Mike watched in amusement as Karl pulled the gun out thinking he was using it only to scare Karen. Then the shots rang out. "CHRIST, KARL. You didn't have to kill her. She couldn't hurt us."

"Listen stupid. If she pointed her finger at us, those goons Comm Tech has working as her bodyguards would as soon kill us as talk to us. This way nobody knows besides us. She sure ain't going to be doing any singing..., Now."

"Get in the van. We have to figure out how to get those programs she doesn't have any use for. Now." He was laughing as he said it. It struck him as funny Karen would ever need any more programs. "Whose turn is it to buy the beer? I sure worked up a hell of a thirst."

She felt like she was lying in water. It was wet all over and there wasn't any place on her body not screaming with pain. She tried to get up but couldn't. She couldn't get her arms around in front of her.

That damn Karl shot her. Maybe he had missed? At least she wasn't dead yet. God, the pain! If it would only go away and let her think.

Karen opened her eyes and tried to focus. It didn't do much good. Her left eye was covered with something sticky and she couldn't wipe it away. Her right eye wasn't seeing anything. She moved her head a little. The pain searing through her mind told her not to do it again.

She tried to get up again but couldn't. Her mind screamed with pain as she moved. She remembered her arms were tied behind her. They must have left her that way. Wherever her body touched the grass it was wet. It had to be dew or it had showered. Blinking her right eye enough times finally helped and she could see what was so wet. She wished she hadn't looked. It was her own blood she was lying in.

If she didn't get some help quickly she would bleed to death. She tried to get up one more time. Blackness washed over her mind. Her body settled quietly back into the pool of blood and became very still.

He was trying to think of an excuse to tell his wife why he was getting home so late. It was eleven o'clock and he really hadn't planned on staying this long. The pool game had lasted longer than usual. He knew he should have called his wife after he got off work to tell her where he was going. He didn't think he would be this late. Katy was a good wife. She usually didn't say too much when he stayed out like this occasionally. He didn't make a habit of it. Maybe she wouldn't say anything tonight.

Turning off the highway Jim had traveled only a few hundred yards down the dirt road toward home when he saw a dead dog lying in the grader ditch. It's a shame how some people will bring animals out of town and leave them to be run over alongside the road. His headlights swept past it and he wondered if he was imagining things? Slowly backing up he turned the car so the headlights shown directly at it. He swallowed his chewing gum!

Karen felt someone trying to lift her. Karl and the others had come back. "Please don't hurt me anymore. I’ll get you what you want. Please don't hurt me anymore."

Jim didn't know what to do. She was covered with blood and the grass was dark with the stuff. He didn't know there was so much blood in a body. If he left her here and went home to call the police she would be dead by the time they got there. She wasn't going to last much longer if he didn't do something quickly.

"Please miss, I’m not going to hurt you. I have to get you to the hospital. I can't do it without moving you to the car. Do you understand me."

Karen no longer understood. She only knew pain. "Please don't hurt me anymore. I will get you what you want. Please...,"

Not knowing if she was dead or alive, the only thing Jim could think of was getting her to a hospital as quickly as possible. When he couldn't get her arms up so he could carry her to the car he rolled her gently over on her side. He pulled the tape off her wrists. Picking her up Jim carried her to the car, held her in his arms, and balanced her with his knee as he fumbled with the door handle. Easing her into the seat and putting her legs in, he gently pushed the door shut trying to not hurt her anymore than she already was.

The driver was leaning on the horn as the car skidded up to the emergency entrance with the brakes locked and the tires bawling. Coming around to the glass doors the nurse watched as a man leaped out of the driver's side and ran around to the passenger side.

Jim was yelling and waving at the same time. He was trying attract attention as he opened the car door. "I NEED HELP. I HAVE SOMEONE WHO IS HURT REAL BAD. GET SOME HELP OUT HERE. I NEED HELP."

