The Romantic Analogue
Page 3
ignored it.
Waiting was hard. He couldn't read, so he let his mind wander: thenext modification to ICWEA--what a romantic old thing she was! Heneeded a haircut: he'd have to get one tomorrow, before the hair grewdown over his ears. What a voice that girl had--and those eyes! Wouldthey get further work from Mugu? How could they contact otherGovernment agencies? ICWEA was working out pretty good; would it bebetter to try to sell ICWEAs to anyone who wanted them, or to keep theold girl busy and work problems for others? Eventually, the former,though for the time being it might be better to continue as they wereuntil the old girl was well known. Under present conditions, thatshouldn't take--what was that hissing noise, a radiator?
He listened closely. Hiss, hiss, hiss. No, it was a rubbing sound,with a scrape and an occasional hollow thump. Not loud, but close athand. The ventilating system--how obvious, now! He watched a whitehand disengage the catches and carefully lower the grill to his desk.A small figure in white cover-alls wormed its way out of the opening,landed on its hands on top of his desk, kicked feet clear andcartwheeled to the floor with disdainful ease. A head-shake settled along bob in place; who could do that? Virginia Hermosa, and no oneelse!
She couldn't see him against the shine of the window. She turned ICWEAon and let her warm up, meanwhile fastening a large sheet of paper onthe bed of the curve-tracer with tape. She put a blank card in thepunching head, opened the door of the patching-panel cabinet andrearranged the patch-cords there.
What a lab assistant she would make! Wasted in Set-up; anyone couldpunch cards, with a little practice. Well, not anyone, but anymathematician could. How thoroughly she knew this machine! Charleymust have told her, or her brother, plenty!
With the curve-tracer running at slow speed, she held the stylussteadily on the words she had written on the paper; the coordinatesand rates were fed into ICWEA's brain, she derived the horribleequations corresponding to the script, and obligingly translated thesein turn to punchings on the card.
So simple, when you saw it. But who would think of putting a burglaralarm on an air-duct? She could go all over the building through thewalls if she chose. She was small enough to get through the ductseasily, though the vertical sections must be tough, even for soathletic a girl.
The punching head stopped. Virginia restored everything to itsoriginal condition, stuck the card she had punched into a pile ofthem, folded the paper and stuffed it into her pocket, and turned togo. Norm put on the lights.
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Startled, she whirled, churning the air with her hands to keep herbalance. He held his hand out for the paper.
"No!" she said, her voice shrill with excitement.
Wordlessly, he closed in on her, and after a brief struggle pulled thepaper out of her pocket.
It said, simply, "I love you." Norm looked at Virginia, who turned herhead away.
"I can't appreciate the joke just now, though I realize it must bevery funny. Charley will enjoy it. But what a lot of trouble. Supposeyou had got stuck in the duct, then what? Is it worth the risk? Andthe violation of security is very serious."
"I'm going to quit anyway," she muttered.
So deep a voice for such a small girl! "Why did you do it?"
"Well, it all started as a joke. Charley said you were shy,and--and--well...."
"I see. Natural enough, I suppose. And you pretended to be yourbrother on the phone."
"No, I never said I was Vic," she denied, quickly.
He was handling this all wrong; he wasn't getting anywhere. All thiswas just talk, evasive talk. "Charley hired you?"
"Yes. When Vic left for basic training."
"I see. Charley's quite a joker, and it was hard to refuse him."
"It was kind of a joke at first, but you're overlooking something:he's very fond of you. He really is! He brags all the time about howsmart you are, and what a nice guy."
"Charley's married, and he wants to see me married, too."
"And you don't like girls?"
"Listen, you made that drawing, too, and all the other stuff?"
"Yes."
An idea raised its pretty head. "Listen, I've decided to be very angryabout this. You've made a fool of me, and I'm not going to let you getaway with it. Now, I know a place that's quiet, and has very goodsteaks; I'm going to take you to supper and bawl you out. Better getinto street-clothes, and don't take all night."
"Sorry, I couldn't possibly. Some other time, perhaps."
"Tonight. Now. Get going."
"No. I have a date."
"Break it!"
"No! You may be my boss, and I may be a forward hussy, but tonight I'mgoing home, and you can't stop me!"
How silly could you get? Suddenly he understood the way of a man witha maid; love was older than conversation, and they both saw andunderstood through and beyond any silly words. In fact, the sillierthe words, the better!
"That's what you think! You're going with me, or you're going to jail.They'll put you in a dark cell with the rats. They have their ownspecially-bred rats, you know." He leered, slyly.
"You wouldn't dare!"
He shrugged, elaborately, and turned to the phone. She darted past himto the door and he caught her, pulled her back out of the hall. Shewas surprisingly strong and determined, and she ducked when he kissedher.
"That one was a mess, wasn't it?" he complained.
She relaxed and began to laugh, and he joined her. She looked into hiseyes a long moment, and pulled his head down, kissed him tenderly."You don't give a girl much choice--one big rat or a lot of littleones."
"I'll give you no choice at all. I'll teach you to play tricks on me!Hurry up and change."
"One of the girls keeps a semi-formal in her locker. I can borrow itand we could go dancing."
"I don't dance. Never learned. Couldn't we just talk?"
"We could, but we won't; you'll never learn any younger. You seemlight enough on your feet. Come on, it'll be fun!"
"Tonight I can do anything! You take too long to change, and I'll tearthe building down brick by brick with my bare hands, hear me?"
"No, please don't! I'll hurry, I promise!"
He waited impatiently at the door of the locker room. Now that he knewhow to talk to a girl, he wanted to talk, and talk, and talk somemore. He planned extravagant things to say when she came out, but whenshe appeared, smiling, he was struck dumb. She took his arm and theyhalf ran, half skipped out of the building to his car.
THE END
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