“It seems utterly wonderful to me,” she murmured. “And to you, nothing you haven’t experienced till you’re tired to the death you can’t have?”
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“Yes,” he sighed artistically. “Monkday, Jews-day, Wettestday, Thirstday, Fryday, Sadderday, and what else is new?”
But the fact of his mission shouldered aside the fact of her nearness. He released her, stepped back, stared out the window at leaping neon and headlights which passed in a whirr. The sense of a Presence possibly destined to mold the world to yet another shape waxed until a tingle went through his ichor.
“Well, something is new,” he said low. “Something arising in so few years that we immortals are caught by surprise. It’s no coincidence your prayer was answered. I heard and heeded because I could feel that you, Vanessa, are . .. with it?”
Turning to confront her once more: “What are you? You’ve only spoken of yourself as a woman deserted and sorrowing. What else are you? Sibyl? Priestess? Who do you serve?”
“Whom,” his memory scolded. The English accusative is “whom.” Confound that Seaxnot and the way he used to keep handing his people more and more complicated visions about their grammar. Ah, well, Anglo-Saxon gods also grow bored and need hobbies.
The tension heightened. But I have found a mystery.
“N-nobody,” the girl stammered. “I told you before, I don’t go to church or, or anything.”
Hermes gripped her shoulders. God, he’s a handsome devil, she thought. No, I mean he’s a handsome god. Roy crossed her mind, but briefly.
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The Unicorn Trade
This fantastic hour had dazzled the pain out of her.
“I tell you, I know differently.” Hermes paused. “European women often have jobs these days. Do you?” She nodded. “Who’s your master .. . whom do you work for?”
“The Data Process Company.” Her words gathered speed as she saw his attention gather intensity. “A computer center. We contract out our services. Not that we keep much in-house hardware, mainly an IBM 1620 and a 360. But we have time on as many computers elsewhere, of as many different types, as necessary. We make it cheaper for outfits to bring their problems to us than to maintain staff and facilities of their own. I guess you could say we’re near the heart of the whole national computer communications complex. But really, Hermes, I’m only a little routineering programmer.”
“You’re the servant who happened to call on an Olympian,” he replied. “Now suppose you tell me what the Hades you’re talking about.”
This took a while. Nevertheless she appreciated the quick intelligence with which he seized on new concepts, and she enjoyed the aliveness of curiosity that played across his features. Like the muscles under that brown skin when he cat-paces. Finally, slowly, Hermes nodded.
“Yes.” he said. “This will indeed change the world, as Jesus did before, or Amon-Ra before him, or Cannes before him.” He tugged his chin and his gaze was remote. “Yes-s-s. Surely you have a god here. Very young as yet, hardly aware of his own existence, let alone his powers; withal.
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a god. … It’s well, Vanessa, it’s well I stumbled onto the fact this early. Else we might not have noticed tilltoo late”
Abruptly he laughed. “But magnificent!” he whooped. “Take me there, girl! Now!”
“You can’t be serious,” she protested. “A divine computer?”
“Trees, rivers, stones, beasts have become gods. Not to speak of men, even in their own lifetimes.” Hermes drew breath. “A formal church isn’t required. What counts is the attitude of men toward the .. . toward that which thereby becomes numinous. Awe leads to sacrifice, under one name or another; outright worship follows; then theology; then at last men grow weary of the god and take their business elsewhere, and he can retire. Always, however, the godhood comes before the cult and remains afterward. I, for example, began as a night wind and worked my way up.”
Less arguing than grabbing after enlightenment, she said, “This can’t be a single computer. Look, no computer is more than a glorified adding machine. You must be referring to the whole network of … not simply machines but their interlinks, data banks, systems, processes, concepts, interaction with mankind. Aren’t you?”