“Not bad.”
Nixie frowned. “What ‘socializing’ mean?” she asked.
Hunt moved into the room and studied the panel that included the screen Murray had been looking at. “Is that part of the city GP net?” he inquired.
“Among other things. Why?”
“Can you activate channel fifty-six on it?”
“That’s in a data service group. What would I need it for?”
“I just want to try something.”
Murray shrugged and said something at the panel in Jevlenese. He looked at Hunt. “What’s supposed to happen?” A Jevlenese translation of his words came from the room speaker.
Nixie stared in astonishment, then asked Murray something. “How the hell did it do that?” a faithfully intoned synthesis of her
voice asked. “What’s that? Can you two understand this? Is that me speaking in English?”
“Well, I’ll be darned,” Murray said, staring at the panel. “You mean that’s been there all the time?”
“Amazing what can happen when you bring a scientist into your house, isn’t it?’’ Hunt said.
Nixie looked at Murray accusingly. “You mean after all the time I’ve spent working my ass off learning English, we needn’t have bothered? Well, that’s just great. Maybe I should bill you for the time it’s cost me, at my regular hourly rate.”
Murray held up a hand defensively. “Honest, I didn’t know about it.” He looked at Hunt. “How does it work?”
“They’ve got it hooked into the Ganymean ship’s computer,” Hunt told him.
“You mean the Shapieron?”
‘‘Yes.”
“Well, how about that!” Murray declared.
“This is terrific!” Nixie exclaimed. “We can talk normally.” She looked at Hunt. “The girls upstairs thought you were nice. They’ve been asking me to get you to come to one of our parties here. They can be a lot of fun.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Hunt said. “I might just take you up on it, too. But not right away. Things are very busy.”
Murray sat back down and waved Hunt over to the couch. Nixie perched herself on a hassock.
“What did you think of Ayultha getting blown away like that in Chinzo?” Murray asked. “Pretty neat stuff, huh? It sounds as if everything’s a mess. SFPD’s what they need to bring in here. Any idea how they did it?”
“We’re pretty sure it was a phase—conjugating laser,” Hunt said.
“Yeah . . . right.” Murray wasn’t going to argue with that.
“Which would be fairly straightforward to do. A spot from a target—designation pilot beam appeared on his chest a moment before he ignited.”
“You see, ask a Terran and you get an answer that makes sense, even if I don’t understand it,” Nixie said.
“Well . . . I don’t know about all Terrans,” Hunt muttered.
Nixie looked at him and shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff you hear in this place,” she said. “Some people think it was cosmic energy from another dimension. Then we had focused waves of—what was it, ‘telepsychosynchronicity.’ I mean, what’s it all about? What in hell is telepsychosynchronicity?”
“Sounds like what used to be called mind power, but at twice the price,” Hunt suggested.
“I’d rather be getting laid,” Nixie opined.
“That would make a good bumper sticker,” Hunt said.
“People should do something about getting this city together instead of sitting around listening to that garbage and waiting for the Ganymeans to do something,” Nixie said. “Murray, why don’t we go to Earth? You said I’d make a fortune there.”
“Patience. I need to get a little more invisible first.” Murray settled himself back in the chair and stretched out an arm idly to finger the hair at the back of her neck. “Anyhow, if you’re that busy you didn’t come here to shoot any breeze,” he said to Hunt. “What gives?”
“I’m trying to find out anything I can about one of the Terrans back at PAC,” Hunt said. “It’s in connection with that traffic bridge that collapsed.”
“The one that pancaked the head of the Keystones, and them other suckers who were driving under?”
“Right. It may have to do with the Ayultha business, too.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“He’s a German by the name of Hans Baumer, been here a little over five months. We’ve got reason to think that he’s got himself mixed up with the shady side of city life here, somehow, and that the people he’s dealing with could tell us something. It occurred to me that it might be the kind of thing you’d know something about.”