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believe they have completed their other business, yes? Pedro will escort you. I must hurry to the city’s outskirts. We are dedicating a new water treatment facility. Long in coming. But so very needed. It is our attempt to aid the poorest citizens of our community. Like the professor’s bold project, no? So very noble.” Enrique was clearly adept at filling uncomfortable vacuums. “Please join me for dinner tonight. Yes? Splendid. We will meet and we will talk and I will see what I can do to assist you through this dark hour. The restaurant by the church. Nine o’clock.”
    Enrique turned and spoke a lightning-swift sentence to Pedro, whose nod of acceptance shaped a half bow. The mayor’s footsteps clipped rapidly down the hall. He tossed quick greetings to several people as he departed, clapped the senior guard on the shoulder, thanked the second guard who opened the door for him, and was gone.
    Simon stared into the empty sunlight at the corridor’s end, wishing the floor would just open up and swallow him whole.
    Then he realized Pedro was waiting for him. “This way, señor. The council will see you now.”

Chapter 2

    Entering the council chamber, Simon felt as though he was being ushered through a waking nightmare. He could not force the world back into place. He saw tiny fragments, little shards that remained jumbled together like a puzzle he could not fit together.
    Not even when his professional life depended on it.
    Three city officials were seated across the conference table from Simon. The woman who led the city council meeting introduced herself as Dr. Clara. The two men wore cheap three-piece suits, one blue, the other a shade between gray and green. Simon dismissed them in a matter of seconds. It was instantly clear that Dr. Clara was the only person who mattered. Simon thought of the name applied by field researchers to the dominant animal in a pack. Dr. Clara was most definitely the alpha dog. This meeting was really between Simon and her.
    Dr. Clara was a heavyset woman poured into a too-small dress. Her hair was clenched into a tight bun, just like the dress squeezed her body. She listened to Simon’s presentation without expression, her gaze flat and measuring. Then she broke in with, “What you are telling us, Señor Simon, we have already heard from Professor Vasquez. You seek to harvest power that is currently wasted in the transmission process and transform it into usable electricity. Is that not correct?”
    “Basically, yes. Like I was saying, more than a third of all power is currently lost between the generating station and the end user. Our device—”
    “We can offer you a thousand dollars American.”
    Simon gaped across the polished table. “You expect me to turn over the apparatus and years of research for a thousand bucks ?”
    “We are offering to buy your machine, yes, that is correct.”
    “What about the offer for two hundred thousand dollars in research funding you made to Professor Vasquez?”
    Dr. Clara spoke English without accent or emotion. “I recall making no such offer.”
    Simon unfolded the letter and passed it over. The two men leaned in to read with her. Dr. Clara scanned it swiftly and slid it back. “I did not write this letter. I did not sign it.”
    “Vasquez wouldn’t have urged me to come help with this presentation over a forged letter.” Simon took a hard breath. Yelling would get him nowhere. “Look. This is a revolutionary device. Professor Vasquez was convinced it would change your region’s future.”
    He had so much more he wanted to say. How Vasquez had never been in this for the money. How he had intended to place his share in a trust. One that would help the poorest children of Chihuahua, the state in which Ojinaga was located. Vasquez yearned to help those who had not been given the same gifts as himself, the same opportunities, the same great life. He had accepted that Simon had been in it for the money and the fame. Vasquez was a