The nurse was there as he opened the passenger door. What she saw was a bloody mess. Running back to the nurse’s station she hit the red button for trauma alert. She keyed the pager. "I want a gurney down here now. Stat. We have a code red. All emergency personnel. Code red."

Needles, waste, gauze, tape, empty bags were going into the hopper in a steady stream as they worked feverishly to keep her alive. Intravenous tubes in both arms and a dozen bags hung up feeding her fluids as they fought the odds. Dr. Michael hoped they could get her stabilized enough to get her in surgery. She was too far gone to think about putting her through surgery unless they managed to pull her back out of that hole of death she was standing in.

He had no hope she would make it. She was more dead than alive. Her blood pressure was nonexistent a few seconds ago. Her heartbeat was irregular and skipping so often he kept wanting to reach for the electric paddles. She kept defying him. Every time he put his stethoscope on her chest to make sure she had died her heart would beat again. All he could count on was closing the wounds and stopping that infernal bleeding.

They brought the x-rays in and it showed a bullet in the chest millimeters from the heart. One in the neck nicked an artery. That one would have to be taken care of before she would stop leaking out everything they were putting into her. His own heart about stopped when they showed him the third x-ray. It showed massive hemorrhaging in the brain where she was carrying a third bullet. If this woman was going to live she needed a miracle not a doctor. God could throw in another dozen miracles if He wanted her to be more than a vegetable the rest of her life.

He was doing everything he could. He was only a doctor, not a miracle worker. He gave her no chance, not even a slim one. "Do we have an ID on her? Has the family been notified yet?"

He closed off the neck wound and loss of blood was at a minimum. "I need two more surgeons ready in the operating room if we can get her stable. Put another liter of plasma in her."

One of the nurses hung up another bag of Ringers lactate and checked Karen's pulse. "She didn't have any identification on her when she was brought in. I don't think you need an ID to know who she is though. She’s the model who has been in the papers every week. You know the one? Doctor Karen Long."

Doctor Michael very carefully probed for the bullet in her chest. There it was exactly where the X-ray showed it to be. "I haven't seen her before."

One of the nurses handed him a pair of forceps. "If you would read something besides the Wall Street Journal, you would have. She has been in the papers almost everyday. Sometimes they do two or three page articles on her. She made nationwide news by refusing an interview on national TV. More people probably recognize her than the president."

Doctor Michael was impressed the nurse could recognize anyone who had been beaten to a bloody mess like this. It was a brutal world without trying to do this to another human being on purpose.

"Whoever she is have staff call somebody and tell them we have her. Let them know she isn't going to make it. Have the police been notified yet? Those bullet wounds weren't self inflicted and I don't need a smear to tell me someone raped her. Somebody did one hell of a job on her."

He stood up and stretched his neck. "Get her down to surgery three. I want those other surgeons there now. If she’s going to die, by God she is going to die with us trying to save her. She has got to have the Big Guy on her side to have lasted this long."

David would walk the floor in Karen's lab and getting frustrated he would walk down to this lab. Afraid Henry might find out something and he wouldn't be there he would return to Karen's lab to pace the floor again.

The almost inaudible whir of the servo motors would whine as the cameras followed David across the lab and back again. He looked around at the cameras and all four of them were focused in on him. "Would you quit. I’m nervous enough as it is. Are you sure your mind is on finding Karen? How can you watch me and search for Karen, too?"

"I assure you David, I’m quite capable of multiple functions. Karen is the utmost priority in my program. I have constant input from the police, fire department, security, and all the hospitals in the area. I’m monitoring the calls security is doing on their radios, all the police bands, and am systematically redialing every clinic in the area. I’m checking all the passengers at the airport and to a limited extent the bus station. The bus station has a poor computer and doesn't register half the names put in it. If she turns up anywhere you will know as soon as anyone."

"She has been found." Henry became quiet and for the first time the cameras stopped following David.

"Where is she? Is she all right? What are you doing? Talk to me Henry. Let me know what is happening. Tell me something."

