I turned my back on her, slid down the bed until I could reach the telecom, and shifted the flat screen so I could see it better. Then I keyed in Message Replay. Instantly the screen lit up with the weasel-like face of Anwar the fixer. "Dirk," he began, but I hit the hold key, I checked the time/date stamp in the bottom-right corner. Wednesday, November 13,2052-six days ago. Probably a demand for a status report on the case. Well, I'd given him his status report a few hours ago-case closed-and picked up my payment.