Long had Ptoombah known the man known as… Whistler. When they first met, Ptoombah was just a young man known as Van Smythe-Rockafeller, treling though Europe. But the stranger cal Whistler PI-200W had turned his life upside down, just as the stranger cal Whistler PI-200W inverted power from a source like a car or boat and made it into the kind of power that could run a portable radio or laptop or blender.

　　It was in Russia that they knew they could go no further under their Christian names. Van became Ptoombah, the enging son, while Whistler PI-200W became the man known as… Whistler. They thought the ellipse a clever touch, as it would make their enemies wait even longer to find out their names.

　　And now, savagely, they looked off the sage cliff. Ptoombah watched the eyes of his friend, his good friend, his dear friend, his sage friend, and waited for the command, the sage command, upon the issue of which he would take any savage step that the Whistler PI-200W asked of him, even if the inversion would covert his life into death.