Jack and the commando party made their way into water purification plant. The general had been very clear - she needed oil to construct the giant mirror lens, so their mission was to infiltrate and blow up the oil tower in the plant.
Jack was the last of the group to go through the security checkpoint, where a lone guard was waving them through. This plant used low-frequency sound waves to purify the water, and Jack could feel the bass tones resonating inside his body as he walked down the stairs. He approached the guard, who nodded as Jack walked past. He ran into LeMadd on the other side.
"She can't hum," explained the guard. Indeed, LeMadd was silent.
On the other side of the checkpoint, the group met up to take stock of the situation. A tall fellow in the back demanded, "Where's the general?"
"She's up ahead, I think," said another person, peering ahead through the orange glare of the setting sun.
The tall fellow stamped around in consternation. "I need to command," he declared, standing on his head.
It was night by the time they met up with the general at the base of the tower. She handed out ropes and began coordinating the scaling efforts, which involved ascending to a certain height, waiting for small elevator platforms to arrive so that they could rest, and repeating the process at the next level. Jack was worried about being able to hold on long enough, so he decided to act stronger than he was. It worked; hanging from the thin ropes was much easier that way.
By the time they had reached the top, workers and the police were circling in the water below, their spotlights lighting up the oil tower. The general took out a small bomb and threw it, but Jack quickly intervened and cast it off into the water. He realized that negotiation might be a smarter way to get the oil.
"We'll negotiate," he yelled to the head of the plant, a squat, bespectacled fellow who was swimming around in the dark water, "but on two terms." As he said this, Jack accidentally knocked a container of orange juice into the water.
"Uh, the first term is that you hand me that back. I didn't mean to knock it into the water," said Jack. "The second term is that you, and only you, can attend the negotiations." The man looked sourly at Jack for a time before agreeing.
The scene shifted to the negotiation table, where the general was doing a voice-over narration.
"And so we negotiated for the oil that I needed. I would soon be able to build my giant mirror lens. However, that was also the day that my rival got a little piece of the plan." Across the table, a lithe woman took a small tape recorder from the general, who yelled, "Give that back!" and snatched it from the lithe woman's grasp.
