Chapter 9

“They can’t,” Eddie assures you. “You’re God in that world. What you say, goes.”

“Do they ever not listen to you? Do they ask you about the other girls you have? Do they even know about them?” You nod at his hands shuffling the chits.

“No,” he says again. “It doesn’t work that way, I’m telling you. If you’re worried the girl will turn on you…”

He thinks you’re asking this because you want one of his chits and are just too scared to take one. “I’m not interested in one of your girls,” you assure him.

The grin on his face says he doesn’t believe you. “It’s perfectly safe. I’ve loaned out chits to friends before. One time things didget a little hairy—the girl refused to put out—but there was a virus in the VR unit, that’s all that was. If you get a faulty unit then yeah, you might get some backtalk, but you just abort the program and find another vendor, that’s it.” He holds the chits out again, wiggles his eyebrows. “You sureyou’re not interested?”