Tek Net by William Shatner

bother you? Instead you should’ve used it to get more of what you want out of life. ‘You’re rolling in the hay with assorted bimbos, Jeff—so now I want a bigger house, a skycar of my own and all the stuff on this list!’ That’s the way to handle things.”
    Eleanor didn’t reply.
    After a moment the bot remarked, “If you can keep from having any more fits for an hour or so, I’ll get back to tidying up your sloppy bedroom.”
    She said, breathing mask muffling her voice, “I’m fine.”
    â€œYou sure don’t look it.” The medibot took three steps toward the bedroom door and then ceased to function.
    The aircirc system died at the same instant.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Eleanor started to stand up.
    The door to the deck came slapping open. A large, wide robot, painted a pale green, came lumbering into the room. “Sit down,” he boomed.
    Behind him came a small bald man with a frizzy moustache and a trace of a beard. “Afternoon, love,” he said, smiling and holding up his silvery stungun. “We thought we’d drop in for a bit of a chat, don’t you know.”

10
    Gomez hesitated on the threshold of the toyshop, frowning down at the fuzzy little mechanical puppy. “Hey, perrito , what are you doing to my boot?”
    â€œUsing it to teethe on, schlep,” replied the toy dog in a deep roughhouse voice.
    â€œYour voxbox needs some urgent fine tuning.” With a terse kicking motion, the detective managed to send the pup sailing across the Wondersmith’s Toyshop showroom.
    â€œCheezit!” cried a two-foot-high Fairy Princess who was occupying a little gilt throne atop a slowly rotating plaz pedestal. “It’s some kind of perverted molester come to abuse us one and all.”
    â€œKeep your knickers on, sis,” advised an overstuffed redheaded rag doll who was slumped in a slowly ticking little tin rocker. “I know this dorf. He’s an old patron.”
    â€œHe looks like an ancient patron to me.” The puppy was huddled behind a toy white piano, glowering at Gomez. “He’s got more wrinkles than a relief map of a senile prune.”
    â€œ Niños y niñas , it truly warms my heart to exchange all these pleasantries with youse,” the detective assured them. “But I actually dropped by in response to a summons from your boss.”
    â€œNertz,” said the princess.
    â€œDon’t let these little hooligans razz you, honey.” A large, fat woman with a good deal of crinkly silver hair emerged from the toyshop office, arms spread wide and smiling at him. Her three-piece sinsilk suit was a mixture of bright citrus hues. “G’wan, you imps, back to your posts. Look cuddly and desirable for our customers.”
    â€œCorky, we haven’t had any customers since those half-wits this morning,” reminded the rag doll. “Couple of aging dimbulbs from the San Berdoo Sector who decided I was too flamboyant for their pansy grandson.”
    Corky Keepnews bent to give his chair a slap that set it to rocking at a more rapid rate. “You can’t refer to prospective customers as ‘a pair of old farts’ and expect them to ask me to gift wrap you, kiddo. Let’s hole up in my office, Gomez, I want to talk to you.”
    Her toyshop was up on the seventeenth level of the Westwood Sector Mall. From the one narrow viewindow you could see part of the University of SoCal Campus #26, where either a riot or a rally was in progress in the glade.
    As soon as Corky had settled in behind her new pink neowood desk, Gomez asked, “Why the urgent need to see me, calabaza? ” He settled into a tin rocker, a grown-up version of the one the rag doll occupied out in the showroom.
    â€œWe’ve been buddies and business associates for a heck of a long time, darling,” the fat woman told him.
    â€œYou’re just about my most reliable