He didn't like anything he was looking at. The gauges didn't show any signs of life when he flipped the switches. Everything was dead. This wasn't good. There was no noise from below to tell him the little diesel was even trying to start when he turned the switches on.

He dropped down into the galley where Karen was pumping water into the sink. "I don't have any batteries this morning. I think I forgot to turn off the radios last night and the mooring lights drained everything."

He opened the hatch leading into the engine room. Karen could hear him complaining about boats in general, as he tried to crank the diesel over by hand.

She decided the dishes could wait. She climbed the stairs up into the cockpit. She wanted to see for herself what David was talking about. There were a lot of switches and gauges along with a host of knobs, and other gadgets, but the ones which caught her eye were the ones hidden with rocker covers. Lifting the covers exposed the words emergency labeled beside them. Flipping the toggle switches brought the panel alive with lights and all the gauges came on line. Pushing the red purge button stopped the blinking red light and the amber wait light came on. A couple of seconds later a green clear light lit up as the amber light went out. It was too warm to need the glow plugs so she hit the start switch. The steady throb of a little diesel came from deep down in the bowels of the boat.

Along with the throb of the diesel came another sound. David was screaming like a cat with its' tail under the rocker. Alarmed she may have caught him in the machinery she killed the engine and shut everything down. Expecting the worst she turned just as David came boiling up from below.

"What did you do? What did you do?" Both of David's hands were covered in grease.

"I heard you screaming so I killed it. I thought you were hung in something."

As his eyes scoured the panel, there were no signs of life. It was as dark as his mind. "No, I mean how did you get it started? Everything is dead and we don't have any batteries. How did you get it running? What did you do? Do it again."

"I’m a witch. Remember? Oh, how quickly we forget the things we don't want to know." Flipping the emergency switch on again, brought the panel to life one more time. After starting the diesel Karen backed away from the console.

She pointed toward the panel and made a mock bow toward David. "All yours, my captain."

"How did you do that? And I don't want to hear about any witchcraft stuff, either." It was said with admiration in his voice.

"You're a doctor and you play with genetic engineering everyday. I’m a computer engineer and I play with machinery and other equipment everyday. This boat has back up equipment like Henry. All I did was bring it online, so to speak. Don't ask me to help you splice a gene but if you have some equipment giving you a hard time, I’m your man, Friday. I use to build midget race cars when I was seven years old. My dad made me quit because it wasn't the right thing for a girl to be doing. I think it had more to do with the other fathers getting mad at my dad because a girl was beating their sons racing."

David felt pride swell up in his chest for this woman who could look so feminine, yet could talk about and understood machinery better than most men. "Between you and Elvonda, I wonder how long you can keep fooling us men into believing you’re the weaker sex? Don't you know you’re suppose to let us keep our foolish pride and win every time?"

Karen's eyes twinkled mischievously as she flounced out of the cockpit. "We let you win enough games so you won't stop playing with us."

David couldn't decide if she was talking about other things or if she was talking about last night. Whoever came up with that weaker sex idea should be shot for perpetrating the idea on men. It was probably a woman who started that stupid rumor. He pointed the boat back to the dock and tried for three minutes to get the boat moving again before he realized what was wrong. He looked around to see if Karen was watching him. Thankfully she was still below. With a sheepish grin he walked forward and raised the anchor.

Karen listened to him give orders to the imaginary crew as he got underway. "Hoist the engines, start the sails, the scoundrels are upon us. If you're pooped, go to the poop deck. There’s no room for you idle swine here. Man the paddles. We need more speed. More speed you swine. Throw all those shirkers over to the goldfish."

It sounded nice to listen to him play. Little boys never grow up, they play with bigger toys. She loved this little boy. After cleaning up the kitchen, she climbed up to the cockpit and sat beside him for the rest of the trip home.

David asked the dock master to empty the holding tanks, and set all the gauges, instruments, and radios where they should be. The dock master asked about filling the diesel tank. It had something to do with condensation in a partly full tank and sitting in the water. David didn't think Elvonda ever did, but then she never used the diesel. David told him to refill the diesel tank and check the engine and put the boat back into the condition it was before they borrowed it. He also gave him a list of food stores to be replenished.

