Part 20 (1/2)
Jo raised a hand in lukewarm response. ”Don't make any sudden moves. He'll take it as an invitation and appear on the porch.”
”His monkey is more debonair than I imagined,” Tang said.
Mr. Peebles stood beside Ferd. He was wearing a tiny lampshade on his head like a fez.
”If I were you, I'd move. Leave everything in the house and go,” Tang said.
”Like any other neighborhood in this town would have fewer eccentrics?”
Ferd pointed at Jo's front door and hustled toward it.
”Shoot. Hang on,” she said. When Ferd knocked, she opened the door just wide enough to see his face. ”Hi. Sorry, I can't talk right now.”
”I have a few quick questions about the monkey virus,” he said.
”Can I give you a call later?”
He rubbed his throat. ”I'm worried. Could I catch it?”
”Dude, Mr. Peebles doesn't have Congolese monkey virus. So, no.”
With a little shriek, the monkey darted between Ferd's legs and through the doorway past Jo.
”Ferd, get him.”
Jo ran after the creature into the kitchen, with Ferd and Tang following. Mr. Peebles sprang onto the table, scattering her notes. He pulled open her satchel and began rooting through it.
Tang walked calmly to the table and nabbed him with a tube of lipstick in his hands. ”You little larcenist.”
Ferd collected Jo's notes from the floor. ”You see how antsy he is?”
Mr. Peebles twisted the lipstick and ran it madly around his mouth. Tang tried to take it. He swiped it at her like a pale-pink switchblade.
”Look at him-he's just not himself,” Ferd said.
”He's exactly himself,” Jo said. ”Ferd, he's fine. You're fine.”
Tang pried the lipstick from his fingers and held it out to Jo.
”Not even with tongs.” She got the wastebasket.
Tang tossed the lipstick inside and held Mr. Peebles out to his master, but Ferd had looked away. He was staring at Jo's notes.
”Are you planning to invest in Chira-Sayf?” he said.
Jo took the notes from him. ”No. And sorry, but that's out of bounds.”
”You're curious about the company's name?” He pushed his gla.s.ses up his nose. ”Chirality refers to the way sheets of carbon nanotubes can be folded.”
”Ah. Got it.”
”They're grown at high temperatures, and depending on how, carbon nanotubes can be folded over, or rolled, or bent tip to tip. It's like they have a certain spin or twist.”
”Thanks.” She thought about it. ”Do you know anything about the company?”
”Not much. It handles a mix of civilian and military projects. Blue-sky stuff.” He tapped his fingertip against the printout, like a wood-p.e.c.k.e.r. ”Sayf is an Arabic word for sword.”
Tang stepped closer. ”Arabic? Strange choice for a Silicon Valley firm.” She eyed Jo. ”No offense.”
”Don't even start,” Jo said.
Tang enjoyed ribbing Jo about her pan-global heritage. Jo's paternal grandfather was an Egyptian Christian. Her maternal grandmother was an army bride from Osaka. The rest of the family was Irish, loud, and argumentative. Sit everybody down for Christmas dinner, add pepper, and watch them blow. And while Jo loved her family, she didn't want to get into a snarking match about the Middle East.
She knew too well that in the U.S., all things Arabic-even the language-could be seen as suspect. She saw no point in telling Tang that Copts in Cairo may have spoken Arabic for fourteen hundred years, but some Coptic Egyptians didn't even regard themselves as having an Arabic heritage. They still referred to the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century.
She let it go. ”I'm a doctor, not a fighter. Let's skip this.”
”Like I'd ever want to get on your bad side,” Tang said.
Ferd tapped the printout again. ”The point is, sayf is a play on words here.”
”What do you mean?” Tang frowned at him, as if to say Who appointed you the expert? Mr. Peebles grabbed her collar and peeked down her sweater. She slapped his little hands.
Ferd held up the printout. ”Damascus steel. It's an ancient form of steel. Thousands of years old.”
”How do you know that?”
”My master's is in computer programming, but my bachelor's is in structural engineering. The thing is, Damascus steel isn't made today. Because n.o.body knows how to do it.”
”What?” Jo said.
”Damascus steel is unusually strong, light, and supple. And it wasn't made in Damascus, just crafted there. It originally came from India. n.o.body knows how it was made. In hand-built furnaces, probably, and hammered out by craftsmen. It has a high carbon content.”
”Like a katana,” Jo said.
Ferd nodded. ”But here's the freaky thing. Damascus steel contains carbon nanotubes.”
”Seriously?” Jo said.
Tang looked skeptical. ”Aren't carbon nanotubes created under exotic laboratory conditions?”
”Yes. But electron microscopy shows that swords made from Damascus steel contain them. n.o.body knows why. Maybe it had to do with the charcoal in the furnaces. Or the heat at which the steel was hammered out as it cooled.”
Tang stared at his Compurama name tag. Hi, I'm Ferd. ”How do you know so much?”