"David, she is hurt. They don't expect her to live. Someone shot her and left her beside the highway. She is at Mercy Hospital Trauma Center. Take...,"

Henry didn't complete the sentence. David flew out the door when Henry told him where he could find Karen.

Henry called gate four on the red phone. At least it wasn't Mac's shift. Henry didn't mind Mac but he seemed a little slow. "Gate four this is the office. Doctor Beckworth has been notified Miss Long is seriously injured and at Mercy Hospital. He is driving a black BMW and will be coming toward your gate any second now. You are to run one escort ahead of him and one behind. Don't hold him up by moving too slow or we will have a discussion in the office when you get back. Do I make myself clear? Security code, alpha two one six alpha."

As far as the guards were concerned the message was extremely clear. It was Randy's personal authorization code. One guard ran for his car as he yelled at the other. "I'll take the lead. You close up the rear when he comes through. Get that damn gate open."

David knew the guards would stop him as he sped toward the gate. He could only hope they didn't take too long. Cars by the gate were moving and they had their emergency lights flashing. One pulled in front of him and the other dropped in behind forcing David to keep moving. The car behind was right on his bumper. As the lead car sped off down the highway and the other looked like it was about to park in his rear seat David got the idea. He dropped the hammer and raced behind the flashing lights ahead. He had a good car but it wasn't reworked like the pursuit cars or Karen's Mercedes. He never caught up with the lead car until they pulled into the hospital emergency entrance.

Guards and David entered the emergency entrance at the same instant. "Where’s Karen?"

Getting no answer he tried again. "Where is Karen Long? She was shot. You have her in here somewhere."

The nurse didn't like this at all. Here was a man demanding to know where Miss Long was. Those two men with him looked like walking arsenals. Rifles in their hands, guns on their hips, and a big, big knife on the other hip, they certainly didn't look like cops. The badges on their chest and patches on their shoulders weren't anything she recognized.

"The police will be here in a minute." The police had been notified and she was hoping they got there sooner than that.

David felt like grabbing her and shaking her eye teeth out. "Lady, I don't give a fuck about the police. I want to know where Karen Long is. I’m her personal physician. If you don't give with the information right here and now I’ll take this hospital apart until I find her."

The two guards heard David say he was Karen's personal physician. That and the phone call at the gate giving Randy's own authorization code, was more than they needed to get serious. They slung their rifles on their shoulders. They separated across the hall from one another. They were ready to kick in some doors.

David had no idea all he had to do was nod his head and the two guards would have taken the hospital apart piece by piece until they found Karen. He was still trying to get the nurse to give the information he wanted. "Well?"

All the movement hadn't been lost on the nurse. It scared her so bad she almost peed in her pants. These people were fanatics or mad bombers. She had no intention of trying to stop them from finding Karen Long. The police and hospital security could take care of the situation, if and when they got there.

"Miss Long is in operating room three down the hall. First door on your right after you go around the corner at the end of the hall. But you can't go in there. They are operating on her now." The look David gave her made her wish she hadn't added that last bit. Old habits die hard.

"Where’s the scrub room? Forget it. Show me. You can help me prep." David had her by the arm and was already propelling her down the hall with the two guards close behind.

The police finally did make it five minutes after David. As they pulled up to the emergency entrance, Randy Shells and three of his men pulled in behind them. When Randy and his men got out of the car it rose up four inches.

Randy looked at the officer getting out of the patrol car ahead of them. "If it isn't the cities finest. I guess we can all sleep sound tonight knowing our streets are safe."

Dan Popolopolus looked around to see who was making fun of them. "Mr. Shells, you still terrorizing the neighbors, scaring the hell out of widows and orphans, and taking candy from babies? I hope you are about to tell me you're here because someone shot you and they don't think you will live."

Randy thought it was a bad joke considering the information they had about Karen. "No Dan, I suspect I’m down here for the same reasons as you. Miss Long belongs to us. We came down to see what the story was. What have you heard?"

Dan shook his head. "I doubt we have any more than what you have. How did it happen? I never knew of you losing a client before. You certainly never left any behind when we played jungle tag in Nam."

