Silver Ghost (2) +15
“If it’s not oil... then you’re saying it runs on electricity. Did I hear that right?”
Colonel Zulkipli narrowed his eyes.
I gave a light nod.
“It’s a hybrid drive system. Starting up and low-speed movement run entirely on the battery. No noise, no heat.”
“Hmm...”
The colonel’s gaze drifted to the silver titanium armored vehicle behind me.
It remained stubbornly silent.
By contrast, the armored vehicle from Huabei Industrial beside it was belching out a loud diesel roar after barely managing to start.
The contrast was glaring.
The technological gap had already been laid bare.
“Hah! Let’s see how long that battery lasts in a swamp.”
Wang Hao snapped out the words, his face bright red as he cut in.
He was practically steaming.
I’d fixed the defect in his machine for him, so of course his pride had taken a beating.
Colonel Zulkipli chuckled and adjusted his sunglasses.
“This is definitely interesting technology. I like it. Especially if that hybrid drive of yours is as reliable as you claim. It would be even better in a swamp-heavy country like Malaysia.”
“It gives us stealth capability.”
Colonel Zulkipli nodded.
“Exactly. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s swamp test. But before that, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
“Talk to us?”
“I’d like to test just how much technical insight this young man has.”
In answer to Wang Hao’s question, Colonel Zulkipli spoke with a glance that had shifted to me.
“Both of you, come with me. I’ll show you something interesting.”
His aides led Wang Hao and me deeper into the base.
All the while, Wang Hao flashed me a grin and said, “Sorry, but it’s not going to go the way you think. This is the Indochina Peninsula, after all. China’s influence runs very strong here.”
Then he hurried after Colonel Zulkipli, who had already gone a fair distance ahead.
Cute, that guy.
Where we arrived was the Third Maintenance Hangar.
“Let me introduce you. This is Warrant Officer Hassan, the general maintenance supervisor for our military. And that over there is the ghost of our communications unit.”
In the corner of the hangar stood an old armored vehicle.
One look was enough for me to identify it.
A German-made Condor 4x4 wheeled armored vehicle, the sort the Malaysian military used for command and communications.
In front of it, an elderly man in grease-stained coveralls—Warrant Officer Hassan—let out a deep sigh.
He wore the expression of someone who felt one more second of this would drive him insane.
I watched him for a moment, then asked Colonel Zulkipli, “A ghost?”
But the answer came from the old man himself.
“Because it’s haunted. It works fine, and then all of a sudden the comms go dead. When we tear into the boards, there’s no sign of burning. It just dies.”
Hassan clicked his tongue.
“Even when we swap in brand-new parts, the problem comes back after a year. It’s maddening.”
Colonel Zulkipli looked back and forth between Wang Hao and me, then grinned.
“Whoever identifies the true nature of this ghost gets first move in tomorrow’s swamp test.”
First move.
In the swamp, the team that went first had the absolute right to break the ground ahead of everyone else—or, if they felt like it, turn it into a nightmare that trapped the cars behind them.
So this was his little trick: dress up a nasty repair problem as a test, then see whether we could handle MRO work too.
Pretty obvious scheme, but it wasn’t a bad one.
All the more reason to raise the stakes and cash them all in.
“Ha! Fine by me! If that’s all it is, I’m confident.”
Wang Hao charged in first.
He seemed eager to make up for the humiliation from earlier, eyes lit with determination.
“I’ll show you Huabei Industrial’s technical strength.”
With complete confidence, Wang Hao strode over to the communications equipment.
He opened the cover, scanned the interior, and snorted.
“Colonel, this is too obvious, isn’t it?”
“Obvious?”
“We’re near the equator. Humidity here goes above ninety percent. These old systems have terrible waterproofing, so condensation forms on the circuits. Moisture causes the short.”
It was a plausible analysis.
After all, moisture was the natural enemy of electronics; that much was common sense.
But Warrant Officer Hassan’s face remained unimpressed.
“I know it’s a moisture problem. That’s why I smeared waterproof coating all over it. I even put in desiccants. None of it helped.”
“That’s because those are just band-aid fixes. You need a fully sealed system.”
Wang Hao raised his voice as he looked at Colonel Zulkipli.
“Colonel. If you’d just scrap the old units and replace everything with Huabei Industrial’s fully sealed communication modules, I can guarantee the durability.”
A quote worth millions of dollars.
Hassan frowned.
That was standard salesman logic: if you can’t find the cause, just buy new gear.
“Well... I don’t think it needs to be torn out and replaced wholesale.”
When I stepped in, Wang Hao shot back, “What kind of nonsense is that?”
