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“Are you telling ic wand?”

“Soood I have developed a revolutionary means to extract salt from seawater”

“Youis hardly a new concept,” Sandecker said

Francesca nodded “The extraction of salt frooes back to the ancient Greeks Desalination plants have been built around the world, including many in the Middle East There are several methods, but all are costly In my doctorate I proposed a radically new approach I threw out all the old oal was a process that would be efficient and cheap, available to the poorest far from the dust Think of the implications Water would be nearly free Deserts would become centers of civilization”

“I’ht of the undesirable consequences,” Sandecker said, “the fact that cheap water would stirowth, and the pollution that goes with them”

“I thought long and hard about that, Admiral Sandecker, but the alternatives were even more unpalatable I woulda country to use my process”

“It goes without saying then that your experimentation was a success,” Austin said

“Verymodel of the process to the international conference Seawater would go in one end, fresh water coy and little to no waste products”

“A process like that would have been worth millions of dollars”

“No doubt I had offers that would have ive e”

“That was quite generous of you You say you had offers Then someone knew of your process and plans?”

“Once I contacted the United Nations to attend the conference it beca has always puzzled me Many people knew about my process The people who tried to kidnap me would be immediately exposed if they tried to profit from my work”

“There’s another possibility,” Austin suggested “Maybe they wanted to bury your work and keep the process a secret from the world”

“But ould anyone try to stop a boon to humanity?”

“Perhaps you’re too young to re intently “Years ago stories circulated about the inventor who supposedly built a car engine that could go a hundred allon or burn water The details aren’t iht the secret and buried it so they could continue to make profits The stories were apocryphal, but do you see my point?”