Miles shrugged as if to say, “What can I do about it?”
I half listened to “Lilith” for a minute, but my mind was elsewhere. “How’s your Trojan Horse coming?”
“It’s got tendinitis,” Miles said sullenly.
“What?”
“I’ll get there.”
“You going to tell me how it works?”
“Until you get Brahma heated up, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
I was about to tell him to kiss off when he sighed an apology. “Look, it’ll work or it won’t, okay? Let’s take a break.”
I held up my hands for a truce. In the background, Lilith’s voice droned on, dredging up dark sexual secrets from “her” past and clumsily-to my ear, at least-pressing “Maxwell” to respond in kind. Brahma tolerated the probes with uncharacteristic docility, but he refused to be drawn out. As the conversation progressed, I could not escape the feeling that Dr. Lenz was greedily reeling in not valuable information but rope.
Just enough to hang himself.
CHAPTER 29
Last night I dreamed of Erin making love to Miles. My memory is a traitor that way. The images I’d most like to wipe away cling to life with the tenacity of weeds, while those I want to treasure fade like the blush on a rose.
This morning Drewe left before I woke up. I fought to stay asleep while Miles fixed himself an omelette and commandeered the television in the den, but it was no use. He had me checking windows and trolling EROS before I could even get a bowl of cereal.
Brahma logged on as “Maxwell” early, but when “Lilith” started into one of her long monologues, he cut the conversation short and logged off. Miles wandered in and did some coding at his laptop, then drifted back to the TV. After watching CNN for a while, I walked into the backyard to verify that the tomatoes in our garden were as scorched as they’d been last week. They were. Then I walked around front and stared up the highway long enough to make sure Deputy Billy was at his post. He was.
About ten-thirty, I logged back onto EROS as SYSOP. I didn’t expect much. Morning traffic is mostly Level One stuff, medical questions or lonely hearts looking for a shoulder to cry on. A quick cruise through Level Two also showed what I expected: soft-core exchanges involving roguish dukes and hard-won ladies (which I knew from long experience were frequently two women taking opposite sides of a romantic fantasy).
Then I clicked into Level Three. The lobbies were mostly empty. Out of curiosity, I peeked into some private rooms. Most of it was gay action-men in some rooms, women in others-plus a few dominance sessions. Then, in a gossip lobby I rarely visited, I found some people discussing the murder of Karin Wheat. They were obviously fans, and speculation about who had killed the author ranged from her jealous and grossly overweight ex-husband to a crazed fan who lost sight of the line between fact and fiction. Meaning to join the conversation, I logged in as “Erin.” Ten seconds later a window appeared in the center of my screen. In it was a prompt followed by single line of text, which EROS’s voice duly read:
PROMETHEUS› Would you like to join me in the Blue Room?
My skin went cold. I sat paralyzed for a moment. Then I looked at the window on the left of my screen, which listed the code names of everyone in the lobby. Sure enough, “Prometheus” was there. I had got so used to looking at “Maxwell” that this older alias of Brahma’s had slipped right by me.
Yanking off the headset, I sealed its mike shut with my thumb and shouted, “Miles! Get your ass in here!” Then I put the headset back on, said “yes” into the mike, and clicked into the Blue Room. Instantaneously, these words appeared:
MAXWELL› I’ve been waiting for you.
Even as I heard Miles’s feet pounding the floor, I answered into the mike and watched my words appear on- screen:
ERIN› I think we’re about to be interrupted by someone who calls himself Prometheus.
Miles was standing beside me by then. “Hit the space bar if you want to tell me something,” he whispered in my ear. “It mutes the mike.”
MAXWELL› I am Prometheus, Erin. I use many names. But Prometheus fits me in many ways.
ERIN› Why use Maxwell if you like Prometheus so much?
MAXWELL› “Maxwell” has its own significance.
I was tempted to ask him about the Beatles reference, but instead I pressed the space bar and said, “Miles, this guy-”
“Say something to him!” Miles snapped, popping me on the shoulder.
I fired an elbow into his leg and held down the space bar. “Listen, goddamn it! I just figured something out.”
“I logged on first as SYSOP, not Erin, and he didn’t see me spying on the lobby he was in. It was only when I switched to Erin that he noticed me.”
MAXWELL› Are you there, Erin?
“He wasn’t aware you were lurking as SYSOP?”
“Exactly.”
“That means he probably doesn’t have SYSOP access himself!”
“I know. Now get out of here. I need quiet.”
“Remember the Trojan Horse,” Miles said, walking backward. “Make him want you.” Then he stepped out of the office and closed the door behind him.
Brahma’s voice pulled my attention back to the screen.
MAXWELL› Erin?
ERIN› Sorry. The newspaper man came to my door.
MAXWELL› Ah. You follow current events?
ERIN› No, the obituaries.
This was true. Twice during our interlude in Chicago, Erin sat in bed reading the
MAXWELL› The obituaries?
ERIN› I’m eccentric.
MAXWELL› You are interested in the death of Karin Wheat?
ERIN› I barely even saw what they were talking about before you invited me here. It does seem interesting, though. Her death sounded so gory.
MAXWELL› I’m sure that was exaggerated. The press makes its money pandering the prurient and the morbid. I was hoping we could continue last night’s conversation.
ERIN› I’m tired of the mental sparring on this network. It’s all so juvenile.
MAXWELL› What do you want from EROS?
ERIN› I told you, I’m looking for someone.
MAXWELL› The man with the soul of a woman?
ERIN› That’s what I called it last night. It’s nothing that definite. It’s just a yearning I have.
MAXWELL› Do you mean you wish to find this person and then meet him in real life?
ERIN› Why not?
MAXWELL› Most are afraid to transmit real information about themselves over the net. It may be a wise precaution. The world is full of disturbed individuals.
