“Be still for a moment, please,” Eleanor interrupted as Nicole automatically scratched at the tickling sensation behind her right ear. “I’m deploying your personal beacon right now, and it’s very heavy for me.”

Moments later Nicole touched the tiny instrument package next to her ear and shook her head. “And can he hear us also?” she asked.

“Richard decided we couldn’t risk voice transmissions,” Eleanor answered. “They could be too easily intercepted by Nakamura. However, he will be monitoring our physical location.”

“You may get up now,” Joan said, “and put on your clothes. We want to be ready when the Garcia arrives.”

Will wonders never cease? Nicole thought while she was washing her face in the dark in the primitive basin. For a few brief seconds Nicole imagined that the two robots might be part of a clever New Eden government plot and that she was going to be killed trying to escape. Impossible, she told herself a few moments later. Even if one of Nakamura’s minions could create robots like these, only Richard would know enough about me to make a Joan of Arc and an Eleanor of Aquitaine. Anyway, what difference does it make if I’m killed while trying to escape? My electrocution is scheduled for eight o’clock this morning.

There was the sound of a biot approaching outside her cell. Nicole tensed, still not completely convinced that her two tiny friends were indeed telling her the truth. “Sit back down on the cot,” she heard Joan say behind her, “so Eleanor and I can climb into your pockets.” Nicole felt the two robots scrambling up the front of her shirt. She smiled. You are amazing, Richard, she thought.

The Garcia biot was carrying a flashlight. It strode into Nicole’s cell with an air of authority. “Come with me, Mrs. Wakefield,” it said in a loud voice. “I have orders to move you to the preparations room.”

Again Nicole was frightened.