“Will somebody tell me what in Christ is going on here?” Borth demanded darkly.
“Oh shit,” Harry Morgen groaned as the truth slowly dawned.
“Who are you talking to?” the animation Endelmyer asked, moving in through the door and pointing at Tyron. “I demand an explanation!”
That was enough to shock the other Endelmyer into life. “You don’t demand anything around here. I run this company.”
“Come in, control. Does anyone read? . . .”
In the middle of it all, Corrigan slipped out into the corridor. He walked quickly back to his own office, past Judy, who was talking with Betty, the sixth-floor receptionist, and straight in through his own door. Lilly was sitting in a chair to one side of the desk, contemplating a figurine of an Irish leprechaun that she had taken from the shelf above. She looked up before Corrigan could say anything and asked him, “Didn’t you tell me that somebody gave this to you and Evelyn as a wedding gift? But I saw it at the house, too, last night. How do you come to have two of them?”
“Jesus, can you believe women? We’ve no time for things like that right now. The whole . . .” Corrigan stopped speaking abruptly and jerked his head around to look at her as he realized what she was saying. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. It was on a ledge in the den.” That was right. On the morning of his mysterious awakening, when he came into work and looked around his office, Corrigan himself had thought that it ought to be at the house. But he hadn’t been sure because it had been twelve years ago. Then, with everything else going on, it had completely gone from his mind to check in the evening. He took the figurine from her and turned it over in his hands, staring at it.
“You said, something that would be meaningful when you looked for it—something that would become significant when the time came,” Lilly said unnecessarily. “And it was there the last time, too. We saw it in the shop window. You told me you had one just like it at home. You said that it haunted you.” Yes. And he had seen one when he was out by himself, in the bar, Corrigan remembered. The system had been prodding him, reminding him all the time that the leprechaun was there. Because that was what, sometime in that lost day that he had forgotten, Corrigan had told it to do.
“By God, Lilly, I think you might be a genius,” Corrigan whispered. He walked quickly around the desk and sat down, still holding the figurine. From outside, the sounds came of voices rising in an angry clamor. What would he have expected himself to do with it? he asked himself frantically. What associations did he have with leprechauns? A word? A phrase? A code that would have a special meaning only to him?
And suddenly he smiled as he remembered his cousin Jeff giving it to him in the lounge of the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire, and himself and Evelyn talking to a somewhat cynical Marvin Minsky years ago. . . .
“I wonder,” he muttered aloud. Working quickly, he activated his desk unit and keyed it into “System” mode. A command prompt appeared on the screen. Lilly came around to stand behind him and watch. He entered the word IRELAND.
Nothing happened.
He tried LEPRECHAUN.
A cry of alarm came from Judy outside.
“What are you doing?” Lilly murmured tensely by his ear.
“Shhh.” He entered MICK.
The system responded with: “WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING . . .”
Corrigan’s face broke into a wide, triumphant grin. He completed: YOU’VE PROBABLY JUST BEEN RIPPED OFF.
There was an instant’s delay that seemed eternal. Corrigan stared at the screen, vaguely aware of Judy coming in through the doorway, waving her arms wildly at something behind her.
And then the screen changed to:
* * *
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
YOU ARE NOW IN CONTROL OF THE SYSTEM PRIMARY COMMAND EXECUTIVE. ENTER:
”OUT/OUT” FOR IMMEDIATE DECOUPLING (EJECT)
”AB” FOR GENERAL SYSTEM ABORT
”OV” OVERRIDES ALL EXTERNAL COMMAND FUNCTIONS UNTIL UNLOCKED
”DF” LISTS OTHER DIRECTIVE FUNCTIONS