welcoming and familiar. 'But we have to take more time with
Doctor Heywood. You and Lizzie we're moving into the next room.
You can sleep here tonight and go home in the morning.
'What about the memex?'
'It's still working with Aleph but left a message for you
that all is well.'
#
Sitting in full lotus on a mat beside the couch, Toshi heard
a change in Diana's breathing and looked up to see her open her
eyes. 'I'll get Charley,' he said. 'He's with Lizzie and
Gonzales.'
'Don't bother. I'm all right.'
'They must disconnect you.'
'No, not now almost never, in fact.'
'What do you mean?'
'We have saved Jerry, but there are conditions.' Her head
lying sideways on the pillow's rough white cloth, she smiled at
Toshi, and said, 'When I sleep there, I can wake here, as I do
now, and for very brief periods leave that world. But I can only
visit here; I must live there. Otherwise, Jerry will die.'
'You have resurrected your dead, then, but at what price,
what sacrifice?'
'Nothing I would not willingly give. There was no choosing.'
'No?'
'I am only doing what I want.'
'So the arrow finds the target,' Toshi said.
#
Gonzales woke the next morning, showered, dressed, and was
drinking coffee when the room said, 'Mr. Traynor is here to see
you.'
'Send him in,' he said. One account about to be reckoned up,
he thought.
When he came in, Traynor looked chastened, a state Gonzales
would not usually have associated with the man. 'Good morning,'
Gonzales said.
Traynor looked around as if unsure of himself. He said, 'I
am leaving this evening. You may come with me, if you wish.'
Gonzales was looking for his i.d. bracelet, found it on the
nightstand next to the table, and said, 'I don't understand. I'm
not fired?'
'I said that only in the heat of the moment, you know this
place, these peopleI'm afraid I did not handle things well.'
'I see.' Gonzales snapped closed the bracelet's clasp. 'Is
that my only choice?'
'No. Showalter's been reinstituted as Director SenTrax Halo
Group, and she's gotten the board to agree that you may take the
position offered by the Interface Collective. The choice is
yours.'
'Really? And what about Horn?'
'He will be returning to Earth.' Traynor laughed. 'I will
have to find something to do with him.'
'Indeed. That all seems clear enough. When do I have to
tell you my decision?'
'Soonbefore I leave.'
'I'll let you know.'
Traynor left, and Gonzales took a last look around and went
to see what was happening. He found Charley looking at monitor
screens dense with lists of data. The two eggs had been removed,
but the screen around Diana's couch remained. 'What's up,
Charley?' Gonzales asked.
'Look' Charley pointed to the hologram displays of
superimposed wave-forms, red and green. He said, 'The green
curves show the calculated limits of Diana's interface, the red
ones the actual state.'
To Gonzales, the red curves seemed huge, perhaps twice the
size of the green ones. He said, ''What does it mean?'
'That we don't know the rules; that we still have a lot to
learn.' Looking up at Gonzales, Charley's seamed face was lit
with his passion for this new phase of discovery.
'Where's Lizzie?' Gonzales asked.
'She's gone home. She said for you to come by.'
#
Gonzales stood in front of Lizzie's door until it said, 'Come
in.' Lizzie was sitting in her front room, its curtains open to
bright sunlight. She stood and said, 'Hello,' and smiled. He
couldn't read that smile, quite, though it seemed less guarded
than before. 'Have a seat. Would you like some breakfast?'
'No, I'm all right.'
'The orange cat was here this morning, looking for you. And
Showalter just leftshe's back in charge, you know.'
'I'd heard.'
'She approved my invitation for you to become a member of the
collective, if you wish and they confirm. I imagine they will
if you take the offer.' Her smile had a little mischief in it.
'What do you think I should do?'
'Your choice.' She spoke the word with emphasis, as though
it had special meaning for her. 'We can talk about it.'
'Sure.'
The remainder of the morning passed, and they talkedthough
somehow what they said had little to do with the collective or the
job Gonzales had been offered. They chattered to one another,
their ostensible topics pretexts for a certain tone of voice, an
exchange of glances, a shift of the limbs: for necessary
intensities of attention.
Intimacy proceeded according to its own rules, nurtured in a
web of subtle communications: a widening of the eyes; a posture
open to the other's presence; multiple gestures and words whose
import was clearcome closer. Though consciousness might be busy
or blind, the eyes see, and the brain and body know, for such
