"Lucky guess," Fede said breezily. "How is it?"
"Oh, terrific. Great to see the old hometown and all. How're things with
Perceptronics? When should I plan on being back in Boston?"
"Oh, it's going all right, but slow. Hurry up and wait, right? Look, don't worry about it, just relax there, I'll call you when the deal's ready and you'll go back to Boston and we'll sort it out and it'll all be fantastic and don't worry, really, all right?"
"Fine, Fede." Art wasn't listening any more. Fede had gone into bullshit mode, and all Art was thinking of was why Linda would talk to Fede and then book a flight to LA. "How're things in London?" he said automatically.
"Fine, fine," Fede said, just as automatically. "Not the same without you, of course."
"Of course," Art said. "Well, bye then."
"Bye," Fede said.
Art felt an unsuspected cunning stirring within him. He commed Linda, in her cab. "Hey, dude," he said.
"Hey," she said, sounding harassed.
"Look, I just spoke to my Gran and she's really upset you had to go. She really liked you."