a few days. If you ask me, you should just take the damn vertical stabs off. Increase the range of motion of the MAW actuators, and you'll have full roll-and-pitch control at all speeds-"

"I said, thank you, Doctor."

Luger scratched his head, his other hand patting nervously against his right leg. He glanced quickly at his colleagues, but something had suddenly gone out of his eyes. He was feeling confused, disoriented. "And another thing. I.. ." He looked around, frustration and anxiety giving way to anger. "Dammit, I was going to say something else, but I've lost. . . my train of thought. I . . ." He scratched his head again, pacing back and forth. "I. . . don't know what's wrong.., what I'm doing."