Cyber Rogues by James P. Hogan

involved in some award dinner in town tonight. They sent Vince a complimentary ticket. He can’t make it and neither can I, but he’d like the University to send somebody all the same. Have you got anything special fixed up?”
    “Tonight? No. Want me to take it?”
    “I’d appreciate it. You never know, it could turn out to be fun. I’ll call you in five minutes from my office with the details. You’ve got an escort provided by Zeegram thrown in. I think she’s been here a couple of times. Fanning . . . Fenning . . . something like that. I’ll let you know.”
    Dyer stared after Richter’s once-again receding figure.
    “Thanks a lot,” he said flatly.
    He was still staring after Richter’s retreating figure when Kim appeared from the same direction. He waited for a moment and they began walking toward the lab together.
    “What did you do to him?” she asked, giving Dyer a look of unconcealed astonishment. He returned it with a puzzled frown.
    “Who, Ted?”
    “No. Our mutual friend in Internal Services. Judy’s been on mural graphics all day and he can’t do enough to help. I asked you to kick his butt, not set fire to it.”
    “Oh that.” Dyer couldn’t contain a wry grin. “It’s amazing what a few friendly words delivered with tact can do, isn’t it?”
    “Really?” Kim sounded dubious.
    “You know me,” he said in a voice that could have meant anything. Kim’s expression deepened to one of outright suspicion.
    “And another thing,” she said. “Something’s happened to Al too. He’s got through a week’s work since this morning. You couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with that as well, could you?” Dyer tossed his open hands carelessly but said nothing. “Which reminds me,” Kim went on, “there are a few points he’s brought up that I think we should go over sometime. It’s getting a bit late now but I’m not in any particular hurry. How would you feel about staying on and getting it out of the way tonight?”
    “ ’Fraid not tonight, Kim,” he said as they stopped in front of the lab door. “Any other time would be okay, but tonight I have a date.”
    “Say . . . how about that!” Kim’s eyes widened ominously. “Who’s the lucky lady?”
    Dyer sighed as they went in. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

    The dinner and the speeches were over and the evening had broken up into a round of socializing and renewals of old acquaintanceships. After talking for a while with some of the guests who had remained seated around their table, Dyer and Laura excused themselves to move on to one of the bars in the hotel where the function was being held. It was a warm night and Laura opted for the open-air Terrace Bar overlooking the East River, toward which many of the guests had begun gravitating.
    Dyer had enjoyed himself more than he had expected. He had found most of the conversation stimulating and entertaining, and had seen little trace of the boring stereotypes for whom he had been half prepared, and who, it seemed, existed mainly in movies about movies but not in the real movie world. Odd, he thought. Also, Laura had been different. Here, in her own element and surrounded by her own kind of people, she was relaxed and had shed all of the defensive attitudes she adopted instinctively when she was in Dyer’s world. In place of the outsider with a point to prove that he remembered from his lab, he now saw a composed, self-assured mature woman, whom he was beginning, he was forced to admit to himself, to find strangely fascinating.
    They emerged into the cool night air and Laura slipped an arm through his and proceeded to steer him firmly toward an empty table beneath the bordering shrubs.
    “There. This is better than all that noise in there, isn’t it,” she said as they sat down. “We can be civilized with each other, even if it is only for one night of the year.” Dyer ordered drinks via the tabletop touchpad, grunted his agreement to