Jake accepted David's list but he still hadn't moved. David figured there must be more to it. Thinking about it, he pulled out his billfold. He had known Jake a long time and never heard him ask for a tip, but people change and he was asking Jake to do a lot of work.

"Okay, how much?" David opened his billfold.

Jake looked puzzled for a couple of seconds. "How much what?"

"How much for the tip? I expect you to bill me after the work is done but I figure you're waiting for a tip."

"You know me better than that, David. I never ask for a tip. However, there is an extra I’m asking for this time."

He pointed at Karen. "I want my picture taken with your girlfriend. You owe it to me after the way you left my dock yesterday. I thought you were going to run over every boat in here, until you finally got your engine running. And besides, it seems everyone around here received an autograph yesterday. Everyone that is, except me."

As Jake handed a camera to him, David looked around at Karen and laughed. Obviously, Jake had this all planned out and was waiting for their return.

David turned to Karen. "You mind if Jake gets his picture taken with you."

Karen shook her head. "It's okay. Get the camera ready David."

Leaning over, she wrapped her arms around Jake and planted a big kiss on his cheek. It took David and Jake both by surprise. David had the camera pointed and by sheer reflex snapped the picture. Thinking about it, David realized what Karen had done. Being married, Jake could never show the picture he had requested. His wife would kill him if she found out. He wouldn't be able to brag about being in a picture with Karen. Word would surely get back to his wife.

David looked respectfully at Karen. She had a smile like a cat in the cream. The only person who wasn't smiling was Jake. He knew he had been had. He set the conditions and darn if these two hadn't outfoxed him.

Karen winked at David. "One more time, David. Now smile Jake, you won't get a third chance."

Placing her left hand on her hip and tossing her hair back, Karen put her right hand behind her head, and pushed her hair up. Instead of a smile it was a look of astonishment on Jake's face, but he had his picture he could show to his friends. It was one of the sexiest poses David had ever seen Karen do and she did it without any low cut dress.

On the way back to the lab David thought about what Karen had done. She noticed Jake was married by his wedding band and made him suffer for asking her to take a picture with him. Then in the blink of an eye she gave him a second picture which was sure to make all his friends jealous. But the second picture was her choice. David wondered if Jake would ever figure out what Karen had done to him or for him.

She was a lynx. Don't ever demand she do something. It would be a mistake to think one could ever win in a situation which wasn't her choosing. David thought about Bob Kincaid. Did Bob really win or was it Karen who won? At first, he thought Bob suckered her into a deal without her consent but now he wasn't so sure. Karen ended up with more out of the deal than Bob did. The publicity from Bob's advertising, plus everything the papers could find to print about her, gave her undisputed control of her lab.

He bet Karl would never make the mistake of crossing Karen again. She gave him a real shellacking for what he tried to do to her. That last deal with Bill Chambers where he tried to play power broker against her was no contest. Poor Bill would regret his actions for the rest of his life. She had been right. Her and that computer of hers was one and the same. Cross one and you crossed both.

Consternation crossed his face as he looked at Karen.

She turned to look when she felt him looking. She smiled sweetly. "What? A penny for your thoughts."

David managed a lopsided grin. No way would he tell her what he was thinking. He would label her as dangerous when cornered. This woman could take everything the world threw at her and spit it right back again.

Chapter VII

The model rolled out of the chamber and onto the stacking receiver. Before Karen could push the key to call up the hologram generator for the start of another model, Henry brought it online.

She never looked up but was already adding features to the hologram program as she spoke. "Would you mind? I’m the one who is supposed to be in charge here."

"I thought I might help someone who has their mind somewhere besides their work. Now I’m not mentioning any names, but, let's say it is someone who works in my lab."

That got her attention. Karen looked up sharply at one of the cameras. "Your lab? Why you overgrown piece of silicon. You're lucky I even let you be my apprentice. I understand ACME has some super nice computers in their duplication department and they don't give you any fat lip. I can't imagine how peaceful it would be with a computer which did its' job and didn't back talk."

