The next few minutes waiting for Max proved to be mentally ex- hausting. He thought of hundreds of balancing arguments for both sides of the coin. Be concerned, this guy is nuts and meant it, or I misunderstood something, or it got lost in the translation. He prayed for the latter. "Yo, what gives?" Max walked into Pierre's office without knock- ing. "Tell me what's on this!" Pierre thrust the disk up at Max's large physique. Max held the disk to his forehead and gazed skyward. "A good start. Yes, a good start." Max grinned. Pierre groaned, knowing full well that the Kreskin routine had to be completed before anything serious was discussed. Max brought the disk to his mouth and blew on it so the disk holder bulged in the middle. Max pulled out the disk and pretended to read it. "What do you call 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean." Pierre chuckled a half a chuck. He wasn't in the mood, but then he had no love for lawyers. "Max! Please." "Hey, just trying new material...." " . . .that's 5 years old." Pierre interrupted. "All right already. Gimme a break. OK, let's have a look." They went behind Pierre's desk and inserted the disk in his IBM AT. Max asked the computer for a listing of the diskette's contents. The screen scrolled and stopped. C:\a: A:\dir FILE84.EXE 01/01/80 704 FILE85.EXE 01/01/80 2013 FILE86.EXE 01/01/80 1900 FILE87.EXE 01/01/80 567 FILE88.EXE 01/01/80 2981 FILE89.EXE 01/01/80 4324 FILE90.EXE 01/01/80 1280 FILE91.EXE 01/01/80 1395 FILE92.EXE 01/01/80 2374 FILE93.EXE 01/01/80 3912 93 Files 1457 Bytes Remaining A:\ "Just a bunch of small programs. What are they?" Max's lack of concern was understandable, but it annoyed Pierre all the same. "I don't know, that's what I'm asking you. What are they? What kind of programs?" "Jeez, Pierre, I don't know. Games maybe? Small utilities? Have you used them yet?" "No, not yet, someone just gave them to me. That's all." Pier- re's nervousness betrayed him. "Well let's try one, see what it does." Max typed in FILE93. That would run the program. A few seconds later the disk stopped and the computer returned to its natural state, that of the C:\. "That one didn't work. Let's try 92. H'mmmm. That's curious, it doesn't do anything either. Looks like a bunch of crap to me. What are they sup- posed to do?" Max shrugged his shoulders. Max kept trying a few more of the numbered programs. "I don't know, really. Maybe it's just a joke." "Some joke, I don't get it. Where's the punch line? Damn, nothing." Max punched a few more keys. "Let me have this. I wanna take me a look a closer look," Max said as he pulled the diskette from the machine. "Where are you going with that?"