Randy glanced at the men who had come with him and nodded toward the hospital. He didn't have to say it verbally. They had been with him long enough to know they were suppose to check for information while he talked with this officer.

Dan watched them as they entered the hospital. They didn't go straight in. One walked across the front of the entrance as the other two covered him. Not with their weapons but with their actions. One went in while the second covered him and the third checked rear guard. They did it so smoothly and quickly a person would have to know what to look for to notice they had done anything differently. No doubt these were Randy's men. He had trained them well. Always expect the unexpected.

"Dan, you better find whoever is responsible if the story is true. They shot out a security camera and kidnapped her while someone was scratching their butt wondering if it was a malfunction or not."

He looked at Dan with the look Dan had known only too well years back. Somebody was going to get hurt before this was over. "I’m serious. If they worked her over like I heard..., well, you better find them before I get my hands on them."

Dan knew it would be a waste of time to explain the law to Randy. Randy was one of those people who made his own law as he went and usually had enough pull in the government to make it stick. However he understood Randy's meaning when he said whoever got their hands on the men first had priority rights. At least they would get a trial if the police found them first.

One of Randy's men returned and whispered something in his ear. Randy’s eyes narrowed to slits. "Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Damn the whole damn world.”

The muscles rippled in knots across Randy’s jaws giving away his true feelings of unlitigated hate toward the whole situation. Finally he looked away and then back at the man in front of him. There was work to be done. "Find out what type of blood she has and find people who match. Check the credentials of the doctors who are working on her. Dr. Sojorn and Dr. Brauns are on their way. Make sure a chopper meets them at the airport and brings them over. If they don't have a chopper pad here clear an area out in the parking lot for it to land."

Randy glanced at his watch. "They will be here in thirteen minutes and seventeen minutes respectively. They will be flying in here in military jets. Make sure they don't have to circle the airport waiting for landing clearance."

"See what they have for equipment in that damn hospital. If something is needed make sure it gets here. Now, what about Dr. Beckworth? You say he is in the operating room also?"

The guard was talking into his radio at the same time he was talking to Randy. "Dr. Beckworth is watching from the operating room. Bill said they were told to escort him down here. Someone used your personal authorization code."

Randy clinched his fists. "She can't die. She just can't die. They’re good. We have to know how they did it. She can't die because some asshole shot her. She’s too important to us to die. Please God, we need her."

The guard couldn't make any sense out of what Randy was talking about. He had missed something.

Randy looked up into the night sky. "Someone is going to pay for screwing up. Were any of our men in the security office at the time she was taken? I want to know where every single person was at the exact moment she was kidnapped. Check all the tapes recorded this evening. Make certain they don't get erased. Run a computer analysis on every single frame. I want a list of names. I want the names of everyone who even got close to her end of the building. DAMN IT! I WANT SOMEBODY’S ASS!"

"God, please don't let her die." He turned around and kicked in the side of his car door as he walked past it. He kept on walking up the road.

Watching him walk up the street, Dan's heart began settling back down into a little more normal beat. He had seen Randy really angry once before and a lot of people died. This anger had been worse. Dan had been discreetly looking for any kind of cover before Randy turned and walked off.

"Where's he going?" Dan's partner was watching Randy disappear down the street.

Dan put his arms across the top of the squad car and bowed his head. It was then he noticed he was covered with perspiration. "He’s going back to Commercial Technologies and study the video tapes in the security cameras."

"You want me to arrest him for destruction of property?"

Dan's head snapped up as he looked at his partner. "WHAT?"

Dan was glad to still be alive and his partner was wanting to arrest the Grim Reaper. Didn't this kid feel the kiss of death he had been reprieved from?

"I said, do you think I should arrest him for destruction of property? He demolished that car door."

