Distraction

Oscar lifted the sca

Oscar had been installing blocks for two solid hours. He had simply walked onto the site in the middle of the night, logged on, booted the system, and started off where the krewe had stopped with darkness.

This particular wall could not rise much higher. All too soon it would be time to work on the plumbing. Oscar hated the plumbing, always the most troublesome construction element. Plumbing was a very old technology, not so plug-and-play, never so slick and easy as the flow of computation. Plumbing mistakes were permanent and ugly. When the plumbing’s time had come, the Bambakias construc-tion system would wisely balk. All higher function ceased until people came to terms with the pipes.

Oscar removed his hard hat and pressed his chilly ears with his work-gloved hands. His spine and shoulders told him that he would regret this in the morning. At least it would be a new set of regrets.

Oscar stepped under a paraboloid construction light, to search for the shipping boxes full of plumbing supplies. The nearest light smartly rotated on its tall pole to follow Oscar’s footsteps. Oscar stepped up onto a monster spool of cable for an overview.

The cone of light rose with him and flew across the trampled winter grass. Oscar suddenly caught sight of a stranger, wrapped in a baggy jacket and a woolen hat. The stranger was lurking outside the plastic orange safety fence, standing on the broken sidewalk, under a pine.

Bambakias construction sites always attracted gawkers. But very few construction gawkers would lurk in cold and darkness at one in the morning. Still, even little Buna had a nightlife. Presumably the guy was just drunk.

Oscar cupped his gloved hands to his mouth. “Would you like to help?” This was a standard invitation at any Bambakias site. It was very much part of the game. It was surprising just how many selfless, ener-getic volunteers had been permanently lured into the Bambakias krewe through this gambit.

The stranger stepped awkwardly through a gap in the orange netting, walking into Oscar’s arc-light.

“Welcome to the site of our future hotel! Have you been to our site before?”

Silent shake of the woolly head.

Oscar climbed down from the spool. He retrieved a box of vacuum-wrapped gloves and carried it over. “Try these.”

The stranger — a woman — pulled bare, spidery hands from the pockets of her coat. Oscar, startled, looked up from her fingers to her shadowed face. “Dr. Pe

“Mr. Valparaiso.”

Oscar fetched out a pair of ductile extra-large, their floppy plastic fingers studded with grip-dots. He hadn’t expected any company on the site tonight, much less a ranking member of the Collaboratory’s board. He was taken aback to encounter Greta Pe

Dr. Pe

“You’ll need a hard hat, a back brace, and some shoe cap. Knee guards are a good idea, too. I’ll log you into our system now, if that’s all right.”

Searching through the krewe’s piled supplies in the gloom, Oscar dug up a spare hard hat and some velcro-strapped toe-protectors. Greta Pe

“That’s good,” Oscar said. He handed her a pencil-shaped hand-sca

“Never mind, I get all that. I was watching you.”

“Oh.” Oscar jammed his spiel back into its can. He tipped up his plastic hard-hat brim and looked her over. She wasn’t kidding. “Well, you do the mortar, and I’ll carry blocks. Can you do mortar?”

“I can do mortar.”

Dr. Pe

Curiosity got the best of him. “Why did you come here at this time of night?”

Dr. Pe

“I see. Well, I really appreciate your visit. You’re a very good worker. Thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome.” She glanced at him searchingly across the airy pool of glare. It might have been a piquant glance if he had found her attractive.

“You should visit us in daylight, when we have the full krewe at work. It’s the coordination of elements, the teamwork, that’s the key to distributed instantiation. The structure simply flies up all at once sometimes, as if it were crystallizing. That’s well worth watch-ing.”

She touched her gloved hand to her chin and examined the block wall. “Shouldn’t we do some plumbing now?”

Oscar was surprised. “How long have you been watching me?” Her shoulders lifted briefly within the baggy jacket. “The plumbing is obvious.” Oscar realized that he had disappointed her. She had hoped that he was smarter than that.

“Time for a break,” he a

He walked inside the jagged circuit of raw cinder-block walls, where a fire burned in an old iron barrel under a spread of plastic awning. His back hurt like a toothache. He had really overdone it. “Cajun beef jerky? The krewe really dotes on this stuff.”

“Sure. Why not.”

Oscar handed over a strip of lethally spiced meat, and ripped into another blackened chunk with his teeth. He waved one hand. “The site looks very chaotic now, but try to imagine this all assembled and complete. ”

“Yes, I can visualize that… I never realized your hotel was going to be so elegant. I thought it was prefabricated.”

“Oh, it is prefabricated. But the plans are always adjusted by the system to fit the exact specifics of the site. So the final structure is always an original. That pile of cantilevers there, those will go over the porte cochere… The patio will be here where we’re standing, and just beyond that entrance loggia is the pergola… Those long dual wings have the guest rooms and the diner, while the upper floor has our library, the various balconies, and the conservatory.” Oscar smiled. “So, when we’re all finished, I hope you’ll visit us here. Rent a suite. Stay awhile. Have a nice di

“I doubt I can afford that.” Clouded and moody.

What on earth was the woman up to? In the blue-lit gloom, Dr. Pe