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They admired one paddling about on a reedy backwater for a few minutes, then started back to the house.
    “I guess you don’t get into the city much,” said Joseph as they crossed the lawn.
    “Me? No. What do you guys do?”
    “Lewis here works for the studios in Hollywood—” Juan Bautista turned to stare at him, impressed. “Dealing in rare research stuff and old scripts.”
    “I was stationed in Hollywood once,” said Juan Bautista. “It wasn’t there yet, though, so I never got to see any movie stars.”
    “Yeah, that’s life in the service, isn’t it?” Joseph shook his head ruefully. “I don’t see many in my line of work, either. I work for—Say, I’ve just remembered, I have that helmet in the car!”
    “That’s right, you do,” said Lewis. “Let’s show him.”
    Juan Bautista looked from one to the other. “What?”
    “You’ll love this. It’s
so
cool.” Joseph ran to the Lexus and popped the trunk.
    “He was showing me only yesterday,” Lewis told Juan Bautista. “No end of fun, virtual reality stuff.”
    Juan Bautista’s eyes lit up. “The graphics are still pretty crappy, but I understand they’re getting better.”
    “Wait’ll you see this.” Joseph chortled, digging the white crate out of the trunk. “Come on, let’s take it in the house. It’s a prototype. You can try it out.”
    “You work for
those
guys?” Juan Bautista recognized the logo on the box. “Wow.”
    “Yeah, but I’m never involved in the movies themselves.” Joseph pushed the door open and set the box down. “Right now I’m a salesman for their cybernetic entertainment division. There are certain developments Dr. Zeus wants monitored. You know.” He lifted out the helmet. “Just sit down and get comfortable.”
    “Okay.” Juan Bautista handed the raven off to a perch—it gronked and protested—and took a seat on his couch. Joseph stepped close and placed the helmet carefully on Juan Bautista’s head. Lewis winced and retreated a few paces. The raven cocked its head to look at him and looked back at Juan Bautista uneasily.
    “Here we go!” Joseph took a small control out of his pocket and inserted a minidisc. “This is the sampler. My favorite’s the walk through Stonehenge, it’s the first one on the program. Check it out.” He thumbed the control and stepped well away from the couch. The raven ducked its head and began to flutter its wings, crying.
    “Oh, shut up, bird. Hey, this is really something,” said Juan Bautista muffledly. “It’s a
lot
better than the other stuff I—ow!”
    He began to fumble with the helmet. The raven flew off its perch and went straight for Joseph’s eyes, screaming, “Get it off him! Get it off him right now!”
    Joseph dropped the control to defend himself and got a grip around the raven’s wings, trapping them. He held it out at arm’s length. Juan Bautista pushed off the helmet, panting. There was a moment of silence.
    “Did that bird just talk?” asked Lewis at last.
    “Uh—sure. Ravens can be taught to talk, you know,” said Juan Bautista, in a frantically reasonable voice. “Just like parrots. All the
Corvidae
are really intelligent.”
    “Get it off him, get it off him right now,” said the raven rather lamely. “Polly wants a cracker, awk, awk, awk.”
    “Nice try,” said Joseph, glaring at it. “Why don’t you do the nevermore bit next?”
    “I hate that stupid poem,” said the raven. Juan Bautista groaned and slid down on the couch. “I’m sorry, Dad,” it added contritely.
    Joseph grinned unpleasantly. Lewis was reminded that Joseph had worked for the Spanish Inquisition.
    “Well, well,” he chuckled. “You’re not just any birdbrain, are you? Somebody’s done an augmentation job on you. Boy, that’s really illegal. The Company wouldn’t be at all happy if they found out. I wonder who could have done such a thing?”
    “Dad didn’t do it!” shrieked the raven. “It was somebody else. Not