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every day, but never talked with him, but now he came over to her.
    “X213?” he said.
    Over the buzz of incoming messages and feeds she barely had a sense that anyone was there next to her. She put a pause on most of her work for a moment. “Yes?” she said.
    “I see you every day,” he said, “and just wanted to say hi.”
    “Oh,” she said. “Why would you do that?”
    “I guess it's just my old ways,” he said.
    “Huh?”
    “I grew up with the Wald—with the Castaways,” he said. “I sometimes get into old habits.” He looked down at the ground as if studying something.
    “Oh, things are so much more convenient here, aren't they?” she said. “I can't believe anyone would want to live so rough and with no sense of purpose.”
    “That's what I thought,” he said.
    She continued, as though not hearing him. “And those people do not know about community. I mean community where we can call each other so easily and stay in constant contact. It's really great and it doesn't even interrupt the other things we do all the time.”
    “Community,” he said. “Time.”
    As though he wasn't there she continued, “And time is so precious we can't go around wasting it. We only have so much of it, so now we can work and learn and communicate all at the same time and not a moment is wasted.”
    “Wasted,” he said. He was still looking at the ground.
    “In fact we don't even need to sleep very much because of course that would be more of a waste of our precious time. And anyway, as long as I take my pills I feel fine with only three hours of rest.”
    “Rest,” he said.
    “Well,” she said, “I really have to get back to work, things are really piling up now. Thanks for coming over here to say hi. It's nice to be here and really feel like I know somebody.” At this, she turned from facing him and faced forward again, staring blankly at the wall, her mind racing with approvals and denials, correspondences, notices and messages that raced across her mind. For a second a peripheral thought hung there, what was his name? But then she got drawn away by the endless tasks in front of her and she dismissed the question.
    He turned away toward his own seat and with a tear in his eye he whispered, “to know somebody.”
     

Chapter 16
    As they approached the city, Samuel huddled with his men, “Okay, as I have told you before, the best way to fight an enemy is to know how it thinks. And the best way to know how the Technos think is to know their technology—at the top.”
    “So what's the plan?” said Adam. His voice had a whispery kind of roughness to it. Like a man who had smoked something too much.
    “Plan?” said Samuel. “Do I need a plan?”
    “Come on chief, you've always got some plan,” said Chavez. His light skin and red hair had to be covered more than the rest since he was so easy to spot.
    “Yeah, I got a plan,” said Samuel. “We're going to infiltrate Techcorp.”
    The men were silent, but the increased tension could be felt. They looked at each other wondering who was going to speak up. Finally Ray said, “We will do whatever you say, chief. “
    The one man who hadn't spoken was the one who probably had the most to say. “Wallace,” said Samuel. “What’s your take?”
    Wallace was slow with his words, like running through a tide of molasses, but he was sharp. It was as though he hand chose each word carefully before speaking, so that when he did speak, you could trust every word. “You know, Captain, I've been there. For seven years before getting out. I know,” he paused searching through his memories, “about the place. There is one possible problem. One man who might recognize me. It could be dangerous.”
    “I've been counting on your knowledge,” said Samuel, “and we will be careful to keep you hidden from this person. You will be very valuable to this operation though.”
    Wallace said with a hard stare of concentration, “I'll do my best, sir.”
    Each of the