Violence seemed to be in the air at the end of Marvella Risingstar's latest television program. A boy with a baseball cap and a cracked bat had risen from his seat and complained that he should have been the finalist in a contest. He was waving the bat in a threatening manner. Renfrew had been programmed to seek peace whenever possible. He put his programming to the test by grasping the bat and gently urging the boy to put it away. This made the boy angrier, though. He swung the bat forward, sending Renfrew forward over his shoulder and into the aisle with a terrible clanking sound. As security guards closed in, the boy swung the bat again and tried to hit Marvella.

Meanwhile, back at Sigismund's condo in Lake Serene Retirement Village, Beatrice Anaconda was watching with more and more concern. The TV screen went blank just before the bat could hit Marvella. Five minutes later, the camera panned to the control booth, where the station manager announced that, despite some minor injuries, Marvella would be back the next day for her usual program.

"Minor injuries?" Beatrice exclaimed. "If that boy connected at all, Marvella should be in the hospital for at least a week." And then there was the matter of Renfrew. Beatrice had seen the kit from which Renfrew had been constructed. He wasn't a high-end android. None of his parts could withstand much force. What if Renfrew needed a lot of new parts? On the other hand, Sigismund could just buy another kit and use the parts from that kit. But suppose the parts that governed memory and reason were damaged? Sigismund might have to reprogram him from scratch, and that could take time. Who was going to solve Orly's murder?

Beatrice turned off the TV and tuned into the Androidnet through the wireless connection in her head. Maybe the website that received news of crimes against androids would have some news. Sure enough, she found a report about an incident at Happy Harbor Studios in Wellport, Mass. (Happy Harbor was directly across the lake from Sigismund's condo, so that had to be the right place). Well, the report said that there were two injured androids. What other android had been in the vicinity?

Meanwhile, at Happy Harbor Studios, Renfrew was just regaining consciousness. The inventor that Marvella had interviewed earlier was standing over her, feeling her arms and legs for broken bones. He must be a medical doctor as well as an inventor! Tamboria and Tintinella had their hands over their eyes. Sigismund was in the back talking to an elderly women who was probably an acquaintance. The boy who had attacked Renfrew and Marvella was noticeably absent, probably in custody somewhere.

Marvella was helped to her feet. A couple of attendants led her away. The inventor turned his attention to Renfrew. "That boy did a lot of damage to you," he said after a few moments of poking and prodding. "The good news is that you'll be able to function – barely – while you're waiting for repairs. If you'd like, I could repair you myself. The station is covered for injuries, and I am the preeminent android technician for this area."

The station manager came down the aisle. "You have a phone call from someone named Beatrice," he told Renfrew.

"Are you going to be all right?" she began. "What puzzles me is that the Androidnet says that *two* androids were injured."

"The second one must have been hurt while I was out, and was taken away," Renfrew said. "But I didn't see any within close proximity."

Oh, great, Beatrice thought. One more mystery to be solved.

Paulh