Archer knew the answer. No, I can’t.
Devlin saw the fear and distrust in Archer’s face.
Okay, he said to himself, I know you don’t trust me, Grant. I know you never approved of the things I do. For more’n twenty years you’ve looked down your snoot at me. Now you’re goin’ to learn different. Now the shoe’s on the other bloody foot.
NANOTECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
Franklin Torre’s normally genial expression was lost in a puzzled, almost suspicious stare.
“And just what is it you want down here?” he asked Rodney Devlin.
Devlin was wearing his usual white cook’s T-shirt and baggy pants, immaculately clean this early in the morning. He grinned as he looked from Torre to his sister, standing next to him, and then took a quick scan of the nanotech lab. Small, he thought. More like a kid’s playroom than a proper laboratory. The two people facing him were both in white lab smocks. They looked enough alike to be twins. Or clones.
Janet Torre mistook Red’s silence. “You
Devlin nodded briskly. “That’s what they told me.”
“So why are you here?” Franklin asked again.
With a careless shrug, Devlin said, “Well, you’re new here. I’m sort of like the station’s unofficial meeter and greeter. I’m sorry I haven’t come down to say hello earlier. Been kinda busy, dontcha know.”
“I don’t understand,” said Franklin.
“Have the folks here been takin’ good care of you? Is there anything you need?”
“Such as?” Janet demanded.
Devlin kept his sunny smile in place, although he was thinking that this would be much easier with the guy by himself instead of the two of them together.
Shrugging again, Devlin replied, “Oh, stuff the paper pushers can’t supply for ya. Entertainment vids, maybe. Or certain foods—”
“Lobster,” Franklin Torre exclaimed.
Devlin blinked. “Lobster?”
“At Selene we can have a lobster dinner anytime we want,” Torre said.
“Aquaculture,” Janet explained. “They have big fish farms at Selene. Shellfish, too. More protein per watt of energy input than meat animals.”
Scratching his head, Devlin said, “Well, I can requisition some from Selene. Might take a while, though.”
“I like lobster,” Torre said.
“Anything else?” asked Devlin. “Technical supplies, personal items…” He hesitated, then in a slightly lower voice went on, “You’re a long way from all your friends. Maybe you need some VR simulations.”
Janet arched a brow at him. “You mean sex?”
Trying to look innocent, Devlin said, “Well, yeah, if that’s what you have in mind.”
Torre glanced at his sister. The two of them were grinning slyly. “No,” he said to Devlin. “We don’t need sex sims.”
For once in his life Devlin felt embarrassed. “Well … if there’s anything you do need, anything at all, you just call on ol’ Red. I can cut through all the regulations the paper shufflers put on ya.”
“Thank you, Red,” said Janet.
Changing the subject to what he really came for, Devlin said, “So this is a nanotech lab, eh?”
“It’s sort of rough and ready,” said Torre, “but, yes, this is our nanotechnology laboratory.”
“We never had one here before,” Devlin said, taking in every detail of the room. “You must be here for something special.”
“That’s right,” Janet said. And nothing more.
“Aren’t nanomachines dangerous?” Devlin asked, all innocent curiosity. “I mean, I’ve heard stories…”
“Everything’s perfectly secure here,” Torre assured him. “We have all the necessary safeguards in place.”
Devlin said, “Sign out in the hall said something about UV lights.”
“That’s to protect against any nanos that might get out of the lab,” Torre explained. “Ultraviolet light kills them.”
“Deactivates them,” Janet corrected. “They’re machines, not organisms.”
Torre nodded at his sister.
“So there’s nothing at all dangerous in here?”
Torre stepped over to a domed stainless steel chamber sitting on the lab bench. “The only dangerous thing is in here,” he said. “When we first construct the nanomachines they’re undifferentiated, not yet specialized for a specific task.”
“If they got loose at that stage there could be trouble,” Janet added. “We’d have to flood this area with high-intensity UV.” She pointed to the lights hanging from the ceiling.
Gobblers, Devlin thought. They’re talking about gobblers. But he didn’t mention the word to them, didn’t want them to get the slightest bit suspicious.
“So what happens to ’em?”
Tracing a finger along the pipe leading from the domed chamber to a smaller, square container, Torre said, “The undifferentiated nanos are fed in here, where we reshape them and program them for the specific task they’re designed to perform.”
Janet pointed to the display screen at the end of the workbench. “You can see them here.”
Devlin followed the pair of them to the screen. It showed a half-dozen shapes that looked to Devlin like little mechanical toys, each with two grasping arms attached to its main body.
“That’s them, huh?”
“That’s them,” said Torre, with some pride in his voice. “They’ll seek out molecules of a specific shape and take them apart into their constituent atoms.”
“Atoms! They must be pretty small.”
“The size of viruses. A couple of nanometers across.”
“Wow!”
Janet Torre looked at her wristwatch, then said, “Actually, we do have a lot of work to do.…”
“Oh! Sure!” Devlin backed away from the display screen. “I’m sorry for gettin’ in your way.”
Torre walked him toward the door; his sister sat on a stool by the display screen and turned it on.
“I appreciate your takin’ the time to show me around,” Devlin said.
“That’s okay.” Then, glancing back at his sister and lowering his voice, he said, “Can you show me some of those VR sims you mentioned?”
Acting surprised, Devlin said, “The sex sims? Sure. Any time. Just come and see me in the galley. Any time.”
“Uh, can you tailor them? Put specific people into them?”
“Who’d you have in mind?”
“Well, there’s this girl from the Belt … her name’s Deirdre Ambrose…”
Devlin’s surprise was genuine now. “You know Dee?”
“We’ve dated a couple of times.”
“So you want simulations of her, do ya?”
“If you can do it.”
With a nonchalant shrug, Devlin said, “I’ll see what I can do, Frankie old boy.”
Torre grinned and ushered Devlin through the door. Once outside in the passageway, the Red Devil grinned also. I’ve got the layout now, he told himself, and there’s no real security in there. Scientists. They think everybody’s honest.
