Murphy accompanied Ali-Tomás into the outside light, fitting his own quick step to the prince's feline saunter. This is coming it pretty soft, he said to himself. I'll have a magnificent suite, with bowls of fruit and gin pahits, not to mention two or three silken girls with skin like rich cream bringing me towels in the shower.... Well, well, well, it's not so bad working for Know Your Universe! after all! I suppose I ought to unlimber my camera....
Prince Ali-Tomás watched him with interest. "And what is the audience of Know Your Universe!?"
"We call 'em 'participants'."
"Expressive. And how many participants do you serve?"
"Oh, the Bowdler Index rises and falls. We've got about two hundred million screens, with five hundred million participants."
"Fascinating! And tell me—how do you record smells?"
Murphy displayed the odor recorder on the side of the camera, with its gelatinous track which fixed the molecular design.
"And the odors recreated—they are like the originals?"
"Pretty close. Never exact, but none of the participants knows the difference. Sometimes the synthetic odor is an improvement."
"Astounding!" murmured the prince.