Apparently I wasn't. So they stuck, and another crisis was met.
Unfortunately, by then, I'd forgotten the shock and warning I got from
the cat.
* * * * *
Things moved swiftly, more easily. The GG took over, becoming, in
effect, my staff. They'd become more: five different extensions of me,
each capable of acting correctly. As a team, they meshed beautifully.
Too beautifully, at one point. Dex and Hazel were seeing eye-to-eye,
even in the dark, and I worried about the effect on the others. I might
as well have worried about the effect of a light bulb on the sun. They
married or some such, refused time off, and the GG functioned, if
anything, better. It was almost indecent the way the five got along
together.
A new problem arose: temperature. We weren't reproducing actual
temperatures, but the rooms needed a marked change, for reality's sake.
I'd insisted on that, and having won the point, was stuck with it. It
was after 2 A.M.; I was alone in the office.
The sound of the outer door closing startled me. Footsteps approached; I
hurried to clean my desk, sweeping the bottle into the drawer.
"You're up too late. Go home." Frank had a nonarguable look in her eye.
"You're supposed to be getting sleep."
"I am, far more than before you guys began helping, but--"
"But with all that extra sleep, you're looking worse."
"I don't _need_ any more sleep!" I said angrily, then tried diversion,
"Been on a date?"
"Yes, but I thought I'd better check on you." She moved close to the
desk, and I remembered the last time we'd been alone, in the bar. Now I
was glad I wasn't drunk.
"What the devil are you up to?"
* * * * *