Rogers shrugged. “Yeah. The EPA has a program to sequester cee-oh-two; pump it underground so it doesn’t get into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.”

“I’ve read about that.”

“The big rig runs at almost seventy percent efficiency, calculating from the amount of fuel in and the amount of electrical power out.”

“Seventy percent?”

Grinning, Rogers said, “We’ll do better than that.”

“Seventy percent is pretty damned good.”

Rogers grabbed the check when it came, over Jake’s faint protest. Then he slid out of the booth and said, “Come on, let’s go check out the big rig.”

Once outside again, Rogers told Jake to follow his Land Rover. “It’s a straight shot out to the test shed. You can’t miss it.”

Jake went to his Mustang. It was baking hot inside. He thought about putting the convertible’s top down but decided against it. Instead he rolled down the windows and turned the air-conditioning on full blast.

He watched Rogers carefully back his dust-caked Land Rover out of its parking space. Jake thought the big wagon looked as heavy as a tank. Suddenly Rogers gunned it up onto the road and took off like an Indy 500 racer. Jake pulled out of the parking lot, bounced up onto the road, and leaned on the Mustang’s accelerator pedal to catch up. All he could see of the Land Rover was a cloud of gritty dust. It was so thick that Jake started to cough; he rolled his windows up.

They were past the town in a minute, out onto the flat, arrow-straight road. Nothing on either side but low-lying sagebrush, not even a tree. Then Jake saw in the distance a square structure; it looked something like an oversized shed made of corrugated steel.

They pulled up at the parking lot in a screech of gravel and dust. Jake saw that the facility was indeed a big corrugated metal shed. Must get damned hot in there, he thought.

“Here we are!” Rogers said, grinning like a kid as he stepped down from his van and led Jake toward the building.

Pointing toward the Land Rover, Jake groused, “That thing must burn a lot of gas.”

“It’s an LR-4,” Rogers replied. “Plenty of cubes under its hood. Gets me through the snow when a car like yours would get stuck.”

Jake nodded grudgingly as they entered the metal building. Inside, it was just one big open space, a test cell, with the bulky MHD generator and its associated gear almost filling it. Jake was surprised that the place was pleasantly air-conditioned. Half a dozen technicians in grimy lab coats that had once been white were gathered off to one side of the space. Rogers waved hello to them without bothering to introduce Jake.

“There she is,” Rogers said, pointing like a proud father.