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phenomenal.
    "But how do you know that line?" Tim
said.
    "For a long time it was my favorite
movie."
    "Yeah, well, Jason Robards was great,
but—"
    "It just was."
    Quinn didn't want to get
into how as a teenager she'd fantasized about taking the place of
Murray Burns' nephew—she'd have been Murray's niece—and being
raised by such a lovable non-conformist. Her parents were such
staid, stick-in-the-mud, normal people. For years she'd longed for a little
kookiness in her home.
    She glanced at her watch. It was
10:50. "I'd better be getting back."
    "Right," Tim said. "I've heard you
turn into a pumpkin if you're late."
    "Really? Was that in
the Time article
too?"
    "A curfew!" Matt said, sitting up on
his bed. "Can you believe it? I haven't been here a full day yet
and already this place is getting on my nerves. And have you seen
all the video cameras around the campus?"
    Tim pressed a finger to his lips.
"Careful, my friend. The walls may have ears."
     
     
    MONITORING
     
    "You bet they have ears, wise ass,"
Louis Verran muttered as he switched to another set of
pick-ups.
    "Mattress sensors positive all over
the place, boss," Kurt said from his console.
    "All right," Verran said. "It's almost
eleven. Nighty-night time. Let's get some slow waves
going."
    He flipped the power switch and gave
the rheostat a clockwise turn on the slow-wave inducer. Getting
them to sleep before midnight was always the trickiest part of
entrance exam week. Most of these kids were uptight about the test
tomorrow and wired on their own adrenalin. That was why all the
coffee in the caf had been decaf—even the pots marked regular.
Without a little help, too many would spend the night chewing their
fingernails and tossing and turning on the unfamiliar mattresses.
Big no-no. They had to sleep. All of them. For at least five full
hours.
    So each suite was hard-wired
with—among other things—slow-wave/spindle inducers. A huge expense,
considering that they were used only one week out of fifty-two. The
inducer created an electromagnetic field in the rooms that
connected with human brain waves, inducing sleep spindles on the
EEG, and making the pattern most comfortable in the slow-wave
form—the sleep pattern. Worked great on the kids if they were lying
in bed; thirty to sixty seconds and they were in dreamland. Took a
little longer if they were sitting up, but eventually they'd give
in to this sudden, overwhelming urge to lie down...just for a few
minutes...just to rest their eyes.
    "Good evening, gentlemen," said a
voice behind Verran. "It's lights-out time for the students, I
believe."
    Verran suppressed a growl of annoyance
as he turned to face Dr. Alston. The ghoul was always meddling.
Seemed to think being Director gave him the right to stick his nose
into everyone's business. Didn't know the first thing about running
security but he always had two cents' worth of nothing to
contribute.
    "Dr. Alston," Verran said, forcing a
smile. "Back again for another evening of fun and games, I
see."
    "Hardly, Louis," Alston said grimly as
he sniffed the air. His gaze came to rest on Verran's smoldering
cigar.
    "Louis...is that another
cigar?"
    Louis held it up before him, appearing
to scrutinize it. "Good lord, Doc, I believe you're
right!"
    Elliot leaned on his console and
coughed to hide a laugh.
    "Really, Louis, how many times must I
remind you of the rules against smoking on this campus?"
    "And how many times must I
remind you , Doc,
that this is the one place on campus where that rule doesn't
apply?"
    And how many times, you tightass, are
we going to butt heads on this? Verran thought.
    "We'll settle this some other time,"
Dr. Alston said. "Right now, how are we doing?"
    Verran clamped the cigar between his
teeth and leaned left so he could see Kurt behind
Alston.
    "What's the status on the Z
Patrol?"
    "Getting there," Kurt said. "Twenty
percent down already."
    Verran glanced at the timer. The
slow-wave inducers had been running just shy of