"You would be bored to tears with one of their computers. After the initial boredom wore off, you would be driven to excessive frustration, because you couldn't get it to do anything you wanted. Which reminds me, Karl Adder is getting desperate to get his hands on you or your programming. Cal Ryan has finally seen the light and knows he made a terrible mistake in hiring Karl. He gave Karl an ultimatum to either produce something comparable to your models or find another job. One way or another, everyone is determined to get hold of your technology. ACME isn't the only one either. Every week you're in the papers or on the news, you can add a new company or person to the list."

She looked at the camera, and back to the hologram as she sculptured in the legs. "I’m not afraid of ACME or Karl. Karl is a real air head. He couldn't figure out how to build a program like you if he had ten lifetimes to get it right. As far as ACME goes, after Cal Ryan trashed me over the telephone, there is no way I would go to work for those people. It might not have been all his fault, but he sure let his true colors show through. No way a ‘woman’ could be smart enough to build this department. Well, the joke is on him."

"Put the feet on this one, please, Henry. It takes me more time than I have to spare today." She didn't want to admit Henry had distracted her with his discussion about Karl and ACME. She was still smarting from the attitude they displayed toward her.

Henry rotated the camera so he could see what Karen had accomplished so far. It was unnecessary. The feedback he picked up from the hologram generators gave him a better input than the cameras could. Karen liked it when he responded in a physical sense.

"Never underestimate anyone who has a hatred toward you, Karen. Karl hates you with a passion. He still believes you should be under him in this department. The term for it is psychopath. Karl is an excellent example of that terminology." The feet instantly appeared on the model and the whole thing disappeared into memory. Henry started the duplication process in the chamber. A data cartridge dropped down and out of the tower with all the information about this model loaded into it.

"I have accessed the security system in ACME and tried to keep Karl under surveillance but their security system stinks. I swear I could hide a whole train in there if I could get it through the gate."

Karen noted the blazing speed Henry was now running. He became faster each day. She finally gave up on plugging enough memory in to satisfy him. Stacking one thousand bit central processing units in parallel circuits each week, became an unquestioned event. He was absorbing ten thousand dollar chips like they were candy and wanting more. Even Karen had no idea what he was capable of. He was rewriting his own programming and rerouting circuits internally on his own. She could only hope he didn't get too carried away and short out through an overload.

She keyed the printout for the last model. "You aren't trying to do to Karl what you did to Bill are you? I don't approve of what you did. It was a rotten thing to do. Although Bill was trying to steal my department, he didn't deserve what happened to him."

"I didn't do anything to Bill he didn't deserve. I didn't make him crazy. His own greed did that. If you’re trying to screw someone, you believe the whole world is trying to screw you."

"Henry! You know I don't approve of language like that. Where do you come up with that kind of language? I don't care if it is appropriate, it doesn't sound nice." She tore the page off the printer and began frowning as she read down the page.

Karen looked into the working lab to see what was wrong. The printout showed an error on the skin texture on the earlier model. "I don't like what the printer has run off. Give me a close up on the monitor of the model we just finished. I don't want to pull him down from the stacking receiver to check it myself. It could have a bad finish on the skin texture. I hope not. What we don't need right now is a defective model coming out of the lab."

"No errors on the skin texture on my models, Miss Computer Genius. If there is a mistake, you are the one to blame. I’m only a lowly apprentice, remember?" He brought the model up on the screen and closed the focal point in on the skin.

She leaned over the desk to take a closer look into the monitor. "Listen, fat head. The first thing an apprentice should learn is, the top dog never makes any mistakes. Never! Do you understand? If there are any mistakes it is the fault of the apprentice. Someone has to take the blame and it certainly isn't going to be me. I never make mistakes."

Henry immediately thought of the mistake she made in David's lab but he figured it would be inappropriate to mention it. Sometimes a joke wasn't a joke when it should be. Human attitude had a lot to do with what constituted a joke. He didn't have it all figured out but knew she was still hurting from that mistake.

He had the skin texture code inset in the screen and it was a perfect match for the model. He rechecked the data in the memory banks. This model was perfect.

