"Morgan!" Karina shouts at me as I approach. She`s got the biggest smile I`ve seen on her in ages. Also, she looks... very tired. She wasn`t lying about being super busy. Poor Karina.

　　As she yells, a lot of the other suited men look at her with neutral expressions, but annoyed eyes. I don`t think they like that she can break their self-imposed rule of being calm and professional and actually get away with it. She`s wearing a pantsuit, but she is far from a businesswoman.

　　"How`ve you been?" I ask. "I was looking all over for you."

　　"I`m okay, I`m, okay. How about you? You look pretty tired," she says.

　　"Yeah, I`ve been looking around the place fo all sorts of stuff." I say this without divulging the fact that R8PR asked me to check out if there were any hints of serious or suspicious activities going on, because I am not letting Karina worry about that while she`s got the tech expo going on already. "What`s this that you`re doing?"

　　"Well, see this behind me?" She points to an enclosed area with furniture and appliances, like one of those model home areas you`ll see in bigger hardware stores sometimes, only this one`s nearly complete other than no roof and only three walls. "My dad designed it. It`s called the Home Bot."

　　"Home Bot`... did he name it, too?"

　　Karina sullenly nods her head. "It`s a whole home system controlled by AI. So it keeps the room at a good temperature, keeps track of how much food you have in the fridge, brews coffee when you wake up... That kind of thing."

　　"That`s all kind of..."

　　"Kind of...?"

　　"Rich people stuff."

　　"Yeah... I`m not a big fan," she says. "But the most important part is... it doesn`t actually work."

　　"Eh? What?"

　　"It`s broke."

　　"Smart home machine`s broke?"

　　"Broke."

　　"Understandable. Have a nice day, then," I say. "I guess I`ll check out the other Sakaguchi stuff."

　　"Aww, but you would have been so entertaining if you`d have seen it," Karina says.

　　"Me? I`d have been entertaining? What do you mean by that?"

　　"You`d see the really silly AI technology and get really surprised by the auto-toaster and do your usual thing where you complain about everything."A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

　　"That`s a huge exaggeration! I don`t always complain! You`re so mean..."

　　"Complaining..."

　　"Yeah, but it`s warranted because you`re mean, Karina."

　　"And you`re very nice, but that doesn`t mean you don`t constantly complain." Karina puts her hands on her hips as if she were seriously taking me down. She isn`t. My willpower is far too strong to be defeated by slanderous lies.

　　"So if the Home Bot thing is broken, why are you here?" I ask. "Shouldn`t you be helping out?"

　　"My dad`s in the back right now trying to fix it. He has no idea what went wrong; it just started malfunctioning this morning, along with half of everything else we had set up. Maybe a big electrical outage or something? We got everything else fixed, so the Home Bot`s the only thing that`s still wonky though. I`m just here to direct traffic."

　　"Yeah, but you..."

　　"Do I look like I could actually do anything?"

　　"You`re a mechanical engineer major."

　　"And film studies."

　　"You`re one half a mechanical engineer major."

　　"Yes, but..." Karina takes her hands off her hips. "They told me it`d be better if I stood here and helped explain it to convention-goers around before they accidentally wander into the broken Home Bot unit."

　　"So you`re a cute girl standing around pointing people in the right direction," I say. "Doesn`t that mean you`re..."

　　"Well, if you put it that way..."

　　"You are, aren`t you?"

　　"I mean, not really, but..."

　　"You`re a booth babe!" I exclaim. "Karina Kodama is a booth babe at a nerd convention. The day has finally come."

　　"That`s so sexist."

　　"I agree. Booth babes should be abolished, except when they wear sensible pantsuits like you."

　　"So abolish everyone but me."

　　"Exactly," I say. "Karina, you`re reading my mind."

　　"I will be the one who directs people to the correct exhibits across the entire convention center," Karina says. "I will be the master of pointing."

　　"Finally, a purpose in life for my dear friend."

　　"Oh how I`ve longed for the day," she says. Then, she segues into a new topic, saying, "By the way, I saw Mr. Larkins earlier. He came by here with two very pretty women. He said he`s looking for you. So, uh, keep your eyes out I guess."

　　"Two women? Like, his daughters?"

　　"No, I think they were...--"

　　"So, Karina, how`s the weather?"

　　"I`ve been in this building all morning," she says. "How am I supposed to know what-- Oh, I see what you did."

　　"Yes, I hope you did."

　　I realize that there`s a lot of Sakaguchi businessmen who are giving us very dirty looks for our loud conversation that has nothing to do with the tech expo anymore. "Uh, hey, I`m going to check some more stuff out. If you`re ever free, just give me a call and we can hang out and stuff."

　　"Don`t think I`ll have time, but... Thanks for the offer, Morgan." She gives me a small thumbs-up. "See you around."

　　"Yeah, same."

　　I sure hope she makes it through this convention alright.

　　Okay, now what`s next?

　　...

　　...

　　Oh, okay, now I am way too hungry to function at this tech expo anymore, and I am not paying convention prices for food. Time to leave and get some lunch.