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“Okay” She set the glass aside without drinking, pushed both hands through her hair “You’ve got a new VR unit on the market”
“I do” He sat on the arhted it “It hit a ion We’ve irams”
“With subliminals”
He blew out sht, when you understood her She orried, stressed, and the soothing power of the drug couldn’t overtake her in that area “Naturally Several of the option packages include a variety of subli her, he nodded “I take it Cerise had one of the new units and was using it before she jumped”
“Yeah The lab hasn’t yet been able to identify the subli, but—”
“You don’t think so,” he finished
“Soered all of the the VR units owned by the other subjects If it turns out they all owned that newto circle around your company On you”
“I had a sudden urge to encourage self-termination?”
“I know you had nothing to do with it,” she said quickly and fiercely “I’ I can to keep you out of it I want—”
“Eve,” he interrupted quietly, shifted to crush out his cigarette, “you don’t have to explain yourself to me” He reached in his pocket, took out his memo card, and tapped in a code “The R and D on that o and on Travis II Manufacturing was handled by one of ain on Travis II The distribution and shipping, on and off planet, by Fleet The packaging through Trilliu by Top Drawer here in New York I can have all the data sent to your office unit, if that’s most convenient”
“I’m sorry”
“Stop” He tucked the card away and rose “There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of eet you a list, for whatever good that would do” Then he paused, reached down, and rubbed a thumb over the diamond she wore “You should know I personally worked on and approved the design, initialed the schematics The unit’s been in develope at one tih that period My hands are all over it”
She’d been sure of that, afraid of that “It could co Dickhead claims my theory of sublie of unlikely into the impossible”
Roarke smiled a little “How can one trust a man called Dickhead? Eve, you used the unit yourself”
“Yeah, which also put a big wrench in as off a s and close these cases as voluntary self-terminations But if I’m not—”