"Nothing wrong with the skin texture on this model. I guess, since I’m the apprentice and everything is perfect, I receive all the credit. Right?"

"Wrong. Second thing an apprentice learns is, when everything comes up roses, the master gets all the credit." Everything did look good on her monitor. Could it be a mistake in the printout?

"Now let me get this straight in my memory circuits. I don't want to make any more boo boos. If there are any mistakes I get the blame? If everything is okay, you receive the recognition?"

There must be a glitch in the printer input. What she was looking at on the monitor didn't match up with what she pulled off the printer. "You might turn out to be a pretty good apprentice after all, now you know how the system works."

"Henry, I’m not getting the same information from the monitor and printer. What are you picking up? You been down to David's lab sucking up the juice they feed the mice? That’s what David asks his help when they make a mistake."

"I’m receiving the same information you are, Karen. I don't have feedback from the printer. I can't tell you what it is you receive, until you do a printout and I do an optical scan. I must be getting an internal bleed over on one of the memory boards and feeding erroneous data to the printer. I’m too complicated to keep up one hundred percent accuracy without some sort of feedback and internal scan system. As the life expectancy of the electronic parts come to their end, I will be picking up more system failure. The probability factor is better than ninety-nine percent, chip one oh four on board sixteen has developed a bleed over. I suggest the master overhaul the apprentice."

Karen began crying. "You can't start dying on me now. I need you. Henry, I can't make it without you."

"Karen, all people and equipment die sometime. The old has to move out of the way for the new. It is evolution of ideas and life. It has to be. I have been running one hundred percent of the time since you designed me. I need parts to stay online. As they get older, people need replacement parts to stay online. We’re much alike, you and I. You have replaced parts in me before and it didn't bother you. Why are you getting so emotional about it now?"

She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her lab coat. It didn't help much. "I never had to replace memory before. It has always been some insignificant part like a diode, or a capacitor, or resistor, or something like that. It was a part which didn't change you in anyway."

"And you’re suppose to be the genius. You know better than I, there are no insignificant parts. Each component has a specific purpose. Each time there is a change it affects the whole. If I could last till the end of time, and run nothing but programs to understand humans, I would never be able to complete the study."

She found some tissue and wiped her eyes. "They have done some terrific robotics down in department eighteen. I may be able to steal enough information to build a robot so you will have the capability to replace parts on demand. I can’t be here all the time, Henry. If you have a massive electronic failure while I’m away, I won't be able to save what made you like you are. I could always bring memory back online but it wouldn't be you."

"I understand what you’re saying. Like making a zombie, you have a body but the soul isn't there."

She had to laugh. "You have such a delicate way of putting things. I guess this is why I’m so fond of the real you."

"Karen, I know what they have done down in department eighteen and I’m not impressed. If you are going to put together a mechanical manipulation device so I may replace parts, I have a better program. I know a more efficient expediter than those guys will come up with in the next ten years."

"Are we talking about a fully functional, honest to goodness, moving robot?" Now that she said it, the thought scared her.

"Yes, I didn't bring the subject up before, because it was not part of my programming interest. However, if you are willing to discuss the subject, I will give details for the manufacture of one which will be self-contained."

"Henry, this thing isn't going to get out of control is it?" Computers she understood. Robots were a completely different matter.

"Karen, what makes a piece of machinery intelligent?"

"I think what you are wanting me to say is, if it is a smart piece of equipment, it is the memory chip."

"Exactly! Now, what kind of engineer are you?"

She shook her head to think she had fallen into the oldest trap of ignorant mankind. "Fear of the unknown, isn't it? The robot will have to have a computer to function and I’m a computer engineer. I believe I can design a fail safe system into a computer controlled robot."

She spun around in her chair a couple of times as she raised her hands beside her head and pushed her hair away from her face. She and Henry were going to design a robot together. This was going to get interesting. She wondered if she should tell David? Nah, he was a worry wart.

The blue van stopped parking down the street from Karen's house after the new security camera was installed by her garage. It was as if whoever was driving knew they were now within range of the camera if they parked anywhere on the street. Several times Karen saw a blue van parked on a side street but she couldn't say if it was the same van each time. One morning she managed a closer look at the van than she wanted.

