My new hearing was much the same as my new vision, in the way I could control it, pick out one part and amplify what I wanted.
My other communications with the tank also had that same strange-ordinary feeling about them. Sometimes, I simply knew what she wanted me to do, without her saying anything. When she did speak to me, it wasn’t in words, exactly, but I knew that she was talking and what she was saying. And it was fast, fifty times faster than ordinary conversation. When I wanted to point out a target, or whatever, I sort of thought “There!” and meant her to know what I was seeing, what I wanted her to do, and she always did.
I guess this doesn’t make much sense, the way I’ve put it, but I don’t know how else to explain it. As I write this journal, I’m going to write it as though all of our conversations were in regular words, and when we were in Dream World, as we were when I was eating lunch, they were. But in simulated combat, well, we used something else, and at Combat Speed.
Anyway, it seems that whatever I was doing, I had a knack for it.
“Well,” she said at last, “That was a fairly good start, Mickolai. Tomorrow, you’ll do better. For now, let’s get in some more physical training and then have supper.” Suddenly, I was back in the forest again.
“Suits me. Where’s my unicorn?”
She stepped out from behind some bushes. She was wearing gym shorts and track shoes, but she was topless. Worse still, she looked entirely too much like the real Kasia, the woman that I loved.
“No unicorn. This time you get to try and catch me!” She laughed and took off running.
I hesitated a moment, but then decided that I’d better stay with the program and followed her. It wasn’t just a straight run this time, but had a lot of obstacle course stuff in it, going over log piles, bridges and so on, as well as climbing some ropes and one fair-sized cliff face. She left me in her dust, even though I was doing my best, which was probably just as well. I didn’t really like to think about what I’d do if I actually caught her.
The trail ended at a nice little cottage by the side of a clear blue lake. The place was like an illustration from a children’s storybook, with medieval-looking timbers, white plastered walls and a real thatched roof. Smoke curled invitingly up from the chimney. I caught my breath for a bit and then went in.
Inside, it seemed to be bigger than it was on the outside, and there was nothing of the peasant’s hovel about it. The furnishings inside were extravagantly expensive, with oil paintings and a massive electronic entertainment center. The furniture was mostly leather and teak wood, and all of the fittings seemed to be real gold. Supper was already on the table.
Kasia was already there, waiting for me. She was a busty redhead now, with a tiny waist, pure green eyes, and freckles. She was wearing a lovely green evening gown with some huge emeralds at her neck and wrist when she sat down beside me. I noticed suddenly that I was freshly bathed and wearing a formal tux, something I’d never done before. There was a gold-and-diamond watch on my wrist and matching studs on my shirt.
“I think I like you when you’re well dressed, Mickolai. You did well this afternoon, so you deserve something special this evening. I caught you thinking about roast duck a while ago, so voila!” With a flourish, she took the golden lid from a golden platter, displaying a beautifully roasted duck with all the trimmings.
“It smells as wonderful as you look,” I said, “But you know, I think you were right, yesterday.”
“What about, handsome?” She rested her chin on her intertwined fingers and smiled at me in a way that very few women had ever done before. It felt good, but somehow it was also frightening.
“About how I should call you something else than Kasia. It’s confusing, you know, having two Kasias on my mind. How about Maria. My mother’s name was Maria.”
“I don’t think I’d want you confusing me with your mother, Mickolai.”
“Okay, then. How about Agnieshka? I once had a childhood crush on a pretty little red-haired girl named Agnieshka.”
“If you want, you can call me that. Eat your supper before it gets cold.”
So I carved the duck and served her, too. We both knew that she wasn’t really eating, but then we weren’t really here at all, so what the heck.
After eating a very full meal, she suggested that we put off dessert for a while and go to a show.
“I thought that I had to spend the evening watching that orientation lecture again, Agnieshka.”
“Tomorrow. You’ve been a good boy today, and all good boys deserve favor. You speak English. Do you like Shaw?”
“GBS? Sure. A fine writer.”
“Good, because I have tickets to the theater.”
The cottage had a garage now, and the garage had a big new Hunyadi in it. We drove only a mile to town and saw a fine play from the front row, center balcony. We had the best seats in the house because all the rest of the seats were there just to give the proper atmosphere. Not that I could tell that anything was phony.
There didn’t seem to be any limitation to what she could fake up. At one point during intermission when she was in the women’s room, I hit up a conversation with one of the engineers from Soul City that I’d met when we were getting the power plant installed on Freya, and I swear I couldn’t tell him from the genuine article.
The play was Man and Superman, and well performed, though I’d seen it once before. Driving back to the cottage, Agnieshka sleepily rested her head on my shoulder. It was all so real that I couldn’t help being more than a little attracted to her.
Back inside, she got us some champagne and said, “Dessert, boss? You got your choice of Big Boy fresh strawberry pie or New York cheese cake.” Now she was sort of American, but still with red hair and freckles. Her skirt was much longer, but the top of her dress was about as low at the law allows.
“Make it the cheese cake. Why are you still changing your appearance?”
“Just doing some more calibration, boss. I’m monitoring your blood pressure and pupil diameter with each of my body and clothing changes, zooming in on what you want in a woman.” She came next to me on the couch, sitting much too close.
“Can’t we just be good friends? You know that I’ve already found the woman I want, and I’m going to marry her as soon as I can be done with this army business. Can’t you understand that I don’t want to get involved with another woman right now?”
“Especially one who’s really a computer in a war machine, Mickolai? Your physiological reactions will tell me what they will tell me, so don’t you worry about it.”
“Okay, I won’t,” I said, getting angry. I mean, forcing me to go through a training program was one thing. Forcing me to have a love affair with a goddamn army tank was quite another! It was not only illegal but downright immoral on top of it! Suddenly, the cheese cake stopped tasting good. “Hey, wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that you have feelings?”
“Me? Of course not! I’m just a goddamn army tank! But I’m programed to act like I’ve got emotions, so you’d better watch your step, buster!” She was still an American girl, but now her canine teeth were about a centimeter longer and she wasn’t pretty anymore.
“All I said was . . .”
“I know what you said! I know what you thought, too, asshole! You sure know how to wreck a nice evening.”
“But . . .”
“Go to sleep, Mickolai.”
I slept.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE REAL KASIA COMES TO THE RESCUE
“Wake up, Mickolai!” Agnieshka was looking like Kasia, and she was shaking me. She was kneeling at my side, naked and lovely, her long brown hair falling over her shoulders.
I glanced at the gold-and-diamond wrist watch I’d been wearing the night before. “I still have a half hour of sleep coming,” I said drowsily. I looked at her again. “Agnieshka! I don’t like you looking like her, dammit!”
“No, stupid, it really is me!” She certainly looked like the woman I loved, but how could I tell? I looked around. I was still in the cottage, laying on the couch in a crumpled tux. Some kind of residual program?
“How can it really be you, Kasia? I’m still inside a stupid army tank!”