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Cairo.” Blunt took a sip of wine. "Let me tell you his story, Alex. I'm sure you'll find it of interest.
    "Herod Sayle was born in complete poverty in the backstreets of Cairo. His father was a failed oral hygienist. His mother took in washing. He had nine brothers and four sisters, all living together in three small rooms along with the family goat. Young Herod never went to school and he should have ended up unemployed, unable to read or write, like the rest of them.
    "But when he was seven, something occurred that changed his life. He was walking down Fez Street-in the middle of Cairo-when he happened to see an upright piano fall out of a fourteenth- story window. Apparently it was being moved and it somehow overturned. Anyway, there were a couple of English tourists walking along the pavement underneath and they would both have been crushed-no doubt about itexcept at the last minute Herod threw himself at them and pushed them out of the way. The piano missed them by an inch.
    "Of course, the tourists were enormously grateful to the young Egyptian waif and it now turned out that they were very rich. They made inquiries about him and discovered how poor he was ... the very clothes he was wearing had been passed down by all nine of his brothers. And so, out of gratitude, they more or less adopted him. Flew him out of Cairo and put him into a school over here, where he made astonishing progress. He got excellent exam results and-here's an amazing coincidence-at the age of fifteen he actually found himself sitting next to a boy who would grow up to become prime minister of Great Britain. Our present prime minister, in fact. The two of them were at school together.
    “I'll move quickly forward. After school, Sayle went to Cambridge, where he got a degree in economics. He then set out on a career that went from success to success. His own radio station, computer software ... and, yes, he even found time to buy a string of racehorses, although I believe they seldom win. But what drew him to our attention was his most recent invention. A quite revolutionary computer that he calls the Stormbreaker.”
    Stormbreaker. Alex remembered the file he had found in Ian Rider's office. Things were beginning to come together.
    “The Stormbreaker is being manufactured by Sayle Enterprises,” Mrs. Jones said. “There's been a lot of talk about the design. It has a black keyboard and black casing”
    “With a lightning bolt going down the side,” Alex said. He had seen a picture of it in PCReview.
    “It doesn't only look different,” Blunt cut in. “It's based on a completely new technology. It uses something called the round processor. I don't suppose that will mean anything to you.”
    “It's an integrated circuit on a sphere of silicon about one millimeter in diameter,” Alex said. “It's ninety percent cheaper to produce than an ordinary chip because the whole thing is sealed in so you don't need clean rooms for production.”
    “Oh. Yes . . .” Blunt coughed. “I'm surprised you know so much about it.”
    “It must be my age,” Alex said.
    “Well,” Blunt continued, “the point is, later today, Sayle Enterprises are going to make a quite remarkable announcement. They are planning to give away tens of thousands of these computers. In fact, it is their intention to ensure that every secondary school in England gets its own Stormbreaker. It's an unparalleled act of generosity, Sayle's way of thanking the country that gave him a home.”
    “So the man's a hero.”
    “So it would seem. He wrote to Downing Street a few months ago: 'Mydear Prime Minister. You may remember me from our school days together. For almost forty years I have lived in England and I wish to make a gesture, something that will never be forgotten, to express my true feelings toward your country.' The letter went on to describe the gift and was signed,'Yours humbly,' by the man himself. Of course, the whole government was excited. The computers are