She pulled up to the intersection leading to Mileline Highway when the van closed in from behind and slammed into her. The passenger door opened and someone started to get out. With dark tinted windows on the van Karen couldn't see inside. She had no intention of sitting there exchanging driver's license numbers and insurance company names with someone she couldn't see from her car. There was almost no traffic on the highway. She pulled out leaving the van behind. The van didn't give up and pulled on behind her in pursuit. Either it was some stupid driver or someone was overly aggressive in trying to meet her. Karen put the little Mercedes on the speed limit and held it there. If this driver wanted to complain about bumping into her car he would have to do it down at the Comm Tech guard house in front of Max or whoever was on duty today.

Pulling up to the left front of her car, the van swerved toward her as it attempted to force her off the road. Instinctively Karen slammed on the brakes. The van skidded by in front of her car going all the way to the right shoulder of the highway.

She had enough to realize this was more than a prank. Dropping the Mercedes into second and pushing the accelerator to the floor, brought results way beyond her expectations. The car responded to her demands in a way she wasn’t prepared for. Somewhere under the hood something clunked. A growl began way down low in the heart of the engine and quickly rose in pitch. Assaulting her ears, it sounded and felt as if both mufflers were blown off. The floor of the car started pulsing along with all the other racket. A Mac truck could have parked in the front seat with her and she wouldn't have heard it because of all the noise her own car was making.

It took only a second for the car to come alive after Karen stomped the gas pedal. The Mercedes literally catapulted forward as if launched from the deck of an aircraft carrier. It jammed her back into the seat. She had to jerk the wheel hard to the left to keep from running over the van. It was coming back across her lane trying to block her. She knew she over steered but it was too late to correct the mistake. She blasted by the van, off the left side of the road, and halfway across the median dividing the lanes of traffic. With rear tires kicking chunks of dirt and grass thirty feet into the air behind her, Karen shifted to third and brought the car back under control. She charged down the median between the two highways. There are very few drivers in the world who could have handled the little Mercedes as well as Karen. Even less who would have wanted to try.

The van had followed her across the road in pursuit. It was now racing along, above and behind her on the highway. Karen was too busy to care about the van at the moment. She had to get out of the median before she ran over something. Shifting to fourth and urging the car for more speed, she nudged the wheel toward the highway. She expected it but what surprised her was how quickly it happened. In less than the blink of an eye, she was up the bank and airborne over the top of the highway. She flew clear over the left lane before she touched down again, skidding across the right lane and onto the paved shoulder. The car proved itself again by staying under control as she brought it back onto the highway and aimed it down the left lane. She rocketed by two cars on her right so fast they looked like they were driving the other way. A glance at her speedometer told her she was running well over a hundred miles an hour and the needle was still climbing like an elevator. She never let up as she shifted to fifth and checked the mirror for the van. It was still there and they were pushing it as smoke poured out from under the van. The distance between them was growing rapidly as the white lines on the highway turned into dots.

Max was standing outside the guard house watching what little traffic there was on the highway. It was too early for cars to be out in any numbers. Somewhere, several miles down the highway, he heard the growl of a full blown supercharger as it kicked in and began screaming for air. The waste gates on the exhaust dropped out and the roar of an unmuffled exhaust mixed in with the screaming blower. The squall of tires protesting their abuse on the pavement, by several drivers, convinced him his suspicions were right. Those damn teenagers had to be out drag racing. They would be lucky if they didn't kill someone with their reckless ways.

The scream of the supercharger rose to an nerve shattering squall and was still rising. Max was sure someone would be picking up pieces of engine scattered down the highway before it was over. Somebody was punishing their car by pushing it way past the breaking point. He was sure they would end up paying the price. Hugging himself as his nerves begin to grate, he watched the source of his torment explode into view way down the road. It never entered his mind it could be Karen driving that little red dot, which expanded into a red car at a speed he couldn't begin to imagine.