Without answering, I moved toward the maintenance panel of the communications unit.
A low humming sound was coming from inside.
Proof that power was being supplied.
“Excuse me a moment.”
I bent down and looked into the board.
At the same time, I could see the state of the current flowing through it.
Along the normal circuit paths, the current was a clear blue.
The problem was the narrow gaps between those blue lines.
“...Just as I thought.”
Tiny red sparks were flickering there.
Since the power was on, the short-circuit was plain as day.
By this point, I could be certain the cause was something more than simple moisture.
Looking closely at the places where the red sparks jumped, I saw something growing on the surface of the circuitry.
Extremely fine silver threads.
They were extending at random, and every time they touched the adjacent line, electricity crackled.
Metal was growing.
I checked the manufacturing mark stamped in the corner of the board.
Made in EU
Found the culprit.
I pulled a magnifying glass out of the tool box.
“Warrant Officer. Take a look between the chip legs inside the unit here.”
“What is it? Dust?”
“No. Look closely. You should see something like cobwebs.”
Hassan brought the magnifying glass to his eye and leaned into the narrow gap in the equipment.
A moment later, he jerked back in shock.
“W-What is this?”
“Mr. Wang, you should take a look too.”
When I handed over the magnifier, Wang Hao took it with a dismissive snort.
“It’s just a bit of dust, why make such a fuss—huh?”
As he peered through the lens, his expression changed.
He, too, saw the silver crystalline growth rising from the metal surface and stabbing into the neighboring terminal like something alive.
For a moment, Wang Hao grimaced and grabbed his forehead, looking frustrated.
“This... that thing. The... damn it. What was it?”
“Tin whiskers,” I said.
“...Right, that’s it. Tin whiskers. And that’s what was growing in here?”
Hearing my explanation, Wang Hao blinked in confusion as he repeated the term he’d just remembered.
The same was true of Colonel Zulkipli, who had been watching us from beside him.
“This equipment was manufactured to meet the European RoHS standards—the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive. Which means there’s no lead in it.”
“So removing the lead was the problem?”
“Yes. Pure tin, with no lead mixed in, pushes out crystals under stress in hot, humid environments. Like whiskers.”
To help them understand, I flexed my fingers open and closed.
“When lead is mixed in, the lead atoms act like a cushion, so this doesn’t happen. But once you pack together pure tin, it can’t withstand the internal pressure from the atoms pushing against each other.”
“So some of the tin gets forced outward?”
“Exactly. It’s like squeezing a toothpaste tube that’s already full. Eventually the paste oozes out through the weakest opening, doesn’t it?”
Hassan swallowed hard.
“That metal toothpaste that oozes out... touches the neighboring circuit.”
“Correct. It acts like a bridge and shorts the electricity.”
I tapped my finger lightly against the board.
“And then comes the next problem. The instant the short happens, temperatures in the thousands of degrees are generated, but the whiskers are so thin they evaporate in an instant.”
“Ah...”
“So the culprit vanishes, and all that’s left at the scene is burned residue. It becomes a mystery with no cause to find, even when you tear it apart.”
“Hah...”
At last understanding, Hassan let out an incredulous laugh.
He’d suspected moisture or corrosion, but he’d never imagined that metal itself was growing and attacking the circuit.
“Back in the past, this was also one of the causes behind Toyota’s sudden acceleration cases in Japan, and some of NASA’s satellite failures in the U.S.”
“NASA got hit by this too?”
“They removed the lead for environmental reasons, and it ended up becoming an assassin for electronics.”
At my explanation, Wang Hao let out a small groan.
“...Oh.”
He had probably heard of it before.
It was the legendary whisker phenomenon, after all.
But he’d never expected to see something from a textbook right in front of him—much less have his rival identify it first.
It was a flawless theory, impossible to refute.
Then Hassan asked, “So what now? Do we need to get the old lead-based parts again?”
“No. We just need to stop the whiskers from growing.”
I picked up a spray can from the maintenance shelf.
Ordinary urethane coating.
“Conformal coating. If you spray this thickly on the board, the whiskers won’t be able to break through.”
I held out my hand to Hassan.
“Cut the power. If you spray it while the unit’s live, you’ll start a fire.”
“Hm? Ah, right. Wait a moment.”
Hassan jumped and hurriedly switched off the main power.
The whirring drive sound cut out, and silence fell.
I picked up the air gun first.
“Let’s get rid of the ones that have already grown.”
Shhht. Shhhht.
Strong air blasted across the board.
At that point, the microscopic metal whiskers stabbing at the circuit had probably been blown away.
