“We had the same problem with the satellite photos we looked at,” Austin said. “But our computer model indicates that this is the place.”

Nighthawk rose and walked over to the screen. He pointed to a section of forest bordering the lake. “It's here, I fnow it is. Look, you can see where the woods have been cleared, and there's the pier.” His confusion was evident. “But there's nothing but trees here where the blimp hangar should be.”

“Tell us again what you saw that night,” Austin said.

“The dome was huge, but we didn't see it until the airship ap- peared. The surface was covered with panels.”

“Panels?” Zavala said.

“Yes, what you see on a geodesic dome, like the one they built for the Olympics in Montreal. Hundreds of sections.”

Zavala nodded. “I didn't think that adaptive camouflage technol- ogy was that far advanced.”

“Sounds more like invisibility we're talking about,” Austin said, gesturing toward the screen.

“Not a bad guess. Adaptive camouflage is a new technique. The surface that you want to hide is blanketed with flat panels, which sense the scenery and changing light. Then what the sensors see is dis- played on the panels. If you were standing at ground level looking at this thing, all you would see is trees, so the dome would blend into the local forest. Someone obviously took satellite imaging into account. It would be a simple matter to project treetops on the roof panels.”

Austin shook his head. “Joe, you never cease to amaze me with your supply of arcane knowledge.”

“I think I read about it in Popular Mechanics”

“Nonetheless, you may have solved the mystery,” Aguirrez said. “At night, the panels Mr. Zavala talked about could be programmed for the ambient darkness. Mr. Nighthawk saw more than was in- tended when the dome opened for the zeppelin. There's something else that might interest you. I saved photos taken earlier.” Aguirrez went back through the memory bank, and projected another aerial photo. “This picture was taken of the area yesterday. There in the corner, you see the outline of a small plane. I'll zoom in on that sec- tion.”

The picture of a floatplane filled the entire screen. Four figures could be seen standing on the shore of the lake. “The plane disap- peared a short time after the photo was taken, but look here.” An- other image appeared, showing a small boat with three people in it. One of them, a woman, was looking skyward as if she knew they were under surveillance from space.

The Basque's sharp ears picked up the sound of Austin swearing under his breath. Aguirrez raised his bushy eyebrows.

“I think I know who those people are,” Austin said by way of ex- planation. “And if I'm right, it could complicate things. How soon can we jump off?”