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Kurt let hi up with Joe and Akiko

“Well?” Joe asked “Has the tree been shaken?”

“It has,” Kurt said “Unfortunately, it turned out to be an oak He didn’t bat an eye”

“Did you lay it on thick?”

“Any thicker and you’d need a road grader to spread it”

“Maybe Superintendent Nagano was right,” Akiko said “To continue your treeone”

Kurt wasn’t ready to give in “Let’s give it time to work If he’s involved, he’ll respond, one way or another”

“And if he’s clean?”

“Then he’ll go back to his office, laugh about the crazy American he just met and we’ll be back to square one”

30

CNR FACTORY

HAN MADE IT from the ceremony to his office without further interruption He shut the door firmly and took a seat at his desk In silence, he conte had to be done about the interference from Austin and NUMA

He placed his finger on a scanner built into his desktop After reading his fingerprint, it confirmed his identity and released the locks on his desk From the second drawer down, he pulled out a special phone and plugged it into a dedicated jack in the side of his computer

With a few taps of the keyboard, he initiated an encryption program and then placed a call A yellow icon appeared on-screen as the initial connection was reen once the encryption codes were accepted and matched

“Secure line,” a voice said from the other end