"We're very close," she said stubbornly. "He's my mentor." Reva put down her glass and spread her arms back behind the couch along the wall, a pose she knew showed off her bosom to its best advantage. Through the backs of her arms, she felt a faint vibration. The wall was vibrating. It was the computer. That was odd, she thought. The machine generally shut itself down at exactly :30 p.m. each day, and here it was almost 5:30 p.m., and the wall was vibrating. Then she remembered what Friend had said. Bring Remo in to see the computer.
"Come on, Remo," she said, standing up. "I want to show you something."
"What?" Remo asked.
"My computer."
"Naaah, I don't want to," Remo said. "Place I work for has computers too. I hate them."
"What place is that?"
"Stop pumping, Reva."
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"Come on. Friend wanted you to see this computer."
"He did?" asked Remo.
"That's what he said."
Reva led Remo into the large room next door to her office. She flipped on the light switch and let Remo follow her inside. The computer was built against the left-hand wall of the room, covering every inch of space from wall to wall, ceiling to floor. It was three feet deep. There was a faint hum in the room.
"It's still on," Remo said.
"No, it's not," Reva said. 'That's an internal thermostat. Computer connections are delicate, so it has built-in heating and cooling units. It senses the room temperature, even when it's off, and turns on heat or cold automatically. Brilliant?"
Remo shrugged. "People have been doing the same thing with their bodies for millions of years. Nobody ever called them brilliant." He was still standing in the doorway, and Reva gestured for Remo to join her in front of the machine.
At the top of the computer's face panel were two openings covered with a thin mesh. Behind them Remo could see two cones moving around slowly. Then the points of the cones slowly fixed on him and stopped.
"What are those things at the top?" Remo asked.
"I don't know. I guess they're part of the sensors for the temperature."
"They were just moving," Remo said. He stepped back, two feet farther from the computer. The cones, barely visible behind the thin glass-fiber mesh, began to circle again and then narrowed their circles until they were again pointing at Remo.
"They're following me around the room," Remo said.
"Maybe they don't like you."
"Well, I don't like them. Machines should worry about other machines, not people."
The telephone rang at the desk at the front of the room. When Reva picked it up, Friend was on the line.
"Do you want..." she began. 222 •
"No," Friend said. "Tell him I will meet him tonight. At eleven-fourteen p.m. in the Penny-A-Pound shopping center on Downtown Boulevard. That is all. You have done well."
"Thank you," she said.
"He is very unusual looking," Friend said. "Do you find him good-looking?"
"Yes."
"Are you in love with him?" Friend asked.
"No. I'm in love with money, Friend."
"I can understand that," Friend said.
When the phone went dead, Reva Bleem looked at the receiver for a moment before replacing it. How did Friend know what Remo looked like?
Remo stepped over and took the phone from her, but all he heard was a dial tone.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"I heard you call him Friend. I thought it was him."
"It was."
"Why didn't you let me talk to him?"
"He wants to talk to you tonight. He'll meet you at the Penny-A-Pound shopping center on Downtown Boulevard."
"When?"
"At eleven-fourteen."
"Is that what he said?"
"Yes. Eleven-fourteen."
"I'll be there," Remo said.
"You know, we still have time," Reva said.
"For what?"
"You know."
"I've got a headache," Remo said.
THE SUBJECT IS CENTIMETERS IN LENGTH AND WEIGHS 72.1 KILOS. THE HAIR IS DARK AND THE EYES ARE VERY DARK. FROM PREVIOUS PERFORMANCE, THE SUBJECT IS AN EXCEPTIONAL. PHYSICAL SPECIMEN, BUT JUDGED AGAINST THE STANDARDS IN MY BANKS, THERE IS LITTLE
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