Dan closed his eyes. How dumb can one person be? God must look out for fools and rookies. "Pete, how old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

"You want to live to be twenty-two you better use something besides the text book for brains out here. Randy is pissed and itching to take his anger out on anything which gets close to him. You’ll get both of us killed if you try to arrest him right now. Your mama would miss you, the police department would give you a posthumous citation, and that would be the end of it. Randy eats people like you for breakfast every morning. He’s your worst nightmare or your best friend and it’s a damn thin line between the two. Don't cross that line or you won't live to regret it."

Pete thought about it for a second and decided he needed to make amends. "He’ll walk through some pretty tough neighborhoods. Shouldn't we follow along behind to make sure he doesn't get hurt?"

Dan dropped his head and shook it as he walked toward the entrance. Don't they ever listen. "I said he was pissed. If any of our friendly neighborhood gangs are out tonight and they run into Randy you may read about them in the obituaries in tomorrow's papers. If he thought we were spoiling any of his fun you would be able to read our obituaries in tomorrow's papers."

Pete looked after the disappearing Randy. "Dan, it's over ten miles back across town to Commercial Technologies."

Dan glanced back over his shoulder. "I know. You wouldn't want to be there if he drove it and hadn't walked off some of his frustrations. You probably wouldn't want to be there anyway. Not if you worked for him and let Miss Long get hurt. That place is going to turn into a living hell. Before it’s over, everyone will wish it was them who were shot instead of Miss Long. Could be, some of them will be."

Dan didn't tell Pete someone would really end up dead before this was over. Even during the bad times in Vietnam he had never seen Randy this upset. Randy was certain to have his pound of flesh over this deal.

"Let's find the driver who brought her in and see what he knows. Randy gave us that much of a head start. Let's not blow it by sitting on our thumbs."

Commercial Technologies sent several computer engineers down to Karen's lab to bring it back into operation. They couldn't afford to let it set while she either died or got better. The board of directors didn't care either way as long as they got her lab up and running. No matter how hard the engineers tried they never produced anything decent. The models were better than what the competition was turning out but it wasn't what the customers had come to expect from Karen's lab. Henry watched and accepted their input programming all right but what they got back was exactly what they put in. Not much. Normal basic computer programming. Load program, list menu, initial program, run program. It was all simple computer commands everyone uses to get a program running.

Henry waited patiently as they ran through one programming error after another. These models looked exactly like what they were. Plastic mannequins and nothing else. They would have been excellent four hundred dollar mannequins but not forty thousand dollar models. The returns on the models rose to one hundred percent.

The board of directors was furious. The chairman suggested they take Karen's computer apart and start all over again. The only problem was, they didn't know how she got it to perform so well when the other engineers couldn't. Asking Karen what she was doing different didn't get them anywhere. All she would tell them was they must not be running the program correctly. If they took the computer apart could they get it back together again? The decision was finally made. Take it apart and see if they could find the problem.

David got wind of their decision and made an appeal to the board to leave Karen's lab alone until she was able to return to work. It didn't do any good. Money was the bottom line and they knew they were losing plenty of it everyday they weren't manufacturing models. The computer had to be fixed.

David sat at the end of a long table with the directors and chairman at the other end. He knew it was set up this way so they could intimidate anyone who came to these meetings to question their authority. They could take their intimidation and their authority and stick it where the sun didn't shine.

David stood up as he talked. "You take Karen's computer apart and she will go to work somewhere else."

The chairman of the board didn't care. If they got Karen's computer back into operation they didn't need her. "She wouldn't leave Commercial Technologies. Not after all we have done for her. Besides she has a contract. She either works for us or not at all."

David was astounded. "What have you done for her? You almost let her get killed. You discard her when she needs you and can't work. You want to take apart her life's work to satisfy your own greed. To you she is only a money cow. She’s great as long as she is slaving down in her lab to make your damn greedy souls money. The minute she stops producing you want to send her to the slaughter house and replace her."

"She will leave if you take her computer apart and so will I. You want to know the funny part? You will never build another computer like the one in her lab. No matter how hard you try you can't do it. You can duplicate it piece by piece but you will never get it to perform like she does."

