" We were nine. What is this side job?" Beta testing." Knowing you, it's a sex game." Yes."Cheri goggled. Her jaw dropped. Then she recovered, shaking...her head. "Ibelieve, Mr. Giles, you are trying to corrupt me." She batted her eyes."We get paid?" Yes." I'm in. What's the game?" The Slavering 2." Brent plays that. I looked at the code. Kluge." She shook her head. "Notinterested." This is a reboot. Different platform. Tantrell is using personalityemulators from Farside." He's using dead. " Then why didn't you, Michael?"I stopped and faced him again. "What planet are you from, David?" I walked off again.He laughed, frustrated and peeved. "OK. Maybe I was a little pig-headed this week. OK?"I stopped again and laughed. I wanted so badly to slap his face and so badly to kiss him. The needs warred insanely in my mind and I did neither. So I walked again."You might as well be my girlfriend," he said gruffly, catching up. "You're certainly acting like one."That stopped me in my. "I hear you there." By this time we were approaching our starting point."How often do you walk?" he asked."Almost every night. Sheba (my dog) gets real restless if we don't walk." Ipaused a moment. "You obviously get regular exercise yourself. Care to walkagain sometime?" I asked."That would be great, but I'll need to wear some support. I've been floppingaround all night." He said, hefting his package in a very alluring way."I thought that might be uncomfortable, but each his own. Going. I would fly there in two weeks for one glorious weekend. I still had my reservations, but decided to go.All the way there, I was more nervous than a teenager on my first date. Will he like me, what will we do, and a million other questions ran through my mind? After an uneventful flight I landed at JFK airport.I hurried off the plan, picked up my luggage and headed toward the waiting area. Fifteen minutes has passed when I saw him waving frantically from across the terminal.With trembling.