"So I thought I'd prototype the next generation of these, a 64-bit version that you could build out of garbage. Get a couple hundred of the local kids in for the summer and get them working. Get them to understand just how these things work -- that's the problem with integrated circuits, you can't take them apart and see how they work. How are we going to get another generation of tinkerers unless we get kids interested in how stuff works?" "Who's the kid taking ticket money?" "He's a fan, that kid that Perry met in jail. Death Waits. The one who brought in the Disney stuff." He gradually became aware that Suzanne was rigid and shaking in his arms. "What's wrong?" Her face was purple now, her hands clenched into fists. "What's wrong? Lester, what's wrong? You've left a total stranger, who, by his own admission, is a recently terminated employee of a company that is trying to bankrupt you and put you in jail. You've left him in charge of an expensive, important capital investment, and given him the authority to collect money on your behalf. Do you really need to ask me what's wrong?" He tried to smile. "It's OK, it's OK, he's only --" "Only what? Only your possible doom? Christ, Perry, you don't even have fucking *insurance* on that business." Did she just call him Perry? He carefully set down the Coke can and looked at her. "I'm down here busting my *ass* for you two, fighting cops, letting that shit Freddy smear my name all over the net, and what the hell are you doing to save yourself? You're in here playing with Coke cans!" She picked it up and shook it. He heard the works inside rattling and flinched towards it. She jerked it out of his reach and threw it, *threw it* hard at the wall. Hundreds of little gears and ratchets and rods spilled out of it. "Fine, Lester, fine. You go on being an emotional ten-year-old. But stop roping other people into this. You've got people all over the country depending on you and you are just *abdicating* your responsibility to them. I won't be a part of it." She was crying now. Lester had no idea what to say now. "It's not enough that Perry's off chasing pussy, you've got to pick this moment to take French leave to play with your toys. Christ, the whole bunch of you deserve each other." Lester knew that he was on the verge of shouting at her, really tearing into her, saying unforgivable things. He'd been there before with other friends, and no good ever came of it. He wanted to tell her that he'd never asked for the responsibility, that he'd lived up to it anyway, that no one had asked her to put her neck on the line and it wasn't fair to blame him for the shit that Freddy was putting her through. He wanted to tell her that if she was in love with Perry, she should be sleeping with Perry, and not him. He wanted to tell her that she had no business reaming him out for doing what he'd always done: sit in his workshop.