Savannah, Georgia, Saturday…

"Always on," said Sandra. She took him to her father's den where the house hub was located. It had the old-fashioned fiber optics connections plus the now more standard capability of receiving high bandwidth RF spread spectrum signals from any close-by portable computer, although neither was state-of-the-art. She watched as he took cables out of his pockets and plugged them into the unit. Then she stopped him when he was about to plug the other ends into the sockets implanted behind his ear. "On second thought, don't. Maybe they can trace you. I'm unplugging the hub too."

"I think that's a little extreme. How are they going to trace me?"

"Don't you access your computer at home remotely with that system?" He nodded. "So just suppose that they now control your computer, or are listening in somehow."

Bouncer looked at her, and then smiled. "Good girl. For a pharmacist, you're computer savvy. But can't I just use one of your computers here, and just stick to your hub?"

"I guess you could do that, but do you need to? I'd prefer to exercise caution."

"So what are we going to do? I'm at a loss without a computer."

"How about a nice dinner and some R & R afterwards?" She winked at him.

"Somehow I don't think you mean R & R. Mentally, I'm willing, but my body's kind of tired, babe."