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the monthly fee. I might actually own it in sixteen years and ten months.
The door waited until I pulsed it to open, and the interior link system
reported, Interior is empty.
Balcony scanner is inoperative . The scanner on the upstairs balcony off my
bedroom had been
inoperative for almost a year. Someday, I might actually have enough spare
credits to have it repaired or
replaced. You have three messages.
From whom? I pulsed the door closed and surveyed the small front foyer. There
was dust on the replica
antique marble-topped plant stand. Another sign that the nanetic cleaning
system needed refurbishing, as
if I had creds for that also.
Mahmed Solyman, Raymon Cornett, and Aleysha Bunarev.
Mahmed. I ordered. Project.
The image of the dark-haired and dark-skinned production manager appeared,
bowing slightly. "Luara.
You're scheduled at fourteen hundred. I'd like you to do two, instead of one
this afternoon. Full pay for
both, but I'll need you at thirteen-thirty. Let me know.
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Full pay for two rezads. That was the first good news in weeks, since the
invitation to sing at the Clayton
soiree, but the soiree wasn't for another week. I wouldn't see the credits
until after that Mahmed flashed
the creds to my account within hours after we wrapped.
Because I could actually sing, I'd managed a side business moonlighting as a
backsinger for rez-based net
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
commercials. They didn't have to spend the time correcting my voice, and the
manipulations were
simpler. I was cost-effective. That left me with very mixed feelings pride
over my competence and
dislike of the whole idea of cost-effectiveness. The credits were more than
necessary. A few more
sessions, and I might actually be able to pay for the deferred maintenance on
the cleaning and house
defense nanite system. I didn't want to think about the scanner.
I linked to Mahmed and got his simmie. This is Mahmed Solyman of Crescent
Productions. If you
would leave&
Mahmed, this is Luara. I'll be there just before thirteen-thirty to do two
rezads. See you then.
Raymon had just been calling, in his twice-weekly brotherly fashion. Nothing
special. I'd get back to him
when I came home after the session at Crescent. Aleysha was my neighbor and
wanted to know if I'd
seen Solomon, her cat, an animal who did nothing to deserve the name. I
hadn't, and left a message that
said so.
Within the kitchen formulator, the magic nanites hummed and hissed, and after
several minutes the ancient
appliance groaned and finally produced an edible pasta primavera. I was so
hungry I ate all of it. I wasn't
about to ask the formulator for wine. The last time I'd been tempted and tried
that, I'd gotten something
that verged on vinegar. Even the best formulators didn't do wine and subtle
flavors well.
Before I knew it, I was walking back to the shuttle station. I glanced up at a
sky that was showing more
and more clouds to the west over the Rockies. With my luck, it would be
pouring by the time I finished
the rezad recording sessions.
The shuttle was mostly empty, again, but it would be crowded by the time I
finished at Crescent.
Mahmed's small production outfit was in the lower level of one of the older
buildings in OldTech. That
meant transferring to a South Ridge shuttle. Even so, it was a solid
fifteen-minute walk from the OldTech
station on the path beside the winding lane barely big enough for a single
electral.
When I got to the building, I had to dig in my linkfile for the passcode. The
gate took forever, or so it
seemed, before it pulsed, You may enter. You are cleared to the lower level
by the left ramp.
After I passed the gate, I walked slowly, trying to catch my breath, because
I'd hurried from the station.
Mahmed was waiting in the foyer outside the square box they called the studio.
"I got your message. I'm
glad you could do it. He handed me a folder. "This one's for Beauville.
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
You've heard of them upscale
mostly hand-finished interior furniture, the stuff you can't just pop out of
an industrial formulator. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]