�Hansen, you�d better have some answers!� Brad Mitchell, VP of Operations, bellowed. �Since you introduced Eliminall our stock has plummeted, and it�s still falling!�

David Hansen, Advanced Agricultural Engineering�s Senior Research Director, glanced nervously at the angry faces of the executive committee around the huge, Synthi-Oak table. Clearing his throat, he began, �Uhm� gentlemen, I believe we�ve isolated the problem.

�As you know, Eliminall is the market�s first selective, wide-spectrum, nanoengineered herbicide and bio-nutritional enhancer. The Eliminall solution not only destroys unwanted weeds, but rapidly breaks them down, at a molecular level, into nutrients the target crop can easily use.�

A hand rose in the back of the room. �You mean, Eliminall is a weed and feed.�

Laymen! Hansen thought, cringing. Putting on his best smile, he said, �An excellent analogy! But by using specifically programmed nanoengineered machines, Eliminall is a very intelligent weed and feed.�

�Hansen, we know all that!� Mitchell interrupted. �Why isn�t it working?�

A look of surprise shot across Hansen�s face. �Uh, it�s not that Eliminall isn�t working. The problem is that it works too well!� Dimming the room�s lights, he slipped a Holo-disk from his pocket and inserted it into the table�s projector slot. A surreal figure appeared hovering above them. It resembled a patchwork cross between a bulldozer, vacuum cleaner, and several other machines.

�This is the HP, uhm� Hunter-Processor unit, that makes up the Eliminall. A single ounce of the matrix contains billions of these.� The next slide displayed a split screen image. On one side, line after line of computer code leaped into view, the other showed a complex electrical schematic.

�Here are the culprits,� Hansen declared, pointing to an obscure area in the middle of the code. �The Filter-Discriminator and the Quantum Signal Processor circuit are having an unanticipated fourth level interaction. It�s causing a failure between their communication protocols and so certain materials, which should be ignored by the HP�s, are being targeted and, uh, well� eliminated! Fortunately, the interaction range is very narrow. We were really quite lucky to have discovered it at all.�

�Lucky!� Mitchell screamed. �The media are having a field day! �Ninety Minutes� claims Eliminall is causing major chromosome damage all over the midwest!�

Hansen blinked nervously. �But I�ve gone over the field reports in detail! The flaw only affects cotton.�

The words were barely out of his mouth when Mitchell leaped to his feet, his face as red as the synthetic sugar beets Hansen had developed last year. �Hansen, don�t you realize half our business is with cotton growers all over this country!� Mitchell paused for breath, but before he could continue, Hansen pressed on.

�But it doesn�t attack all cotton. It ignores cotton plants just as it�s programmed to do. It only attacks processed cotton fibers; and then only certain weaves and colors. For some reason, it seems to have a special liking for blue. I�m certain we can correct the problem. In fact, the new HP program will be ready for insertion in a few more days.�

Silence filled the room while the committee considered Hansen�s report. Finally, somewhat mollified, Mitchell sat back in his chair looking puzzled. �From what you�ve just described, I don�t understand why there was such a panic. But the news reports clearly mentioned severe gene damage.�

Hansen had been afraid this would come up. �There was a second communications failure,� he stated quietly. �As I said earlier, the defect gave the Eliminall a special affinity for certain cotton fabrics, blue denim in particular.�

�Hansen,� Mitchell fumed, �get to the point! What was the second failure?�

Hesitantly, he advanced to his final slide. Wearing nothing but a faded leather hat and worn work boots, a hulking male figure, large, somewhat overweight, and embarrassingly bare, leaped into view. Conspicuously absent were his cotton coveralls. Around his feet, a few tattered strips of faded blue cloth were the only evidence that they had ever existed.

�What the reporter meant to say, was jean damage!