CHAPTER 40In the steam lab, the other Ping plucked the lightbulb from the board and held it up for Mara to examine. She shook her head and pointed to a larger, rounder one at the bottom of the board. Setting the first bulb on the counter, Ping removed the one she indicated and held it up.
“Yes. That one looks about right,” she said. “Do you have another like that?”
He frowned and said, “You need two of them?”
“When you’re dealing with something as fragile as a lightbulb, it’s always good to have a backup. Don’t you think?”
“I suppose. I think there’s another one around here somewhere.”
He duck-walked bent over while looking on the shelves under the counter. After waddling on the inside of the doughnut-shaped counter for twenty paces, he stopped, reached and straightened, holding a sec
