They had given Archimedes to him for an upgrade and Pirate had decided, just for laughs, to see if he

could use Archimedes to break into Mona's data storage systems, an act of foolhardiness comparable to

hunting a rogue elephant with a .22 caliber pistol. Mona's built-in safeguard programs had immediately

locked on to Archimedes, only instead of reaching out through the phone lines and frying the little

computer to a crisp, she became enamored of him. Mona, as it turned out, was lonely and she had found

little Archimedes cute and charming. The two of them were now constantly in touch by modem,

murmuring electronic sweet nothings to each other. And Mona gave Archimedes anything he wanted,

including highly classified information that would have sent the management of General Hyperdynamics,

the government, and the board of the International Thaumaturgical Commission into cardiac arrest if they

even suspected it was being accessed by a playful little P.C. in a penthouse apartment on Central Park

West in New York City. There was nothing Mona could not access and her heart, along with all the bits

of information it contained, belonged to Archimedes.

They had given Archimedes to him for an upgrade and Pirate had decided, just for laughs, to see if he

could use Archimedes to break into Mona's data storage systems, an act of foolhardiness comparable to

hunting a rogue elephant with a .22 caliber pistol. Mona's built-in safeguard programs had immediately

locked on to Archimedes, only instead of reaching out through the phone lines and frying the little

computer to a crisp, she became enamored of him. Mona, as it turned out, was lonely and she had found

little Archimedes cute and charming. The two of them were now constantly in touch by modem,

murmuring electronic sweet nothings to each other. And Mona gave Archimedes anything he wanted,

including highly classified information that would have sent the management of General Hyperdynamics,

the government, and the board of the International Thaumaturgical Commission into cardiac arrest if they

even suspected it was being accessed by a playful little P.C. in a penthouse apartment on Central Park

West in New York City. There was nothing Mona could not access and her heart, along with all the bits

of information it contained, belonged to Archimedes.

"Damn," said Wyrdrune. "Is Billy up?"

"He didn't come in last night."

Wyrdrune frowned. "What do you mean, he didn't come in?"

"He went out around nine last night and he hasn't been back," said Archimedes. "I'm a little worried

about him."

"He was out all night? What time is it?"

"Ten o'clock."

"Hell. Kira, come on, get up!"

"What is it?" she murmured sleepily.

"Another case of necromancy," Wyrdrune replied.

Kira instantly sat up in bed, her dark eyes wide. "Where?"

"Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mona just called Archimedes. The Bureau got a report."

"Shit. Okay, I'm up. Where's Billy?"

"Out."

"Again?"

"Yeah. I'm going to wring his scrawny little neck when he gets back."

Kira got out of bed. She was wearing a brief pair of sheer black panties and a torn, black tank top. She

padded barefoot to the bathroom.