Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

thought the hardware would hold any surprises.”“You’ve got nothing without the hardware. Even here inyour pure information realm in the condensates of these blackbodies, you have hardware. If you don’t understand yourhardware, that doesn’t mean you don’t have any.”Someone else appeared at the door, someone who alsoknew English because he used that to say, “I must be late forthe meeting, the discussions have already started.” He was atall and slim man for the area, but no more than six feet, noless than two hundred pounds. She could tell he worked out,but wasn’t devoted to it. He had on a soft cable-knit pulloverwith a huge floppy collar, and snug silk slacks that were theheight of fashion in the last news they were transmitted. Sincethey were in the 2341 echo of Atlantis, it had not beendestroyed by a meteor in the war, but the year was still 2384,or 5713 as they called it here.“You know how computational theorists are, LearnedMaroclo,” Butuani said. “You know my wife Yellelle,” hewaved his hand in her direction, “and this is Ava Bancour, theSystem’s Administrator of Gordon’s Lamp.”She saw a question or more cross his face for every wordin that introduction, but he blinked them aside and said,“Welcome Ms. Bancour, it’s such a pleasure to have you withus today.”She wondered if this was being televised. She lookedaround and saw no obvious cameras. This age still seemed tobe without magic, just the technology that was available to489