The phone rang and Ben said, “Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
He dropped his keys in an open drawer and went to answer the phone. Jamie glanced into the drawer, there were two more duplicate sets of keys lying further back in the drawer. Jamie shot a quick look over at Ben on the phone, then reached into the drawer and pocketed a duplicate set of keys.
Ben returned and said, “Congratulations from the “Head of Department” call. Do you have any questions?”
“How much do you give the rats? I guess I should say, how many bots do you give them?”
“Well, it’s not the number that’s important. A single one would do the job. You see, they’re Von Neuman machines, as long as there’s at least one to replicate, then the process will start. For practical purposes, however, the greater the number of bots that are originally introduced, the faster the enumeration process will take place. When we give an injection to the rats we introduce approximately one hundred thousand bots. About one-hundredth a cc of solution. The Head of Department wants to talk to me. Shall we go?”
Jamie nodded and lead the way out of the lab with a smile on his face. He had seen the means of his reprieve. Later that night Jamie returned to the lab and searched for the bots. After searching through all the cabinets he decided to try the refrigerator in the office. He discovered that the refrigerator was protected by a tubular lock similar to those found on pay telephones.
Fortunately, one of the keys on the spare set fit the lock on the refrigerator. When he opened the refrigerator he found it was filled with wire racks full of glass tubes. He looked and saw the bots were in rubber stoppered tubes sitting upright in the wire racks. He located a 10 ml syringe and filled it from one of the tubes marked “Bots-Stage Three-Final Ver. Series 731” and injected 5 ml into his antecubital vein. He replaced the tube and the keys, then turned out the lights and left the lab, locking the door behind him.
Friday morning Jamie woke up feeling as bad as ever. He got dressed and made a cup of coffee before going to the University. “The bots haven’t had time to do anything yet. Give them time,” he thought. He dragged though the day then went home and fell asleep on the couch waiting for Mary to come home.
When Mary came home from the University Wives’ meeting, she put a comforter on Jamie and began making dinner for the two of them. She was used to finding him on the couch; Jamie always tried to stay up for her return when she went out. He was extremely jealous and wanted her to spend all of her time at home. The only way she could get out of the house was to go to a Wives’ meeting.
Jamie gave her the distinct impression that he thought that she would “step out” on him if she had the chance. He’d wait for her so she could tell him where she’d been when she got back. She had begun to go to the University Wives’ meetings so that she’d have witnesses to where she’d been and what she’d done. Mary knew that he’d never raise a stink about her new friends; the other wives would tell their husbands and his colleagues would give him hell if he did. Mary was confident that his behavior would moderate in time, she believed he was suffering from a newlywed’s insecurity.