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.‘If you like, we could meet again.Same time, same place.No pressure.We’ll go at your pace.You dictate.You tell me just what you want, and Big Ed’ll be only too pleased to oblige.’Halliday nodded.‘Okay, tomorrow.Promise you’ll be here?’‘You bet your sweet little ass I’ll be here, kitten.’He reached out, took Halliday’s fingers, and planted a gallant kiss.‘See you tomorrow, Eloise,’ and then he was gone, up the beach, his erection preceding him like a flagpole.Feeling at once aroused, sickened, and triumphant, Halliday hit the exit decal and in an instant Eros Island was no more.He rose from the cloying grip of the gel, the images and sensation of his experience in the sex zone rapidly diminishing, becoming as distant as if they belonged to another lifetime on another world.He stepped from the jellytank and showered, then dressed and left the booth.Jeff Simmons was sitting on a couch, speaking into his com.When he saw Halliday, he cut the connection.‘How’d it go, Hal?’Halliday sat down beside Jeff, leaned back and blew out a long breath.‘Christ! Well.it went, Jeff.I’m meeting him tomorrow at midnight.’‘Hell, you little vixen.’‘He’s one smooth operator, Jeff.No wonder Canada followed him to wherever.’‘You sound like you enjoyed the experience.’‘I don’t know.I mean I - Halliday - was repelled.But the body I’d assumed.I don’t know how they do it, Jeff, but it felt authentic to me.I was in a girl’s body, and the body wanted nothing more than to get it on with Big Ed.’Jeff grunted.‘Rather you than me.’Halliday thought back to reading Canada’s soft-screen diary, and her entries describing her first experiences in the sex zones, the young girl’s emotion fluctuating between trepidation at her daring, and unabashed delight at her desire.Jeff raised his com.‘That was the tech team, Hal.While you were enjoying yourself with big boy in there, they were trying to find where he was coming from.’‘And?’He shook his head.‘They couldn’t work it out.Apparently, he wasn’t tanking in any one of the city’s hundred-plus VR Bars.’Halliday stared at him.‘You telling me he was a computer-generated image?’‘The techs checked that one out and discounted it.The guy’s for real.’‘So where’s he linking from?’‘The only hunch they could come up with was that he was linking from a private tank somewhere.Illegal, but it’s a possibility.They tried to put a trace on the link - they scanned the guy on Eros Island and tried to work back, but the guy had it all worked out.He’s put scramblers on the link and the traces got lost in the static.’Halliday thought about it.‘Do they think they’ll be able to crack the link?’‘They’re working on it, but to be honest they didn’t sound too hopeful.’‘So let’s just hope that it all works out tomorrow.’‘How you going to play it?’Halliday laughed.‘Put it this way, I’m going to try to walk out of the encounter with my VR virginity intact.I don’t know.I’ll meet him there and see how it goes.If he doesn’t suggest we meet in the real world.then I might have to come on to him.Ask if we can meet.’‘You don’t want to make him suspicious.’Halliday nodded.‘You’re right.I’ll let him make the first move.I’m pretty sure I’ve got him, though.What’re you doing now, Jeff?’The cop glanced at his watch.‘Officially I’ve been off duty for the past couple of hours.’‘How about a coffee? The office is just around the corner.’They left the Bar, emerging into another sultry Manhattan night, walked along the main drag and turned right.They passed the row of busy food-stalls and a minute later turned under the sign for the Chinese laundry and climbed the steps.The wallscreen was pulsing the pastel shades of a news broadcast across the darkened room when they walked in.Casey had obviously gone to bed and forgotten to turn it off, as she was in the habit of doing.Halliday left the screen burning, muted the sound and switched on the fan.Only then did he hear the sobbing.Halliday moved around the desk and found Casey lying face down on the chesterfield, her face buried in the cushion.‘Casey, what the hell—?’She looked up at him.Her face was pulled into a tragic mask of such epic Greek proportions that it appeared comic.‘Casey, what’s wrong?’She could only stare at him.‘What’s wrong?’ she sobbed.‘You were there, weren’t you?’Before he could work it out, she went on, shooting a glance past Halliday at Jeff.‘Who’s that?’ she wailed.She launched herself from the chesterfield and sprinted into the bedroom.Halliday shrugged an apology to Jeff, indicated the percolator and followed Casey.She flung herself full-length on the bed, face down and sobbing.He shut the door behind him and sat beside her
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