Bright Comet sat in her second-floor office across the street from a branch library in Canhambury. Very few people knew that she owned and controlled most of the androids that figured in Renfrew's case - Orly, Marvella, and Betty Boop in particular. Renfrew was not one of her androids, though, so she had had to install a hidden surveillance camera in the condo that he shared with Sigismund. Let's see, what is Renfrew doing now, she thought as she looked at her computer monitor. Oh, he was sitting at Sigismund's computer, and listening to a garrulous Search Android named Loquacious rattle on about the balance of trade deficit, the length of women's skirts, and new cures for Alzheimer's. "Beatrice," he said over the Androidnet, "The word that can make Loquacious shut up isn't working."

"'Tomato' isn't working?" Beatrice exclaimed. She listened to Renfrew pronounce it. "The 'a' should be long, not short. You're pronouncing the word as 'tomahto.'" She hummed a few measures of "Let's call the whole thing off," but apparently Renfrew wasn't into old Astaire/Rogers movies. Oh, well. Anyway, Renfrew pronounced the word properly, and Loquacious promptly shut up.

Bright Comet's reputation for life-like characters and situations was aided by her surveillance of Renfrew and Sigismund and their ilk. She would then change enough details to avert lawsuits. Oops, Renfrew was off-camera now. Time to switch to satellite reconnaissance, which wasn't as detailed, but at least she could tell where her quarry was.

Her left eye strayed from the monitor to the window overlooking the library. Her right eye soon joined it, because there was something familiar about the girl who was coming down the library steps. And that old man holding her hand looked just like...Sigismund. She frowned. Why was Sigismund so far from Wellwood? Well, the distance was only three or four miles, but when did Sigismund ever leave his condo? Answer: about as often as Bright Comet left her office.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to wander over and see what Ziggy was up to. If she wore her brunette wig, he probably wouldn't recognize her. The girl's name started with a 'T'. Tina or something like that. She won that big talent contest at Marvella's, just before that horrific boy with the baseball bat raised cane. Well, Bright Comet cried all the way to the bank, since this led to sharply higher ratings for the show.

Sigismund didn't mind standing in the falling snow. In fact, he was in no hurry to take Tintinella back to his condo. True, his day had been aggravating. The Wellwood Library didn't have a good selection of videos. He had dragged her to several other libraries before trying Canhambury. The ones he wanted were "Mary Poppins" and the Disney animated "Alice in Wonderland." Both were tucked under Tintinella's arm now. Canhambury was a very affluent town with great public services, but it had been stingy about moving its most popular library to a place with better parking.

Sigismund happened to notice a bit of snow falling from the second floor window of the house across the street. There was a woman working at a computer there. Something nudged Sigismund's ankle. It was a pretty calico cat. When he looked back at the window, the woman was gone.

"I see Melissa has found you," said a pleasant female voice as Sigismund and Tintinella cuddled the cat.

Paulh

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