ACTORS’ STUDIO
ANALISM
BREAST CANCER, NOT THE END OF YOUR SEX LIFE
BREAST REDUCTION/ENLARGEMENT, IS IT SAFE?
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
CAMILLE [PAGLIA]
CINEMA VERITE
COPING WITH AIDS
“Paglia?” says Lenz. “Camille Paglia is on EROS?”
“I can’t tell you that. But clicking on that heading will lead you to a discussion of her works. There are over a hundred headings, but you get the idea.”
I’m reaching for my mouse when Lenz stops my hand and says, “I’d like to see them all.”
I can almost see his eyes focus on the more provocative selections. My eyes gravitate to those I know as the more popular or strange.
COPROPHILIA
De SADE RECONSIDERED
DOMINANT FEMALE
EROTIC FINE ARTS[
EROTIC LITERATURE SALON
EUROTRASH BIN
FEMINISM 101
FETISHISM [23 SUBCATEGORIES]
FROTTEURISM
GAY MAN’S WORLD [28 SUBCATEGORIES]
GOD IN THE BEDROOM
HETS ONLY [HETEROSEXUALS]
HIV POSITIVE?
INCEST SURVIVORS: WOMEN ONLY
ISLAND OF LESBOS [31 SUBCATEGORIES]
JAN KRISLOV [THE CEO ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS]
MEDICAL-SEXUAL QUESTIONS [M.D.s RESPOND AS TIME PERMITS]
NECROPHILIA
PHONE SEX, STUCK IN ADOLESCENCE
PRIVACY RIGHTS (14 SUBCATEGORIES)
QUEER NATION
RAPE COUNSELING
ROMANCE
SEX POLICE
UROPHILIA
VOYEURISM
YOUNGER MEN, OLDER WOMEN
ZOOPHILIA
“Many of these are medical terms,” Lenz observes.
“Drewe had to bring home a DSM-III-R manual just so I could figure out what some of them meant. Now I name a lot of the threads myself.”
“Are there many physicians on EROS?”
“A fair number.”
“How many?”
“Over a hundred.”
Lenz seems to be thinking. “Are these headings permanent?”
“Some are, but the idea of EROS is to be dynamic, to respond as various needs arise. For example, ‘ISLAND OF LESBOS’ is constant, but many of its subcategories change every day. It covers all kinds of lesbian behavior and interests.”
“Let’s look.”
I click the mouse on LESBOS and watch the new window open, revealing another column of thread titles.
“What’s ‘Penetrating Discussion’?”
“Some lesbians are into penetration, others aren’t. They discuss various objects to use for it. What’s better, natural versus artificial, like that. I figured you knew all about this stuff.”
“I have some lesbian patients who use vegetables for stimulation. I sometimes think about it when I walk through the produce section of a grocery.”
“That’s garden-variety stuff, pardon the pun. You know what shocked me? They talk about size a lot. One woman said most vegetables were too large for her. She said the perfect thing to use was an Oscar Mayer wiener. Don’t laugh-it’s true. I said, ‘Isn’t that too soft for the job?’ And you know what she said? ‘Not if you freeze it.’ If you
Lenz beams with the pleasure of a man who is rarely shocked. “But how does she stand the temperature? That could damage her tissues.”
“That’s exactly what I said. She told me that when she’s ready, she just takes one out of the freezer and runs it under hot water for about sixty seconds. Then it’s perfect.” I shake my head. “I’m telling you, anything you can possibly think of, it’s already been done and posted on EROS.”
“What about these graphics files?”
“That’s Miles’s project. Jan Krislov originally wanted EROS to be purely text-based. She saw that as another way to keep the level of discussion high. But the demand for graphics has become so great, and the technology so much better, that she’s had to give in. The whole thing is Miles’s baby, of course.”
While Lenz nods thoughtfully, I click out of the forum and into the live-chat area. “I guess we’d better start checking room by room for prose that sounds like our man.”
Lenz takes something from a drawer. “I’m going to tape our session,” he says, pressing a button on a small Olympus recorder. “That way I won’t have to make notes of any instructions you give me. It’ll save-”
The psychiatrist jumps as one of the phones on the desk rings. He looks to see which number it is, then answers. While he turns away and speaks too low for me to hear, I punch up the EROS e-mail window on the Toshiba and compose a quick message to Eleanor Rigby:
“That was Daniel Baxter,” he says, his voice brimming with excitement.
“What is it?”
“Strobekker just contacted the Bureau.”
“He sent a message to Daniel’s personal e-mail address at Quantico. Could that be possible?”
“Sure, if the Quantico computers are connected to the Internet.”
“Some are. But the Unit’s computers are supposed to be sealed off from the outside. This message came across the internal e-mail system, the same way a secret case memo would. The Quantico technicians say they can’t locate the source of the message. Daniel is rattled. He’s faxing us a copy now.”
The fax machine rings on cue, and we both stare at the slowly emerging page. When Lenz is sure no more is to come, he tears off the curled sheet and lays it on the desk. It reads:
PLEASE STOP TRYING TO LOCATE US. YOU CANNOT SUCCEED. YOU WERE NOT EVEN CLOSE TODAY IN DALLAS. AN INNOCENT MAN DIED FOR NOTHING. IF YOU KNEW WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH, YOU
