her

She began to get up, reaching for a pile of correspondence and phone
messages, but stopped when the door to Philips' office slammed shut. She
shrugged and went back to her typing.

Philips leaned against the closed door, breathing heavily. Michaels was
casually leafing through one of Philips' radiology journals.

"Well?" said Philips excitedly. Michaels was dressed as usual in his ill-fitting, slightly worn tweed jacket, which had been purchased during his
third year at M.I.T. He was thirty but looked twenty, with hair so blond that it made Philips' look brown by comparison. He smiled, his small impish
mouth expressing satisfaction, his pale blue eyes twinkling.

"What's up?" he said, pretending to go back to the magazine.

"Come on," said Philips, "I know you're just trying to rile me. The trouble is that you're being too successful."

"I don't know what..." began Michaels, but he didn't get any further. In one swift motion, Philips stepped across the room and tore the magazine from
his hands.

"Let's not play dumb," said Philips. "You knew that telling Helen you had a 'surprise' would drive me crazy. I almost called you last night at four A.M.
Now I wish I had. I think you deserved it."

"Oh, yeah, the surprise," teased Michaels. "I almost forgot." He leaned over and rummaged in his briefcase. A minute later he had pulled out a small
package wrapped with dark green paper and tied with a thick yellow ribbon.

Martin's face fell. "What's that?" He'd expected some papers, most likely computer print-out paper, showing some breakthrough in their research. He
never expected a present.

"It's your surprise," said Michaels, reaching toward Philips with the package.

Philips' eyes moved back to the gift. His disappointment was so acute it
was almost anger. "Why the hell did you buy me a present?"

"Because you've been such a wonderful research partner," said Michaels, still holding the package toward Philips. "Here, take it."

Philips reached out. He had recovered from the shock enough to be embarrassed about his reaction. No matter how he felt he didn't want to hurt
Michaels' feelings. After all, it was a nice gesture.

Philips thanked him while feeling the weight of the package. It was light
and about four inches long and an inch high.

"Aren't you going to open it?" asked Michaels.

"Sure," said Philips, studying Michaels' face for an instant. Buying a present seemed so out of character for this boy genius from the Department
of Computer Science, It wasn't that he wasn't friendly or generous. It was
just that he was so completely involved with his research that he usually
overlooked amenities. In fact, during the four years they'd been working
together, Philips had never seen Michaels socially. Philips had decided that
Michaels' incredible mind never turned off. After all, he had been singled
out to head the newly created Division of Artificial Intelligence for the
university at twenty-six. He'd completed his Ph.D. at M.I.T. when he was
only nineteen.

"Come on," said Michaels impatiently.

Philips pulled off the bow and dropped it ceremoniously among the debris
on his desk. The dark green paper followed. Beneath was a black box.

"There's a little symbolism there," said Michaels.

"Oh? "said Philips.

"Yeah," said Michaels. "You know how psychology treats the brain: like a black box. Well, you get to look inside."

Philips smiled weakly. He didn't know what Michaels was talking about.
He pulled off the top of the box and separated some tissue. To his surprise
he extracted a cassette case labeled Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.

"What the hell," smiled Philips. He hadn't the foggiest idea why Michaels would buy him a recording by Fleetwood Mac.

"More symbolism," explained Michaels. "What's inside is going to be
more than music to your ears!"

Suddenly the whole charade made sense. Philips flipped open the case and
pulled out the cassette. It wasn't a musical recording. It was a computer
program.

"How far did we get?" asked Philips almost in a whisper.

"It's the whole thing," said Michaels.

"No!" said the incredulous Martin.

"You know the last material you gave me? It worked like a charm. It
solved the problem of density and boundary interpretation. This program
incorporates everything you've included in all your flow sheets. It will read any skull X ray you give it, provided you put it into that piece of equipment over there." Michaels pointed to the back of Philips' office. There on the top of Philips' worktable was a TV-sized electrical apparatus. It was obvious that it was built as a prototype rather than production model. The front was made
of a plain stainless steel plate and its attaching bolts protruded. In the upper left-hand corner was a slot that was made to take the program cassette. Two