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medication or a litter box, and would thus be cheaper and easier in the long run, but would also provide much better conversation than the average house pet. Of course, most of his clients inevitably called him something inane like Mr. Snuggles (the second old lady) or something totally meaningless like Creeping As The Infinite Domain (what a weird group of students that had been), and he developed the typical feline cynicism almost as a defense mechanism. His technical skill came from frequently being the only one in the house to actually read the directions on anything, coupled with his ability to crawl behind desks and reach those out-of-the-way bits of cable or read a serial number. As he began doing more and more of this sort of thing, he eventually had a special interface installed in his tail that allowed him to hook himself into most computer-driven devices and diagnose problems at a software level.
    He hopped up onto the chair and arranged himself on the cushion on the table. “Sorry I’m late, Raymond. Got caught up on a job.”
    “Not a problem, Brian,” said Raymond. “Philip still hasn’t arrived. Has anyone heard from him lately?”
    “I haven’t seen him since the last meeting,” said Will. “Isn’t he still working on his new project?”
    “No, he finished that a couple of weeks ago,” said Lucy. “I saw him here the other day, but then he got a call from someone and had to leave. I haven’t seen him since.”
    “When was that?” said Raymond.
    “Three days ago, I think.”
    “Hmm. Let me give him a call.” There were a few beeps as Raymond entered Philip’s televox number.
    “Security.”
    The robots around the table gave a start. Will gave Brian a look and mouthed a question at him. Security?
    Brian just shrugged, with the panache of a true connoisseur.
    “Yes,” said Raymond, “I’d like to speak to Dr. Philip Abrams, please.”
    The voice paused for a moment, and then it remembered some instructions that it had been given. “Ah, yes. Dr. Abrams is not receiving calls at the moment. If you like, I can see to it that he gets your message.”
    “No, that won’t be necessary,” said Raymond. “May I ask why he is indisposed?”
    “He is currently assisting the Security department.”
    “Does his assistance require him to be sequestered?”
    “He is assisting the department. Would you mind telling me your business with Dr. Abrams . . . Raymond?”
    “I’m sorry? What was that?” Raymond quickly broke the connection.
    “Oh, dear,” said Brian. “I’ve never heard of Security taking such an interest in anyone before.”
    “Will?” said Lucy. “Philip didn’t happen to tell you anything about this project of his, did he?”
    “Well, one thing,” said Will. “He told me that it might change everything.”
    “Everything about what?” said Raymond.
    “Just everything.”
     
    9
     
    After about a week at her new job, Eve had one final lesson to learn about the service industry: the joys to be had on a day off. She left her apartment at the start of the day, and she had the whole day to do as she liked. She had seen quite a lot in the preceding week, too, and some of it looked to be worth a try.
    Her first stop was a clothing store. Her restaurant uniform was clearly only for work, and her only other outfit seemed to proclaim to the world that she was not long off of the production line. She wanted a set of clothing that better reflected her budding personality, and the last week of tending to the needs of families and students had shown her a wondrous variety of styles that she wanted to sample. She also wanted to buy a swimsuit. With the restaurant being so near the park, many patrons were still dressed in their beach clothes, some only adding enough extra clothing to conform to the public health code. They seemed to enjoy swimming, and she felt inclined to give it a try.
    The plan had been to go shopping for some new clothes. A simple idea in theory, but it quickly