“Deal?”
“Oh . . . maybe. We’ll see later. For the moment what about our problem?”
“What’s the problem?”
“Some of your Ganymean pals are here and want to go outside. Somebody thought it would be a good idea if you went too.”
Hunt sighed and shook his head to himself. “Okay,” he said finally. “Tell ’em I’m on my way.”
“Will do,” the voice replied, then in a suddenly lowered and more confidential tone added: “I’m off on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays.” Then it cut itself off with a click. Hunt grinned to himself, finished his coffee and rose to leave the table. A sudden thought struck him.
“ZORAC,” he muttered.
“Yes, Vic?”
“Are you coupled into the Earthnet local comms grid?”
“Yes. That’s howl routed the call through.”
“Yes I know. . . What I meant was, was she talking through a standard two-way vi-terminal?”
“Yes.”
“With a visual pickup?”
“Yes.”
Hunt rubbed his chin for a moment.
“You didn’t record the visual by any chance, did you?”
“I did,” ZORAC informed him. “Want a playback?”
Without waiting for an answer, the machine reran a portion of the conversation on the screen of the wrist unit. Hunt nodded and whistled his silent approval. Yvonne was blond, blue-eyed, and attractive, her appearance somehow enhanced by the trim cut of her light-gray UN uniform jacket and white blouse.
“Do you record everything you handle?” Hunt inquired as he sauntered toward the door.
“No, not everything.”
“What made you record that then?”
“I knew you’d ask for it,” ZORAC told him.
“I don’t think I like eavesdroppers in on my calls,” Hunt said. “Consider yourself reprimanded.”
ZORAC ignored the remark. “I logged her extension number too,” it said. “Seeing as you didn’t think to ask for it.”
“D’you know if she’s married?”
“How could I know that?”
“Oh, I don’t know . . . Knowing you, you could probably crack the access codes and get into UN’s personnel records through the Earthnet or something like that.”
“I could, but I won’t,” ZORAC said. “There are things that a good computer will do for you and things that it won’t. From here on in, you’re on your own.”
Hunt cut off the channel. Shaking his head, he emerged from the cafeteria and turned in the direction of the Bureau Block.
He appeared a few minutes later inside the coordination office on the first floor, where Garuth and some other Ganymeans were waiting with a number of UN officials.
“We feel we want to return the welcome that the people of Earth have given us,” Garuth said. “So, we’d like to go for a walk outside the perimeter to meet them.”
“That okay?” Hunt asked, directing his words at the portly, silver-haired man who appeared to be the most senior of the officials present.
“Sure. They’re guests here, not prisoners. We thought it would be a good idea if someone they knew went with them though.”
“Fine by me,” Hunt said, nodding. “Let’s go.” As he turned toward the door, he caught a glimpse of Yvonne operating a vi-console at the back of the office and winked mischievously. She colored slightly and looked down at the keyboard below the screen. Then she glanced up, winked back with a quick smile and busied herself at the keyboard again.
Outside the building they were joined by more Ganymeans and a contingent of Swiss police headed by an apprehensive chief. The party walked down a path to the roadway and turned left to proceed between the rows of chalets toward a steel-mesh gate that formed part of the perimeter fence. As they walked clear of the chalets and continued up along the gently sloping gravel road toward the gate, a stir ran through the crowds sitting on the grassy mounds beyond the fence on the far side of the clear zone. People began jumping to their feet and looking down toward the fence. The excitement grew as the Ganymeans halted while Swiss constables unlocked the gate and swung it aside.
With Garuth on one side of him and the Swiss police chief on the other, Hunt led the party through the gate as the clamor of voices ahead of them rose and became cheering. People began running down the slopes to press together just short of the police cordon, waving and calling as the party continued along the roadway across the clear zone.