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Chapter 20

Rhea was coming up the stairs as Jack went down. She looked great, just like the after segment of a coffee commercial, and Jack would have sworn she was a morning person, despite the fact that he knew she looked just as good at two a.m.

"Good morning," she said. "In a bit early today, aren't you?"

"Couldn't sleep," Jack admitted. "This thing is still driving me crazy."

Rhea leaned back against the stair railing. "Still the same symptoms?" she asked.

"Yeah, about. I've got to the point where I can blow the lights now, too, sometimes."

"Well, now, that is progress," she said. "If you can scale that up towards stopping the whole world around it, the drive ought to move by virtue of inertia."

"I won't rule it out," Jack said. He shifted his grip on his mail. "What about you? Any word on our funding?"

Rhea looked down, and explored the crack between two concrete blocks with her toes. Not a good sign, Jack thought.

"I'm working it," she said finally. "I'll make an announcement to the whole company when I have something definitive to say."

Meaning she wasn't going to say anything else about it to him, now. Well, he shouldn't really expect her to. "Hang in there," he told her. "We're all pulling for you."

"Thanks," Rhea said. "That means more than you know."

She paused and glanced at his armload of paper. "Interesting technical manual there," she commented.

Jack had forgotten exactly what he was carrying. "Um, research," he said. "Definitely research material. In fact, I'd better get it down to my office and get started right away. See you!" He passed Rhea and headed down the stairs.

"Remember, I can't use you if you go blind," Rhea called down to him as he reached the second floor, and then, as the stairwell door closed behind him, he thought he heard something else that sounded a lot like, "But I do a great page thirty-four!"

 

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Framed