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"What's wrong?" she answered.
"Zaki has problems."
"Zaki?"
A smile played on his lips. "A recalcitrant child, you might say."
A son? From his last marriage? "Is he yours?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
She felt awkward again. "Why do you talk about him like that?"
"Come on." He hung the box back on his belt. "I will show you."
They went through a side arch and followed a hall where a carpet the color of a sunrise
covered the floor. The day's warmth surrounded them, and dust drifted in the air. A
small crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling in the center of the hall. Mosaics tiled the
walls, similar to those in the courtyard, gold and bronze, flecked by aquamarine and sea
blue. Here the recurring theme was a beautiful star mosaic, an eight-pointed star
surrounded by interlocking designs that radiated out from the center. With a start, Lucia
recognized the pattern. It was the border that framed Websparks's screens.
Then Rashid stopped at an arched doorway and opened its door into another world.
Gone were the organic colors and textures, the brass lamps, stained-glass windows, and
open arches letting warm air circulate. This room was all gleaming surfaces, dust free
and glossy, cool and air-conditioned. Fluorescent tubes in the ceiling cast diffuse light
over the lab.
Fascinated, Lucia walked in among the clutter, so absorbed she even managed to ignore
her fatigue, which had been growing since she had left her bed. Tables filled the room,
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Catherine Asaro - The Veiled Web
crammed with computer workstations, printers, scanners, disk drives, CDs, disks,
papers, and more. The lab also had chairs, the first she had seen in the house. A network
server stood against one ivory wall, a boxy machine about the size and shape of two
filing cabinets, with lights glowing within it. A whiteboard hung on one wall, its glossy
surface covered with equations and diagrams written in blue felt-tip marker.
The floor made a hollow sound as she walked. She had never seen anything like it. The
surface consisted of white carpeted squares, each about two by two feet, and edged in
metal. The cables that connected the computers were apparently under the floor, except
where they snaked up to the workstations or server. Several small robots about the size
of cats clustered in one corner, reminding Lucia of the machines AI engineers built to
give their computer programs mobility. In another corner, she saw what looked like a
high-tech dentist's chair surrounded by equipment. A metallic gold suit lay on it, under a
clear plastic tarp.
Lucia went to a table that held a workstation with a huge screen. She had seen many
excited notices about this computer on the Web: the Stellar-Magnum, a phenomenon
with a processing speed and memory beyond those of any other workstation in
existence. Its price went far above what an ordinary person could afford for personal
use. But then, from the looks of this room, she suspected the same was true for a lot of
the equipment here. In his home, hidden and isolated in the mountains, Rashid had a
state-of-the-art AI lab that universities and industrial centers would envy.
"Amazing," Lucia murmured. She turned to Rashid, laying her hand on the Stellar-
Magnum. "This is the nine thousand series, isn't it?"
"That's right." He sounded pleased by her recognition.
"It's gorgeous." She turned her attention to the display on the big screen. It was a mess,
a wash of jagged lines and colors, like an impressionist painting of a seashore that had
splintered into horizontal shards. "But what happened to it?"
"I'm not sure." He came up next to her and sat in the swivel chair in front of the
machine. "Zaki?"
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Zaki? Lucia glanced around but saw no one. Nor did anyone respond.
Rashid pulled the Stellar-Magnum's keyboard into his lap. As he typed on it, the
fractured seascape vanished, replaced by a wash of blue. Another display formed, this
one in full-color graphics that appeared three-dimensional. It showed an office lined
with bookshelves and crammed with comfortable, worn furniture. A man in a white
robe and a turban was sitting at a desk wedged in one corner between a table and a
faded divan.
"Zaki," Rashid said. "What's the problem?"
A man's voice came out of the workstation's speaker. "Name, please."
"Rashid."
A line of type appeared at the bottom of the screen:
Username: jazari
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