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Still holding him off the floor, she turned her head Her mouth fell open seconds before she dropped Lewis in a heap and leaped on the industrial gray shell of the computer “Mine It’s mine”

“Yes, sir, Lieutenant sir She’s all yours”

With her arms possessively circled around the unit, she looked back at hi with me, I’ll bite your ears off and make them into stew”

“I got the order right here” Moving cautiously, he reached in his pocket for his logbook, punched in the code “See, here, Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, Hoot yourself a new XE-5000 You requisitioned it yourself”

“I requisitioned it two goddao”

“Yeah Well” He s her to the mainframe You want I should finish?”

“Yeah, I want you should finish”

“Okay Have it done in a wink, then get right out of your way” He all but dived under the desk

“What the hell kind of name is Tomjohn?”

“It’s ot your couide in that box over there”

She looked over, snorted at the foot-high box “I knoorks I have this model at home”

“It’s a good otta do is transfer your code and data from your old equipment Take about thirty minutes, tops”

“I got time” She skimmed her eyes over her old unit, dented, battered, despised Some of the dents had been put into it by her own frustrated fist “What happens to my old equipment?”

“I can haul it out for you, take it down to recycle”

“Fine—no No, I want it I want to take it home” She’d perform a ritual extermination, she decided She hoped it suffered