He reached out and shook Eric's hand.

"Just call me Eric. You say Mr. Steiger and I'll think you're talking to someone else." He looked Heaberlin up and down. "How many times have you seen the Matrix trilogy?"

"Thirteen."

Before letting go of Heaberlin's hand, Eric looked at his wrist. "How's the circuitry?"

Heaberlin looked alarmed. Like someone had just exposed his most closely guarded secret. Stunned, he forgot to answer the question.

Eric leaned in a little. "I said, how's the circuitry?"

Big Bill watched intently as Heaberlin furrowed his brow and cleared his throat.

"It's fine. Just fine." After a moment, he asked, "How do you know about that?"

Matching his expression Eric said, "Who do you think designed it?"

Heaberlin's eyes opened wide. "Whoa."

"Alright. My curiosity is peaked," Big Bill interjected. "What circuitry? What's going on?"

"Mike's entire nervous system is enhanced by an experimental organic material."

"The stuff you designed those new processors around?" Big Bill asked.

"Yeah. I hear he can do amazing things when he's plugged into a computer system. He truly becomes one with the machine."

31