Orbital velocity reached. While we waited, two women who had come in after us kept staring at us, mostly at Dinah. San Jose is pretty close to San Francisco. I don't know if Dinah was thinking about that, but she was beginning to wonder what was going on, when one of the women explained she'd overheard a Unix reference, and noticed Dinah's conference badge. Her sister was there for the conference, and her car had been towed under similar circumstances.
All systems go.
Apparently my right to privacy extended to protection from myself, from getting the car back that night, and from anything else. I tried to explain she could call the police herself, from a number in the phone book, to verify it wasn't a laptop computer and backhoe operator requesting the information, but as I said she interrupted a lot. Only after I mentioned how helpful Avis had been to Anita did she agree to talk with the desk lady again. I had to disagree. She was merely doing her job - and doing it well.