'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean — '
'Forget it. Let's go eat. I'm hungry.'
Mitch glanced surreptitiously at his watch. He ought to have gone home but he could never argue effectively when confronted with Jenny's exquisite nakedness. He could as soon have disagreed with Euclid's Golden Section.
'Sure. As long as we're not late. I've got a project team meeting tomorrow morning.'
'I hope you managed to deal with those problems I told you I had, Mitch.'
'Relax, it's being taken care of.'
'I can't sign off my report until I'm satisfied that everything is OK. You wouldn't want me to do that, would you?'
Mitch thought about it for a second. 'No,' he said without much conviction. 'I guess not.'
'Incidentally, there's nothing major, but a number of other things I've noticed will have to be changed.'
Mitch looked pained. 'Like what, for Christ's sake?'
'You have to understand that I've only just had a chance to read YK's horoscope. He's a busy man.'
'What? What has to be changed, Jenny?'
'The front door of this suite for a start. It faces the wrong direction, geomantically speaking. It needs to be realigned more obliquely. Like we did the front door. Then there's the sculpture on this floor. The corners of the glass-case housing it point straight at this door. Best if it's moved.'
'Jesus,' groaned Mitch.
'Oh yes, and there's the signboard on the piazza. It's not where the plans said it would be. It needs to face west. It's also too low. It should have been set at a more moderate height, otherwise friction among staff members will result.'
'Richardson is going to love this,' Mitch said bitterly.
Jenny shrugged. 'I can't help that,' she said. 'Either a building is auspicious or it isn't. Right now, this one isn't auspicious at all.'
Mitch groaned loudly.
'Come on. Cheer up,' she said. 'It's not so bad. Foster had to shift all the escalators in the Hong Kong and Shanghai.'
'I guess.' He started to dress. 'Where do you want to go for dinner?'
'There's this Chinese on North Spring Street. It'll be my treat.'
They took the elevator down to the garage and drove out of the building. At the top of the ramp Mitch almost collided with a drunk who lurched out in front of him. Mitch stopped, but by the time he lowered the window to say something to the guy, he was gone.
'Crazy asshole,' said Mitch. 'Where'd he go?'
'He came round this side,' said Jenny, and shivered. 'You were going too fast.'
'The hell I was. The guy just jumped out.'
Maybe Aidan Kenny was right, maybe he should have bought himself a Cadillac Protector.
The restaurant was crowded and they waited at the bar for a table.
'I have to go to the bathroom,' she said. 'Order me a gin and tonic, will you, honey?'
She walked majestically away from him. More eyes than his followed her imperious progress across the floor of the restaurant. Cheng Peng Fei, dining with a few friends from the university, noticed her: she was very beautiful. Then he saw Mitch, and recognized him. He thought of the rotten orange and now he wondered if he might do some real damage as his Japanese sponsor- he could think of no other word — had suggested.
He waited until they were seated at a table and then made his excuses to his friends. Outside in the parking lot he walked to his car, opened the trunk and took out the wheel wrench. Mitch's car, a new red Lexus, was easy enough to recognize. When Cheng Peng Fei was sure that nobody was about he walked over to it and hurled the wrench through the windshield. Then, finding himself calmer than he would have supposed possible, he got into his own car and drove off.
Allen Grabel had been drinking all day when, just after nine o'clock, he narrowly missed being knocked down by Mitch's car. He was certain that Mitch hadn't recognized him, if only because he was wearing a cheap Panama hat. He had seen the woman in the passenger seat only long enough to know that she was not Mitch's wife. Grabel asked himself what it was that had kept the two of them so late in the building. All he had was his bottle. Even though he had fallen down just short of the car's wheels, he had kept a tight grip on that. That was something.
Grabel reached his basement room and closed the door. He sat down on the camp bed and took a swig from his bottle. It struck him as hardly fair that there should be two women in Mitch's life and none at all in his own. Not that he had anything against Mitch. It was Richardson he hated. Hated him bad enough to want to see him dead. Ordinarily Grabel was not a man to bear a grudge. But he had been giving quite a lot of thought to how he might get back at his former employer.
Hideki Yojo typed a string of program instructions and leaned back in his chair, flexing his neck against his clasped hands and reflecting on the happy fact that his headaches seemed to have improved since seeing Aidan Kenny's chiropractor. It was several days since he had suffered a bad one. He felt better than he had done in a long while. Probably there was nothing to worry about. Not that Yojo was complacent about his health. Never had been. The blood pressure Abraham had noted while Yojo was accessing his work-station with the flat of his hand was maybe just a little high. Abraham had also been monitoring Yojo's urine and had alerted him to the high proteins and sugar it contained. There was no doubt about it, thought Yojo. Once the Yu-5 system was installed he was going to have to try and spend less time sitting in front of a screen. This was the third night in a row he had worked late to iron out a glitch with the hologram software. Maybe he would erase the custom-made program that he had designed to allow him to circumvent the Yu Corporation's forthcoming employee exercise program and try and get himself into shape. He would get out and about a little more. See a couple of old boyfriends. Perhaps visit a few of his old haunts and try and find a new one. Have some sex. There was no point in earning a fortune if you never got a chance to enjoy the fruits of your labour. He had remained celibate for too long. It was time he had some fun. Right now it was probably time he went home. Surely he had solved the problem.
His screen and desk lamp flickered momentarily.
Yojo thumped the screen with the flat of his hand. It seemed to correct itself.
'Is there some kind of electrical fault, Abraham?'
'Negative.'
'Then what was it?'
'A power surge,' said the computer.
'The other day a spike, and now this. What gives? It's lucky we have a Powerbak generator, huh?'
'Yes, sir.'
The blow from his hand had left the screen colour looking slightly impure.
'Degauss the screen, will you?'
'Yes, sir.'
Yojo leaned towards the desk lamp. Italian, of course. The simplicity and elegance of the design were unmistakable. Yojo rapped the transformer drum with his knuckles. The light from the tiny bulb steadied and he returned his attention to the screen, quickly reviewing the evening's transactions.
He was finished, surely. The hologram software would work now.
'Congratulate me, Abraham. I just fixed our problem.'
'Well done, Mr Yojo, sir,' said the English voice, very like a well-bred butler.
'Would you check over the hologram program, please?'
'As you wish, sir.'
The computer checked over the work and reported that it would function perfectly.
'That's a relief,' said Yojo. 'I've had enough for one night.'
'Do you wish me to activate the hologram control suite?'
'Negative,' he said. 'It's time to return to RL I think. Real life awaits me.' He yawned and stretched simultaneously. 'We can run it in the morning, Abraham. That's if you've got nothing better to do.' He grinned and rubbed his eyes. 'God, I hate this room. No windows. Whose dumb idea was that?'