abba lay on his back lodged halfway inside a dismantledmainframe computer. There was a penlight in his mouth, a solderingiron in his hand, and a large schematic blueprint propped on hisbelly. He had just finished attaching a new set of attenuators to afaulty motherboard when his cellular phone sprang to life.

"Shit," he swore, groping for the receiver through apile of cables. "Jabba here."

"Jabba, it's Midge."

He brightened. "Twice in one night? People are gonna starttalking."

"Crypto's got problems." Her voice was tense.

Jabba frowned. "We been through this already.Remember?"

"It's a power problem."

"I'm not an electrician. Call Engineering."

"The dome's dark."

"You're seeing things. Go home." He turned backto his schematic.

"Pitch black!" she yelled.

Jabba sighed and set down his penlight. "Midge, first ofall, we've got aux power in there. It would never be pitch black. Second, Strathmore's got a slightly betterview of Crypto than I do right now. Why don't you call him?"

"Because this has to do with him. He's hidingsomething."

Jabba rolled his eyes. "Midge sweetie, I'm up to myarmpits in serial cable here. If you need a date, I'll cutloose. Otherwise, call Engineering."

"Jabba, this is serious. I can feelit."

She can feel it? It was official, Jabba thought, Midgewas in one of her moods. "If Strathmore's notworried, I'm not worried."

"Crypto's pitch black, dammit!"

"So maybe Strathmore's stargazing."

"Jabba! I'm not kidding around here!"

"Okay, okay," he grumbled, propping himself up on anelbow. "Maybe a generator shorted out. As soon as I'mdone here, I'll stop by Crypto and—"

"What about aux power!" Midge demanded. "If agenerator blew, why is there no aux power?"

"I don't know. Maybe Strathmore's got TRANSLTRrunning and aux power is tapped out."

"So why doesn't he abort? Maybe it's a virus. Yousaid something earlier about a virus."

"Damn it, Midge!" Jabba exploded. "I told you,there's no virus in Crypto! Stop being so damned paranoid!"

There was a long silence on the line.

"Aw, shit, Midge," Jabba apologized. "Let meexplain." His voice was tight. "First of all, we'vegot Gauntlet—no virus could possibly get through. Second, ifthere's a power failure, it's hardware-related—viruses don't kill power,they attack software and data. Whatever's going on in Crypto,it's not a virus."

Silence.

"Midge? You there?"

Midge's response was icy. "Jabba, I have a job to do.I don't expect to be yelled at for doing it. When I call toask why a multi billion-dollar facility is in the dark, I expect aprofessional response."

"Yes, ma'am."

"A simple yes or no will suffice. Is it possible theproblem in Crypto is virus-related?"

"Midge… I told you—"

"Yes or no. Could TRANSLTR have a virus?"

Jabba sighed. "No, Midge. It's totallyimpossible."

"Thank you."

He forced a chuckle and tried to lighten the mood. "Unlessyou think Strathmore wrote one himself and bypassed myfilters."

There was a stunned silence. When Midge spoke, her voice had aneerie edge. "Strathmore can bypass Gauntlet?"

Jabba sighed. "It was a joke, Midge." But heknew it was too late.