Scene 7

Wasn't it odd to seek a solution in Korea for a crisis that affected Santa Lemusa – a small island on the other side of the global plum? This city with its blinking hoardings and its illuminated language-signs had nothing at all in common with his homeland, where it was so dark at night that the Milky Way could be seen glittering like an electrified brush-stroke in the skies.

Only, what could his island threaten? What had Hing, together with the kidnapped professor, brought into his hands that could pose a danger to the entire land? A type of virus perhaps? Pox? Typhus? An infernal weapon? Doubtful: the professor was a physicist and researched how the effects of hurricanes could be reduced – that could surely hold no biological weapons? Or could it? From the Chinese one heard of how they sometimes sought to influence the weather in Beijing with the use of chemical materials – to create, for example, sunshine on national holidays. Sometimes though these experiments also led to snow in summer.

Probably Hing had something in his power that could trigger either a complete drought or – more likely in a tropical climatic zone – too much rainfall. Perhaps he was in the position to submerge Santa Lemusa in a flood. Possibly, the Seal of Solomon was a symbol for this power. Maille hoped that Tatjana would help him further.

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