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.I mean, in."When he lost over twenty-five million to counterfeit chips on the third night,Randal Rumpp issued a statement that Shangri-Rumpp was setting new records forpayouts and quietly talked his father into buying forty million dollars' worthof twenty-dollar Shangri-Rumpp chips to bail him out for the first operatingPage 49 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlweek.It was a disaster from which the Rumpp Organization had never recovered.Noteven when Randal Rumpp refused to allow his father to cash in his chips,claiming they were "shoddy counterfeits."The entire house of cards began to collapse then.Loans were called due.Assets were seized.Staff was fired.Dorma Wormser, like most Rumpp employees,was forced to accept a fifty-percent pay cut.The only reason she stayed onwas because jobs in corporate America in the early nineties were scarce.Especially if a job-seeker was in the position of having to list Randal Rumppas a reference.And now this.She was trapped, with an angry mob roaming the building.A mobthat blamed Randal Rumpp for their plight.If there was anyone who could help, Dorma Wormser wanted to talk to him.She was beginning to think she would have to test every phone in the Tower,when she tried a desk phone in the executive trophy room.It was off-limits toeveryone except Randal Rumpp.It was the place where he kept his favoritetrophies-from his childhood Monopoly game and photographs of formergirlfriends, to the more modest business acquisitions, such as the solid-goldstapler that never worked but was brought out for office photo opportunities.The desk phone was a simple AT ne.But it had been Randal Rumpp's firstbusiness phone, and he treasured it.The bell had been disabled, but a redlight winked on and off, indicating an incoming call.She lifted the receiver.Dorma Wormser had answered telephones both personally and professionally formost of her life.She was good at it.Her voice was clear and crisp.Hermanner smooth and businesslike.It was the perfect executive assistant'stelephone voice.This time, she whispered a timid, "Hello?"There was no answer.Just a rushing, like a comet composed of static coming inher direction.It grew louder very fast.Soon it was a wooshing roar.It wascoming from the earpiece.Definitely.Then came the flash of blinding white light that changed everything.After she had regained her sight and other senses, Dorma Wormser knew shewould look back upon her life in entirely different terms.She would neverregain the normal, ordinary existence that had been hers before she'd pickedup that ordinary telephone handset, as she began the long slide into nervouscollapse that would haunt her for the rest of her days.The stunningly bright light was all around her.It was soundless.It was notan explosion, but the suddenness of it was enough to knock her on her back.How long she was out, Dorma Wormser had no idea.Her eyes fluttered open andthere it was, floating directly above her."Oh, God," she moaned.It might have been a man.Her initial impression was that it was white.It was white from the hairlessbald top of its bloated head to the tips of its very white feet.But it wasnot all white.Some of it was golden.There were golden veins on its smoothwhite skin.Not in, but on.They lay along the skin like printed circuits,except that they pulsed and ran with fleet golden lights.That was weird enough.But the thing that shocked Dorma Wormser, that sent herscrambling to her feet and running for help, was the dead way the manlikething floated just under the high ceiling.It was like a white, lifelesscorpse filled with helium.Worst of all, it had no face.Chapter 15The pilot of the BCN news helicopter heard the voice of the old Korean warnhim against flying into the Rumpp Tower.His brain told him that the shrillvoice was serious.His brain also screamed that he was flying into a solidobject and should swerve to avoid it.He had been with BCN for over six years, half of them working for CheetaChing.Before that he had been a bush pilot in Alaska.And before that he hadseen action in Grenada.He was used to risk.Even though every fiber in hisPage 50 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlhighstrung being told him to swerve, he stayed on course.If I die, he reasoned, I die.If I disobey the Korean Shark, I'm worse thandead.He closed his eyes, not bothering to hope for any particular result
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