Bron-34

Continued from Chapter 33: Bron-33 | ABCtales

“Wow! That’s some machine you’ve got there, Mary,” said Fernandez. The black and chrome Dell notebook took up most of the space on the overbed table. A white cable snaked across the bedspread, down onto the floor and into the wall-socket; she’d disconnected the phone.

“What’s the specs?” Fernandez raised his voice above the wheezing, rasping of the modem as it made its connection.

“Pentium 133, 32 megs of Ram, TFT display, Windows 95…”

“Windows 95? Wow! Well, guess you won’t be needing to borrow my little old machine, now Mary. “How much you pay? If you don’t mind me asking, Mary.”

“None of your Goddam business, Fernandez. Three thousand, two hundred and fifty bucks, if you must know. Beat the guy down, and he chucked in some extra memory. At mah time of life, what else have I got to spend my money on? Life’s short – specially in my case.”

“Don’t say that, Mary!”

Fernandez left her to it. Since she’d discovered the World Wide Web, she’d spend hours browsing online, rapt, her conversation reduced to single-syllables and the occasional ‘Well, I’ll be darned’.

She typed ‘Pyramid Productions’ into Lycos, then a + sign followed by ‘Hinds’. The screen went blank for a few seconds. Then, somewhat hesitantly, a webpage flickered into view, unfurling itself across the screen, line by line. Mary clicked again. Another image inched its way onto the screen. She jumped as Brooke Malory leered out at her. She read a few lines of the accompanying text, lips moving, then slammed the mouse down on the table. “Fernandez. Get me the Yellow Pages for LA! Pronto!”

To be continued in Chapter 35