Toba, as heavy and dark as the departing night, his cheek resting on his right palm, grinned at her.
"Gods! Don't you ever sleep?" she said.
"Not with a lady who has strangled over a hundred lovers once they'd dropped off beside her."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Then you knew! All along you knew! You led me on!"
'"Thank God and amphetamine, yes!"
She smiled and stretched.
"You are very fortunate. Actually, I don't normally wait for them to drop off. I generally choose a certain moment and they come and go at the same time, so to speak. You were going to get it now only because I was distracted by architecture then. However..."
She reached out and manipulated the control unit. Silently, the barge began to move.
She turned onto her other side.
"Look how the light hits the Manhattan ruins! I just adore ruins!" She sat up suddenly and raised an oblong rectangle of carved and polished wood. She held it at arm's length and stared through it. "That group right there... Isn't that a fine composition?"
Toba raised himself and leaned forward, his chin brushing her left shoulder.
"It's—uh—interesting."
She held a small camera in her left hand, sighted through it, through the frame, leaned forward, leaned back, pressed a button.
"Got it."
She deposited the frame and the camera off to her right
"I could spend my life viewing picturesque ruins. In fact, I do. Most of the time. They're always best from the water. Did you ever notice that?"