and hotels. After all, there was a definite purpose here, and distractions had to be kept to a minimum. For my kind, intimate relationships with humans always present problems and must be approached with a high degree of circumspection, especially when dealing with American women who are so much freer and independent than their European counterparts.
Also, the mere sight of Nicole shot daggers of pain deep into the core of my being. Fortunately, she left after a few long moments.
About ten minutes later, Nicole, Gino and Quinn returned, quickly followed by Dale, who immediately placed a large piece of poster board covered with Mylar on a tripod stand at the front of the conference room.
"Procedures," he said, with a wide, vocal flourish. "There's a lot to cover, so I'll just jump right in." He brandished a large marker and pointed it at the image of the cab radios used by Co-op Cab. Much to my surprise, the system was actually computerized, the simple pressing of buttons telling the dispatcher a driver's approximate location and whether said driver is empty, on the way to pick up a call, in service or on break.
"Much of what follows will be covered by your on-the-road trainers," Dale continued, "but redundancy is good." He touched the image of one of the buttons on the cab radio with the marker, and again I saw Anya's face.
She had moved toPrague , and together we lived in a charming garret in the theater district. We both had been following events inGermany with great interest and had decided to leave, but various obstacles delayed our departure. The sale of a 16th-century Russian icon failed to come to fruition, the buyer having been waylaid at the border. Traveling money was desperately needed, so we waited for another buyer, who did in fact arrive inPrague in time to make the sale, but the transfer of his funds was bundled up in too much red tape.
German tanks crossed the Czech border. Soldiers patrolling the streets made it unsafe to leave our garret, but our exodus could be delayed no longer, for the Germans had already commenced house-to-house searches for Jews, Gypsies and other undesirables.
Our survival was punctuated by the ticks of the clock on the wall of our garret where we spent our last night together, holding each other close, hearing coarse German shouts as the hours slowly passed before my agents would come for us.
We had managed to book passage aboard a train, but would not depart until the next afternoon. Before daybreak, Anya would have to seal me inside a crate within which I would have to travel, at least until nightfall. Yes, again, the first rays of morning sun are deadly, and when the sun rises, even when safely sequestered, I become virtually catatonic.
I shall never forget the sight of Anya peering into the crate before she nailed the lid shut. She smiled bravely, leaned down and kissed me, her lips like rose petals. I wanted to pull her into the crate with me to hold her, keep her safe, but one of us had to remain on the outside to make sure we both safely boarded the train. When she closed the lid, I caught one last glimpse of her, the brave smile cracking at the last moment, revealing what I already knew, that she was frightened, which, to tell the truth, was no different from what I was feeling.
The word "bid" broke through my musing. Dale's pointer touched the button to the far left on the bottom row of buttons, the top row containing eight compass designations for the eight geographic zones in which the city was divided.
"This is the most important button on your radio," Dale said. "Your bid button is the one that makes you money."
As Dale related, the bid button holds the exalted place at the far left of the radio, closest to the driver's hand, not buried in the middle of the row of buttons like those designating the statuses of empty, acknowledged, destination or 10-7, which means on break.
When the bid button is pressed, the number marking one's cab on the dispatcher's computer screen lights up, signaling a driver's desire to be considered for one of the available calls "on the board." Dale said calls are given to the closest cab, that is unless the dispatcher determines there is need to shift the entire fleet in the direction of where there happens to be a glut of calls.