ago.Veronica sprang forward and led with a right.
Ronald's cries grew louder as Manet marched Veronica through the corridor.
"Hear that?" he inquired, smiling with clenched teeth.
"No, darling."
"Well, that was all right. He remembered he had once told her to ignore the noise. She was still following orders."
"Come on, Bill, open up the hatch for old Ronald," the voice carried through sepulchrally.
"Shut up!" Manet yelled.
The voice dwindled stubbornly, then cut off.
A silence with a whisper of metallic ring to it.
Why hadn't he thought of that before? Maybe because he secretly took comfort in the sound of an almost human voice echoing through the station.
Manet threw back the bolt and wheeled back the hatch.
Ronald looked just the same as had when Manet had seen him last. His hands didn't seem to have been worn away in the least. Ronald's lips seemed a trifle chapped. But that probably came not from all the shouting but from having nothing to drink for some months.
Ronald didn't say anything to Manet.
But he looked offended.
"You," Manet said to Veronica with a shove in the small of the back, "inside, inside."
Ronald sidestepped the lurching girl.
"Do you know what I'm going to do with you?" Manet demanded. "I'm going to lock you up in here, and leave you for a day, a month, a year, forever! Now what do you think about that?"
"If you think it's the right thing, dear," Veronica said hesitantly.
"You know best, Willy," Ronald said uncertainly.
Manet slammed the hatch in disgust.
Manet walked carefully down the corridor, watching streamers of his reflection corkscrewing into the curved walls. He had to walk carefully, else the artery would roll up tight and squash him. But he walked too carefully for this to happen.
As he passed the File Room, Ronald's voice said: "In my opinion, William, you should let us out."
"I," Veronica said, "honestly feel that you should let me out, Bill, dearest."
Manet giggled. "What? What was that? Do you suggest that I take you back after you've been behind a locked door with my best friend?"
He went down the corridor, giggling.
He giggled and thought: This will never do.
Pouring and tumbling through the Lifo kit, consulting the manual diligently, Manet concluded that there weren't enough parts left in the box to go around.
The book gave instructions for The Model Mother, The Model Father, The Model Sibling and others. Yet there weren't parts enough in the kit.
He would have to take parts from Ronald or Veronica in order to make any one of the others. And he could not do that without the Modifier.
He wished Trader Tom would return and extract some higher price from him for the Modifier, which was clearly missing from the kit.
Or to get even more for simply repossessing the kit.
But 

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