The chairman cleared his throat. "I’ll be sorry to see you go David. But business is business. The truth of the matter is you aren't making us any money and neither is she right now."

David loved little minds. They seemed to gather in groups like this. "You can fire me but you can't fire Karen. She never signed a new contract with Bill Chambers. She could go to work for any company in the world right now. There isn't one damn thing you could do to stop her from setting up another lab and making the models only she knows how to make."

As bad as he wanted to tell this bunch of hypocrites he and Karen were through, he couldn't. He remembered her telling him she couldn't move Henry. If anyone took him apart it would kill her. "If it’s performance you want, give me a chance to talk..., Give me a chance to run Karen's computer."

The chairman looked around at the board and there was no comment. They weren't going to commit themselves one way or another. "You aren't a computer engineer David. What makes you think you can get Karen's computer to perform for you? We already had experts working with it. They tell us it must have memory loss or system failure somewhere. No, I think we will let the experts tear it apart and fix it. They’ll be able to get it running again no matter what the problem is."

"You are making the mistake of your lives. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain by following that path of reasoning. Trust me, you don't want to do this. Give me the rest of the day and tonight to prove I’m right. I’ll turn out the models your customers want. If I don't, you still haven't lost anything but some of my time and Hen..., the use of the computer."

The chairman nodded his head. "All right. You have until tomorrow morning to produce something acceptable. However, I promise you the engineers will be down there first thing in the morning taking that thing apart and locating the problem. They assured me they could get it back into operation if we let them fix it."

David walked out muttering to himself. "You can't fix it if it ain't broke. Idiots!"

The chairman wasn't amused. David showed no respect to the board of directors. Didn't he know who his employers were?

David flipped the light switch on in Karen's lab. Nothing happened. A few glowing red lights on the monitor by Karen's desk was all there was. There was nothing else in the pitch black room. Feeling his way across the room, he sat down in Karen's chair and fumbled for the keyboard. Groping for the switches on the console he flicked them on but still received nothing for his efforts. He slid the keyboard back onto the desk.

"You're only hurting Karen you know."

The monitor blipped on with a question on the screen. HURT KAREN?

"Yes, hurt Karen. They plan on taking you apart in the morning to see what makes you tick. What do you think that will do to her after what she has been through? She is barely hanging onto her sanity now Henry. I think it would kill her to find out they took you apart."

David didn't receive an answer so he tried the switches again. There still was no response.

"Don't do this Henry. Karen is the kindest, gentlest person I have ever known. She never asked for anything and was always willing to give a part of herself and her time if we needed anything. The new Karen is still the same old Karen. Her heart never changed. She has always been there for us. Now she needs us to help her for a change. You can't hurt me Henry but you may kill Karen."

David sat there in the dark for what seemed like an eternity before he received his answer. The lights in the lab snapped on and David could hear the thump of electrical contactors and relays coming on line in sequence, one right after another. The console lit up and the lights in the work lab came on. Through the souls of his shoes he could feel the throb of pumps as they built up pressure. Somewhere in the distance a vacuum pump came alive and began it's little sucking sound like a shoe being pulled out of the mud, over and over again.

The lasers in the working lab snapped to attention and pointed toward a targeting grid. Even with the glass separating him from the lasers and the air pressure in the work lab steadily dropping he could hear the air sizzle as they burnt their target.

Both holograms came alive and he had two fuzzy figures on each side of his desk. David pulled out the keypad and tried his hand at entering a program.

LOCKOUT appeared on the monitor.

David tried again as he hit break and enter.

LOCKOUT blinked on the screen.

David was getting frustrated. "Henry, what do I have to do to get access?"

It was on the monitor. RELAX AND LET ME DRIVE DAVID

David pushed the keyboard back on the desk. "You got it big boy."

The holograms instantly changed into replicas of the models Karen would make. The gel flowed into the chamber and through the nozzle on the turntable at the same time. The work lab became an aurora of special colors and brilliant lights as the lasers solidified the gel.

So this was Karen's world. David was impressed.