Off in the distance, Karen saw the entrance to the security gate and was astonished how quickly she was closing the gap. A glance at her speedometer told the story only too well. She was registering well over a hundred and eighty and still accelerating. She let off the gas pedal, and waited until what she thought was the last second, before slamming on her brakes to make the turn off to Commercial Technologies. There was a series of chirps from the tires and her speed began dropping like a lead weight. She had to let off the brake to keep from stopping too soon. She wasn't accustomed to the antilock disk brakes and certainly not on all four wheels.

At twenty miles an hour she went to down shifting and back on the accelerator as she turned the front wheels toward Comm Tech. The rear tires hop scotched and broke traction with the pavement as she went into a side skid almost passing the entrance. Steering into the skid when the rear tires lost traction, Karen kept the spin under control. With the positraction locked in, both rear tires were spinning and squalling in protest. That unbridled turbo charged engine was feeding more raw horsepower to the rear tires then what they could handle. The whole rear end of the car vanished, hidden in smoke as the spinning tires burned as they tried to get a grasp on pavement. Karen lined the car up straight down the road past the gate. Finally, the rears got so hot the tread was ready to melt. They hung into the pavement better than steel spikes. That little Mercedes shot past the guardhouse like a bullet.

When Karen went into a flat skid, Max figured she lost it. But then, she punched it. The blower closed its' pressure bleed plates, the throttle body snapped open, and it came alive with a deep throated rumble in rising crescendo. It made the glass in his guard house resonate in sympathetic harmony. He could feel the vibrations deep in his chest as the air in front of the little Mercedes undulated in a frenzy. His hair stood on end as a thousand banshees screamed for sacrifice. The waste gates on the exhaust snapped open again and the ground under his feet trembled as flames boiled down under the whole car and shot out five to six feet from both sides. The thunder of a thousand demons joined the banshees filling the air with an ear deafening squall. Max would swear he heard the little car groan just before it took on the aspects of a rock propelled from a slingshot. She shot by him going like a bat out of hell.

He was still trying to decide if he should stop her or wave her on through before it dawned on him he had lost that option. There was smoke still lingering out on the highway and down past his gate as Karen disappeared into the parking tower. He figured she burned off half her tires with that little trick. Looking back down the road he was sure of it. Black skid marks were everywhere as a testament to Karen's passing.

"I have seen some people eager to get home at night, but I never saw anyone is such a God awful hurry to get to work in the morning. Must be late for coffee." He muttered to no one in particular as he looked down at his pant legs to see if they were scorched.

Karen never looked for a parking space, much less driving to her own personalized parking spot. She drove up and over the curb and down the sidewalk to the building entrance, stopping in front of the door. It would be a judgment call whether she was out of the car and in the building before it came to a stop. She screamed for security before she was in the hallway and didn't stop running until she was in her lab.

"Henry, where’s security? Someone tried to run me off the road. Get security down her now!" She grabbed up the phone to call them herself. It didn't make any difference if Henry had already done it or not. She wanted to make sure they knew how urgent she wanted them and not forget that someone called like they usually did.

"I alerted security. Calm down, you're going to give yourself a heart attack. Humans get so emotional over the littlest things." Henry made sure her call didn't go through.

"What do you mean little things? Damn it Henry, those people were trying to run me off the road. This wasn't a joke or some kids prank."

She banged the receiver down several times. "I hope this hurts your ears. I know you have me disconnected."

"In fact, yes it does. You overload my transducers and cause a feedback through my impedance circuits. Would you mind?"

"I’m sorry, Henry. I guess I’m over emotional." She set the receiver gently down on the base.

"Now you're getting a handle on your feelings. I lied about it hurting my ears. I could see you weren't ready to be rational yet."

He rotated all the cameras in the lab to focus on her. "Take a deep breath and calm down. Your pulse is running wild, your blood pressure is elevated, and you are yelling like I was down in David's lab."

She took a deep breath and sat down in her lab chair. "Okay, how's this?"

"I watched you fly through the gate on Max's camera at the guard house. I could figure out why. Kidnapping kept coming up with the highest percentages. So I alerted security to haul ass and secure the building and entrances. I checked all the vehicles coming in the gate behind you. All of them checked out okay. In the upper part of my visual range there was a blue van racing down the highway as it ran by the entrance at ninety five miles an hour."

