**** Elysium 1986 ****

The sound of the rain that had just begun to fall on the window panes mingled with the soft murmur of the sea. It was a warm summer day. The salty air wafting in from the beach combined with the heavy sweetness of the floral scent that lingered over the entire yacht promenade. Not far from the dock of the magnificent Sea Lord stood the TRAP mansion. From the top floor, even Carla Brandon’s ship was easily visible through binoculars when it wasn’t at sea.

A few months had passed since the move and everyone had settled into the new villa. Everyone had spread out to their heart’s content, doing their favorite activities. Exercising, reading, watching TV, cooking, eating, snoozing…. Of course, this new home also brought with it expenses that had not been considered before. Property taxes, for example, were something the agency hadn’t had to deal with before. After the Yellow Pages ad was changed to reflect the new address, the agency began taking on smaller jobs to help cover the costs. Most of the time, these were short assignments for personal protection or courier trips for valuable cargo. Between the savings that Abigail managed and guarded like the apple of her eye, they were able to make ends meet. It still felt like a long vacation.

Two fans hummed in the study. One belonged to Abigail’s C64 laptop, the other to the old technology computer with the red case they had picked up on the Sea Lord. Abigail and Yanny had spent a long time tinkering with the keyboard and screen connections to make this technological marvel accessible to ordinary people. Previously, only the cyborg had been able to operate the computer through the socket on the back of her head. As an additional input device, Yanny had modified a joystick that was normally only used for coin-operated computer games in arcade halls. The stick could now be used to move a small pointer on the screen and to select various icons on the graphical interface by double-clicking the fire button. You could see how proud Yanny was of this invention. After explaining the function of this proprietary development to Abigail, who was very impressed and praised it, she explained the innovation again in detail to Anton, the hunting dog. The dog watched with great interest as the little arrow moved back and forth on the screen and sniffed the device. Yanny watched out of the corner of her eye to see if any of the guys who passed by the corridor from time to time would also appreciate this technical breakthrough. A little later, the first opportunity came when Harry stood in the doorway with milk and cookies to give the two working women a little refreshment.

“Look what I made, Harry! It’s totally cool!” Yanny began to explain enthusiastically. Abigail had to grin and hid behind the screen of her laptop.
“I turned this joystick into what I call a pointer stick. See, you pick this thing up with your hand, and then you can move the pointer around on the screen. In all directions! Look at my hands and the screen at the same time! Up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. I’m not sure yet if I should switch to a smaller model, though. It’s almost too big for my hands, don’t you think? I almost need both of them to hold it, and the button at the top is a little too big for my thumb,” she explained enthusiastically.
Harry stared wide-eyed at Yanny as she worked the joystick enthusiastically, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “I… I really have to go… there’s some, uh… yogurt on the stove…” he swallowed, putting down the cookies and milk and disappearing from the room in a flash. “What’s wrong with him? Why yogurt?” Yanny asked, confused. Abigail, now holding her hand over her mouth to keep from bursting out, mumbled something that sounded like “I don’t know either.” Downstairs they heard the shower turn on and Harry let out a short yelp. Yanny was too surprised to be offended by his sudden escape.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“I think I need to explain some general things to you,” Abigail said as she rubbed her fingers over her cheeks, which were bright red from suppressed laughter. The cyborg nodded slowly.

Categorized as: Novel 5 (EN) | Novel Chapter (EN)

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