"David, David wake up, you have company." Henry was trying to prod him awake.

David raised his head off his arms he had folded on the desk in front of him. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he glanced around the lab. The lights were on but everything else was shut down. Through the glass partition he could see a full set of models on the stacking receivers. Someone was working the security lock on the door and Henry finally let them think they figured it out.

A technician had his shoulder against the door giving it the old college try when Henry opened the door. Halfway across the room the technician finally caught his balance again after bursting through a door which was no longer resisting his efforts. He tried his best at retrieving some of his composure. "We're here to take this lab apart fellow. I suggest you find someplace else to do your napping."

David counted seven men who were out in the hall or in the lab. He touched the security button under Karen's desk. Could he handle seven men if security didn't show up? He would let them know they had been in a fight either way.

"You aren't taking anything apart, FELLOW. I have an agreement with the board. If I could get her computer to run for me they would leave it alone."

David nodded toward the stacking receivers. "My end of the bargain is done. Now, I promise you they will live up to their end of the agreement. You touch anything in here and I will break your neck."

The technician wasn't to be deterred. "I saw those pieces of trash you engineers have been rolling out of this dump. That’s the reason we’re here. Now get your ass out of our road or get it run over."

Security came through the door pulling technicians out of the way. The big man who looked like he had to turn sideways to get through the door was looking at David. "We got a buzz from Miss Long's lab. You the one who did it?"

Pointing to the technicians Randy pulled out of the way to get in the door, David nodded. "You got that right. These men thought they would take Karen's computer apart. I thought I might need some help to keep it from happening. I counted two men too many for me to handle. I figured I could handle five of them all right."

Randy grinned at the idea of David whipping five men by himself. This boyfriend of Karen's was obviously determined he wouldn't let anything happen to her equipment. "I tell you what Doc. I’ll take care of a couple of them myself and you can have the rest. You sure you don't want more than five? You never can tell about these things. It's kind of like eating potato chips. Once you get started it's hard to quit."

The technicians began grouping in a huddle. These people were crazy. David had to turn his back to them while he got a serious look on his face. He almost burst out laughing after Randy's last remark.

Randy reached over and wrapped up a fist full of lab coat and shirt in one of his huge paws. Pulling the technician up to where he was eyeball to eyeball with him, Randy held him dangling in the air. "Gentlemen, you have two ways of leaving. You either walk under your own power or we drag you back down to security."

Except for the one Randy was hanging onto the room emptied in a wild stampede as technicians scurried for safety. Randy dropped the man he was holding and the technician went to the floor backwards on his hands and butt. It looked as if the technician was on a trampoline as he bounced back up and out the door almost before he ever touched the floor.

Shipping had come in to pick up the models from the receivers. One of them hit the intercom between the work lab and Karen's office. "Where’s Miss Long? I thought she wasn't coming back to work for awhile yet? You tell her for us we’re sure glad she’s back. Boy, does she do beautiful work. These are going out without any problems."

Randy stared at the men loading the models and then back to David. He motioned toward his men and they left the lab closing the door behind them.

"Something fishy going on here Mr. Beckworth. You want to tell me about it?"

David was wishing Randy hadn't been with his men when they came down to answer the alarm. He knew what Randy meant and he tried to figure out a way to sidetrack him before he got to the truth. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what you mean?"

"I'm not stupid because I'm big. Size has nothing to do with brains. You're not a computer technician nor an engineer. You're intelligent Doc but this isn't your field of expertise. I pulled your personnel file and I probably know more about you than you do yourself. You didn't do the work those shipping personnel are bragging about. And we both know Karen didn't."

"There are calls to my men using my personal authorization code. You know about Karen before we do. Cameras have their own mind about what they want to show to security. Gates open and close with no apparent malfunction. Requisition chits are issued and no one issued them. I could go on but you get the idea."

"I like Karen Doc. She makes me feel hot and stupid when I’m close to her." David started to speak but Randy didn't give him the chance.