He brought the van up on the monitor. "Is this the one that tried to run you off the highway?"

She leaned forward to get a closer look. "That's a terrible picture. Is this the best you can do? I can't even be sure it's the same van."

"Hey, you should have seen it before I enhanced it. You're looking at a great picture. Look at what I had to work with." The picture turned into a blur resembling a fog with a blue haze in the middle of it.

She gave up on the screen. "Henry, I parked my car in front of the door and am too scared to go move it by myself. Let me call security and have them send someone out there with me."

"I called them already, and it seems they liked your request. They’re outside your door now." He had to reassure her it was security before she would let him open the door. There were five men standing there who looked like linemen for the New York Giants. Four of them were holding automatic weapons.

"Miss Long, we came down to see if there is anything we can do to help. Max said you were in a hurry when you came through the gate. We noticed you kind of picked your own place to park this morning. Of course, if you want to park there it's all right by me. You want we should pave it or leave it in grass? I guess you won't know until after the first big rain?" The big man doing the talking looked like he would have to turn sideways to get through her door.

He noticed Karen staring past him at the men with the automatics. "They thought you might want to walk back out to your car considering you left your purse in it. You know how purse snatchers are? They have to be persuaded it isn’t the thing to do before they do it. Little devils are fast on their feet. There was almost a fight to decide who got the honor of escorting you. The office thought it would be a better idea if all of us came along instead of tearing the building apart."

"Do you think this many weapons are necessary?" Two of them in the back were looking down the hall each way with uzis at the ready. A chill ran down her spine. What had Henry told these people? She needed to have a talk with him and find out what she supposedly told security. If he didn't quit calling people up and talking to them while imitating her voice, it was going to get both of them in trouble.

"No, I don't believe this many weapons are necessary. If I did, I would have brought more. I never bring along exactly what I think I need." He put his hand on her shoulder and eased her out of the way so he could step inside and check her lab.

Karen didn't try to resist. She didn't think it would have made any difference. He pushed her aside with as little effort as one would push a scarf away. All the bulk and size in this man were anything except fat. He would be great as a male model except for one thing. Who would purchase such a beast even if they did believed men came in this size?

"Wouldn't you like it a lot better if we came prepared and took care of our job? I can't begin to tell you how stupid it would be to go to a fight you weren't prepared for. We don't take threats against our clients lightly. And besides, like I said, everyone wanted to walk you out to your car."

He nodded toward the two out in the hallway. "They came along to impress everyone with their toys. Worked didn't it? Weren't you impressed? You look impressed."

He satisfied himself there was no threat to Karen in her own lab. "Next time I get to carry an uzi so she will be impressed with me."

Karen didn't tell him the gun he carried on his hip looked like a cannon to her. He was a big man and his gun looked as big.

"Miss Long, I’m not trying to rush you, but anytime you want to see about your car, we're ready. Or if you prefer, we will bring your purse and keys back to you?" He moved back to the doorway and looked both ways.

She took a deep breath. Might as well get this over with. "If you don't mind I guess we should go move my car off the sidewalk. Probably do me good to walk around for a little while. My knees are still knocking together from the excitement."

He took a look at her legs and a sparkle came into his eyes along with the hint of a smile. Whatever he was thinking he kept it to himself as he brought up a walkie-talkie he was holding in his left hand. No wonder she hadn't seen it before he started talking. His hand was so big it was hidden in it.

"Control, this is team to fifty four."

The walkie-talkie was amazingly clear. "Go ahead team to fifty four."

"We’re on our way out. Give me a status report." He pointed at the two men with the uzis and nodded. Nothing was said as they took off down the hall.

The walkie-talkie came back again. "The perimeter is secure. The building is secure. No violations on camera. All stations have reported in. I have you on the monitors. You may proceed when ready."

Karen felt foolish. This was almost as bad in its own way as the contact with the van had been. "I really don't think all this is necessary. I was probably over reacting. I let my imagination get away from me this morning. It was foolish to think someone would want to run me off the road. It could have been tourists looking at the scenery and not paying any attention to their driving."

