The Extension, Part 2

That would probably take about an hour. After that, I would spend another hour filing reports: where was the data surge? Where was there extra noise in the data? Which transistor had come loose? Was everything else up to code? And then it would assign me a general clean-up... another half hour. Then I could go home. Pretty routine. I've had much worse assignments.

I stopped to talk to Bill again on the way out.

“How's everything on your end, Bill? They keeping you here much?”

“Nah, a few hours a week. Probably not much more time on the clock then you, honestly. Gonna spend this week rewiring my synth setup, and then got a couple dates later in the week. Nice-looking ladies, set up for me by CONTRACT's personal connections service.”

“Oh ho ho! THAT must be why she's lagging! Bill's love life's gonna take down the local extension!”

“You're too much, Bannon. Just a couple girls from around town, and one older lady from B-extension. Then going up to the Adirondacks next week, just to get out of town for a while.”

“The Adirondacks? What's up there?”

“Oh, I've got an uncle up there... old Uncle Harvey. He's got a little cabin... lives like a monk. Has the fewest licenses of anybody I've ever known.”

“Just the essentials, eh?”

“Well, he's a bit of an eccentric, ol' Harvey. When he was a really young man, living up in Canada, there were still seditious sects, trying to stay completely unregistered. So even now, he's a little weird about CONTRACT and licenses.”

“Well, maybe you'll bring back some stories from old Uncle Harvey, huh?”

“Damn right I will! So Janie and Margie are doing okay, huh? How about you?”

“Oh, fine. I'm following along with Janie in her lessons. Western Imperial History, differential math... stuff I almost forgot about since my own Primary years. Glad she's letting me study with her a little.”

“Oh, that's great, Bannon. She's a good kid.”

“Yeah, I know. And Marge is making the last few adjustments to her recipe. It's a lot of review, a lot of testing and calibration. The kind of stuff I wasn't so good at in Primary.”

“So she's planning to file it with Maker's Registry?”

“Yeah, pretty soon! I'll keep you up to date on it. But hey, I better get home. They're probably antsy for me to be done the work.”

“Sure thing. I'll see you next time we cross paths, Bannon!”

“Good luck on your dates, Bill!”

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