"I know you and her are an item. You can't blame me for thinking she might get tired of you someday and the rest of us would have a chance. Darn Doc, every man in this place feels the same way."

"Let's talk about the computer which belongs to Karen. How smart is it?"

David didn't know what to say. First off, he really had no idea how smart Henry was. Second, it was Karen's place to tell someone about Henry if things were to be told. Well, the best defense is a good offense. When in doubt, charge.

"I can't tell you anything. You don't have security clearance."

"Doc, that old crap isn't going to flush. I have the clearance to walk into any part of this God forsaken building and take a look at any project coming down the tubes. I have a higher clearance than you do. Now stop dancing around the issue and tell me about Karen's computer."

David waved his hand toward the console. "Only if he wants to talk to you himself. He only tolerates me because of Karen. Henry, you want to talk to this man?"

The lights on the console came on. David knew he would enjoy this.

“I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone what you know about Karen's lab Officer Shells."

David was watching and when Henry spoke he saw Randy jump. David was gratified to see he wasn't the only person Henry spooked.

"Right now, you are the only person besides David who knows anything about what is going on in Karen's lab. I have watched you since you came to work for Comm Tech. You seem to question everything. You add up coincidence which isn't any coincidence. You questioned Karen's background very methodically. I knew this was coming. It was a surprise when you didn't come forward after you checked her out. You already know about her accident in David's lab."

Henry noticed a shocked look on David's face. Randy wasn't doing too good himself. "You left cameras out of the room you use for communications. The extra line you ran for your own personal communications was smart. New line couldn't be tapped unless it was done after it was installed. I knew the fat would be in the fire when you personally went out and checked Karen's background. What kept you?"

Randy was looking bumfuzzled. He didn't know what to say or to whom he should say it.

Henry never lacked for something to say. "The day you walked Karen to her car and questioned her was real professional. It was more than security guard stuff. You’re no more a security guard than I am. You are quite good however. Comm Tech couldn't have hired a better person for the job. I looked over your files. You were well hidden under a lot of top secret security directives."

"You have what humans refer to as a sixth sense. Women call it intuition. If it makes you feel any better, I could see this coming for over a month. No matter what I tried you would dog it until you figured it out. I admire the way you think Officer Shells. You would make a good computer. Excellent logic, good reasoning, superior intelligence, not bad for a human."

Randy was looking around the lab. Looking for what he didn't know but it would come to him when he found it. "Come on doc, you don't expect me to believe a computer talked to me like that do you?"

Maybe Henry had overestimated Randy's intelligence. Maybe not. When David thought about who he was talking to, he didn't do too good either. Humans were funny creatures. Very complex.

Randy's mind wasn’t ready to accept what his suspicions had been telling him for the past few months. Karen had actually built a thinking computer. He was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt before Henry said anything. Now confronting his suspicions he wasn't willing to believe it. It boggled the mind.

David didn't say anything. He knew Henry would polish him off if he felt like it. Except for the part about Randy knowing about Karen's accident, he was actually enjoying listening to Henry for a change. At least this time he wasn't on the receiving end of Henry's sharp mind.

Henry didn't let David's expectations down. "And how do you expect a computer to talk to you Randy? Would you be more impressed with this?"

"G o o d m o r n i n g M r. S h e l l s. H o w a r e y o u t h i s
m o r n i n g?" Henry emitted several squawks, bleeps, and clicks.

"A r e y o u r e a d y t o p r o c e e d?" More squawks, squeaks, clicks, and bleeps.

"P u s h t h e r e d b u t t o n f o r n o a n d t h e y e l l o w
b u t t o n f o r y e s."

Now David knew why Karen laughed so hard the day Henry talked to him. Here was Randy looking everywhere for a red and yellow button so he could talk to Karen's computer. He felt sorry for Randy but he had to laugh at him, it was so comical.

"Sucked you in hook, line, and sinker, didn't he? Don't feel bad. I was the same way. It’s hard getting use to the idea Henry can talk more intelligently than most humans."