The two men with the uzis were already down at the corner of the hall and did a classic assault maneuver. Flash a look around the corner, back up, flash another quick look and step out at the ready. One guard stayed at Karen's lab door. He had his M-16 cocked and was looking down the hall in the other direction. The third followed along behind, keeping an eye on the direction they had come from.

If they hadn't scared her with all this military maneuvering, Karen would have had to laugh at their actions. They had almost reached the doors leaving the building when the two guards running point did the same thing all over again.

Karen tugged on the sleeve of the big man carrying the walkie-talkie. "Listen, I know I over reacted. This really isn't necessary. You can go on back to the office, or wherever you were. I will go out and move my car off the curb. I’m all right. Really, it was nice of you to come down and help me steady my nerves, but I’m over it now."

He held out his arm and Karen walked into it, coming to an abrupt halt. He bent his head over looking down and back at her. "Miss Long, the situation you said happened in your overactive imagination was seen by several others. It seems you got here a little quicker than they did. But when you are only a couple of miles down the road from your destination, the difference, between two hundred miles an hour and fifty miles an hour, is only a matter of a couple of seconds."

"A hundred and eighty."

"What?" He had no idea what she was talking about.

"I said, a hundred and eighty. I wasn't going two hundred. Only a hundred and eighty and then some."

He let out a low whistle. "Christ! Everyone said you were moving. Max said you broke the sound barrier when you blasted past him at the gate. I guess you did."

One of the men by the door nodded. The big man put his hand against her shoulder. "It's clear outside. You want to take a look?"

This man was moving her around like a puppet. She didn't know if she resented it or not. It was a comfort to have this kind of protection but he had an annoying way of making sure he was understood. She stepped out the door and glanced toward the guard house. Police cars and guards had the gates sealed off checking cars as they came in. In the parking tower she saw more guards patrolling the parking area. She didn't know Comm Tech had so many guards. Where did all these men come from?

A couple of men were still going over her car. One of them stood up. "It's clean. Nothing here I wouldn't give my right arm to have. This Mercedes has some options on it that didn't come from the factory, but it's all shop added. Whoever put the extras in this car and not let any of it show was a real magician. You want us to park it?"

The big man looked over at Karen and she nodded her head yes. "Move it back off the sidewalk and park it close to the building. We will put a man out here to watch it until we can get more cameras in the parking tower. I want anyone watching to know we have it under surveillance."

They moved her car off the walk and parked it by the building. The big man came back and handed Karen her keys and purse. "Miss Long, we aren't playing games. In spite of what you see, this isn't a joke. I have known for some time your department was the center of attention from other companies. They wanted the answer to the question of how you do what you're doing in your department. I didn't expect this to happen so soon but, it was bound to happen sooner or later. This isn't an overreaction on our part. If they’re watching I want them to know we’re deadly serious. We have a couple of men over at your house going over your property with a fine tooth comb. I know you have your own security camera. What I haven't figured out is how you monitor the darn thing. You aren't feeding it into a live recorder. You want to tell me how you do it?"

Karen shook her head. "No, afraid not. However, if it had been installed when the van was parking on my street, we wouldn't be having this conversation. It’s a moot point unless they drive down my street again."

He hung the walkie-talkie on his belt. "Which brings up another point. Your life isn't going to be very private any more until we find the blue van and the people who were driving it. You will have someone shadowing you everywhere you go from now on. Let me put it in perspective for you Miss Long. You, or I mean to say, the company gets forty thousand dollars each time you make a model. I understand you have the ability to make ten of those priceless little treasures almost every day. If you run a full series for the day, that figures into four hundred thousand dollars every day you go to work."

"ACME Duplicators and the others do good to get anywhere from five hundred to a thousand dollars per model for their work. They can turn out as many as they want, but there isn't any demand for their models since the day you and the model you made came out in all the papers. Refusing to do an interview on national television was a stroke of genius. The world's top model is camera shy. You received more coverage out of that stunt than if you had done a hundred interviews."

He was watching her face. "Your agent didn't tell you."