explained things as best as he could to Gran while Linda repacked her
backpack, and then saw Linda off in a taxi. She was already savaging her comm,
booking a ticket to LA. He called Fede from the condo's driveway.

"Hey, Art! How's Toronto?"

"How'd you know I was in Toronto?" Art said, but he knew, he *knew* then, though
he couldn't explain how he knew, he knew that Linda and Fede had been talking.
He *knew* that Linda had been talking to Fede that morning, and not her fucking
ex (God, he was thinking of the poor schmuck that way already, "fucking ex").
Christ, it was *five in the morning* on the West Coast. It couldn't be the ex.
He just knew.

"Lucky guess," Fede said breezily. "How is it?"

"Oh, terrific. Great to see the old hometown and all. How're things with
Perceptronics? When should I plan on being back in Boston?"

"Oh, it's going all right, but slow. Hurry up and wait, right? Look, don't worry
about it, just relax there, I'll call you when the deal's ready and you'll go
back to Boston and we'll sort it out and it'll all be fantastic and don't worry,
really, all right?"

"Fine, Fede." Art wasn't listening any more. Fede had gone into bullshit mode,
and all Art was thinking of was why Linda would talk to Fede and then book a
flight to LA. "How're things in London?" he said automatically.

"Fine, fine," Fede said, just as automatically. "Not the same without you, of
course."

"Of course," Art said. "Well, bye then."

"Bye," Fede said.

Art felt an unsuspected cunning stirring within him. He commed Linda, in her
cab. "Hey, dude," he said.

"Hey," she said, sounding harassed.

"Look, I just spoke to my Gran and she's really upset you had to go. She really
liked you."

"Well, I liked her, too."

"Great. Here's the thing," he said, and drew in a breath. "Gran made you a
sweater. She made me one, too. She's a knitter. She wanted me to send it along
after you. It looks pretty good. So, if you give me your ex's address, I can
FedEx it there and you can get it."

There was a lengthy pause. "Why don't I just pick it up when I see you again?"
Linda said, finally.

*Gotcha*, Art thought. "Well, I know that'd be the *sensible* thing, but my
Gran, I dunno, she really wants me to do this. It'd make her so happy."

"I dunno -- my ex might cut it up or something."

"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't do that. I could just schedule the delivery for after
you arrive, that way you can sign for it. What do you think?"