Ghosts playing chess in cyberspace... (Alex Murphy and Diana Powers)

Smart

Diana watched him from the other side of the chess board, wondering just why he'd joined her in here. It wasn't as if he didn't have something to do, after all. He did, for somewhere a crime was always happening. "Alex..."

"Don't rush me," he muttered as he stared at the board intently. "Russell said I was good at this game, and I've never played against a computer that wasn't in my head before."

"And you're not playing the computer now, either."

He glanced at her, smirking, and suddenly Diana didn't have to wonder what his wife had seen in him.

99

"So," he said after a minute of echoing silence that seemed to disappear into the edges of cyberspace and back again. "Out of the hundred or so things we don't get to do anymore, what do you miss the most?"

"Dessert," she said immediately, and moved a pawn forward. "Hadn't let myself eat it for a year, and anything I generate in here just doesn't taste the same." She concentrated and an Icee appeared in her hand. "See?"

Alex nodded. "I do."

"What do you miss? Other than your family, I mean."

He paused for a long moment, a strange expression on his face. "Steak."

Chief

Alex shook himself and moved a pawn forward, then leaned back and looked at her. At her silent question, he frowned. "What?"

"You miss steak?" It was a careful question, for she'd learned that he often had flashbacks. This felt like one of those.

"Yes. Odd thing to miss, isn't it?"

"No, not really. I just thought you were going to say being able to sneak around without people hearing you coming."

Alex paused. "Hadn't thought of that."

She nodded, let the Icee vanish back into the ether, and moved her knight forward. "Little things."

"Like steak dinners and dessert."

Agents

An hour later, they were still playing, and he'd checked her six times. She'd reciprocated by checking him twice. "Shouldn't you be getting back to patrol?"

"Lippencott'll just demand I come in to have a sleep cycle."

She'd let herself forget for a moment that he had a technician for a babysitter. "And that's a bad thing?"

"Don't want to sleep. Dreams."

Diana blinked at the visible shudder. That explained some things. "Oh. Of?"

He didn't say, but she could hear distant echoes of thunder and laughing long after he took his leave.

Shoe

Upon sitting down at his desk in the morning, the Chairman found a message waiting for him on his desk monitor. It was short, but no less important than every other message he got during the day...

"Mr. Chairman, it has come to our attention that there are things in life worth experiencing. These are, in no particular order: shoe shopping, steak dinner, a well-played game of chess, dessert, and being able to sneak around without being noticed. Life is wonderful, sir, and don't forget to enjoy the small things. - Murphy and Diana"

He sat there for long minutes before hitting save and taking a moment of silence out of respect for two lives forever changed.