“And now, we build a prison.”
Chk—shhhht.
A thick layer of transparent urethane coating spread over the board.
Now, even if the metal whiskers grew again, they wouldn’t be able to break through the coating and touch the neighboring circuits.
“Let it dry for five minutes, and that’s enough.”
A moment later, the coating had hardened.
“That’s all there is to it. No parts replacement needed either. One can of this spray will fix ten vehicles. Go ahead and turn it on to check.”
“Ah, right.”
Hassan flipped the switch with a trembling hand.
Rrrrummm.
The cooling fans spun up, and the status lights came on.
The red warning light blinked once... then—
Ding.
It turned a bright green.
Clean, noise-free communications poured through the speaker.
“It... works?”
Hassan muttered blankly.
They’d been looking at a repair bill that might have run into tens of millions of dollars, and it had been solved with an air gun and a single spray can.
Little by little, strength returned to the eyes fixed on me.
Then Hassan strode over and seized my hand.
“You... saved our communications network. Thank you. Really, thank you.”
“Hah, haha... I only explained the solution. We’re engineers, aren’t we? You and me both.”
“Hahaha. Yes, engineers. That’s right—when a technical problem stands in front of an engineer, solving it is only natural. Of course. Of course it is.”
Hassan burst into hearty laughter.
I laughed along with him, feeling good as well.
The mood was excellent.
And what made it even better was that Colonel Zulkipli, who was laughing with us, had turned to Wang Hao with a look that was decidedly less than friendly.
“Very impressive. Truly satisfying.”
With that, Colonel Zulkipli gave my shoulder a gentle pat and went on.
“You won. I’ve never seen Hassan make that kind of face before. He must be thoroughly satisfied. Honestly, I am too. How could I not be satisfied when an engineer just saved me tens of millions of dollars so easily? Hmm? Hahaha.”
“Thank you for looking kindly on it.”
“Young man, that’s not it. It’s not that I’m looking kindly on it—it’s that I have no choice but to look kindly on it, isn’t it? Don’t you agree, Warrant Officer?”
“Hahaha, of course. He’s a real engineer, not some hack who doesn’t even examine the equipment properly before telling us to buy their own junk.”
At Hassan’s words, I saw Wang Hao’s already red face darken even further as he ground his teeth.
He’d probably expected Colonel Zulkipli to help him salvage the embarrassment from the failed startup earlier.
But instead of salvaging it, this was practically a public crushing.
So he couldn’t exactly help looking like that now.
Meanwhile, as though none of it mattered to him in the slightest, Colonel Zulkipli said with complete satisfaction, “As promised, the Korean team gets first move in tomorrow’s swamp test. Go ahead and use it however you like—break the ground, or wreck it.”
That settled it.
Wang Hao clenched his fists tightly, clearly seething.
He’d lost the advantageous position, so tomorrow’s test must have already looked like hell to him.
I glanced over at him.
Then I lifted the corner of my mouth.
“No, I’ll pass on going first.”
“What...?”
The colonel’s eyes widened.
“You’re saying you’re giving up the advantage?”
“Yes. We’ll go second.”
When Wang Hao heard that, his face turned so red it looked ready to burst.
He’d realized this wasn’t a simple concession.
“You arrogant bastard...”
Wang Hao ground out the words.
“You’ll regret this! Tomorrow I’ll enjoy watching your vehicles get buried in the mud!”
Snorting furiously, he led his aides out of the hangar.
I shrugged as I watched them go.
That was when it happened.
Far away, I met the eyes of the man standing beside the Malaysian public affairs officer, holding a camcorder.
Yang Seokjin, reporter for the Defense Daily.
He’d apparently been watching everything I’d said here.
He was giving me a thumbs-up.
When I finished speaking with the colonel and returned to the tent, Chief Choi greeted me with a grin from ear to ear.
“What’s this? Good vibes in there? The colonel was absolutely smitten.”
“We fixed a defect in the communications equipment. Nothing special.”
“Nothing special, my foot! Hahaha, that’s our Baek director all over—really knows how to bring people around!”
Chief Choi thumped my back several times.
Beside him, after hearing the whole story, Director Kim adjusted his glasses and said, “Hmm... Director Baek.”
“Yes.”
“We may just end up winning not only this contract, but an unexpected MRO business right along with it.”
Director Kim’s eyes shone.
“This wouldn’t just be an armored vehicle sale anymore. We’d become a partner to the Malaysian Army. The board just got... a lot bigger.”
I nodded silently.
Just as expected.
All that was left now was tomorrow, when I’d drive the wedge in at the swamp.
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