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of concern. She entered the room tentatively, carrying a small brown paper-wrapped package. |
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"You have company, Elliott," Cosmo informed me. "I suggest you sit up and act like a gentleman." |
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"Hi," the young woman said nervously. |
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"Do I know you?" I stammered, suddenly fearing that one of Korbac's grunting, foulsmelling generals had permanently altered one of my memory cells. |
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Cosmo stepped forward. "Elliott," he began cautiously, "I want you to meet the real Brenda Cashman." |
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The words raced repeatedly through several reference files in the E.G. Wages bank of cerebral clutter and kept sending back the same messages: "Does not compute." It took me a while before I managed to get the words out. "Did you say Brenda Cashman?" |
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The young woman grinned and nodded. |
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"When Lucy couldn't get through to you in Chambers Bay, she called me," Cosmo explained. "That's when I learned that you took Brenda with you. I, in turn, called an associate of mine in Ann Arbor. I had him do some checking. Within a matter of hours Brenda returned my call. You see, Elliott, it didn't hang together. The Brenda Cashman I knew wasn't the kind to go flitting around the countryside on the kind of |
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