"I do not know how this can be, but it is true."
Rapidly she explained her encounter with the American agents who seemed more than human but who fell before the pulsing fights from the cybernetic eyeball the DGSE director now rolled around between his nimble fingers.
"How did you best him?" the DGSE director added.
"Judo. He is part machine and, while stronger than I, very clumsy. I used that strength against him. While he was flat on his back, I took a rock to his skull, and as he lay insensate, his good eye rolled up in his head, while that abomination you now hold pulsed at me angrily. So I took it."
The DGSE director winced. "Did you employ a . . . knife."
"No. I merely unplugged it."
"Just like that? Poof!"
"Just like that. Poof. Then I fled with my prize."
Eyebrows jumping up in astonishment, the DGSE director assayed a very Gallic shrug. "This is remarkable work, Arlequin."
"The light that compels men to do its bidding exists within that orb."
"What could it be?"
"I believe it is a laser."
The director of the DGSE hissed violently. "Do not say that word! It is a junk word. It, too, has been banned."
"I forgot. It is so hard. My brain is starved for true nourishment. I have been in America so horribly long."
"I sympathize. Just yesterday I caught myself using the word waterbed when I should have said aqualit. "
"It is the horrid influence of American movies, all of which should have long ago been banned."
"Except for Jairy's, of course."
"It goes without saying," Dominique said carelessly.
The DGSE director held the orb up to the light, inspecting it curiously. "I wonder how you make this function?"
"There is an aperture in the back."
"Perhaps it will respond to electric stimuli," said the DGSE director, ripping the cord from his desk telephone and braiding the wire until it was small enough to be inserted into the hole.
"Is this wise?" Dominique asked.
"I will close my eyes. You say you are immune to its effects?"
"Oui."
"What color was its pulse?"
"How should I know? All I see are grays."
"Of course, of course."
"But it was not pink. Pink has a very positive effect, making even uncouth Americans positive and gentle in manner. The color that it pulsed made them vomit. "
"What kind of color makes a man vomit?"
"For all I know, gray," said Dominique, shrugging her slim shoulders.
The director winced. "I will definitely close my eyes." And he did as he guided the copper wire into the eyeball that locked back at him like a disk of dirty ice.
The copper wire scratched around inside for a few seconds before a tiny spit of a sound triggered a faint click. The gray pupil brightened, and the black pupil seemed to explode.
That was what the DGSE director saw even through his closed eyes. An explosion of intense green. It stabbed like a thousand piercing jade daggers into his retina.
Then his stomach exploded out his throat.
WHEN THE DGSE DIRECTOR awoke a day later, he moaned, "Vert..."
"Eh?" a voice murmured.
"It was green. Green is the hue of vomit."
"Actually it was more yellowish."
"It was green . . ." he groaned.
"I myself cleaned the vomit off your face before you were brought here, mon Directeur."
"I meant the color that makes men vomit," he murmured.
The DGSE director snapped open his eyes. They roamed around the room. He saw Dominique Parillaud's face hovering over his, looking cool and the epitome of Gallic sangfroid.
"I am hospitalized?"
"Under a false name, of course. But your vital signs are well."
"Brief me, Arlequin."
"The electronic eye pulsed, you puked and fell forward into your dinner. Escargot, if I am not mistaken."
"It was very good. And the light was very green. Hideous to behold."
"It has been analyzed. It is a laser."
"Shh."