".....fish sticks...." Sam half-yelled, staring at a frozen package.

Danny Hearn quickly popped his head around the corner of the door.

"That's all?!" he frowned, his eyes still dark-rimmed from the fading hangover.

Sam rummaged through the freezer a bit more, his hands leaving damp imprints along the surface of the sleek, silver metal fridge door.

"...uhhhhh..." his voice came muffled from inside the freezer, "....and refried beans..."

Danny stepped fully into the spacious kitchen area, leaning heavily on a marble island-unit counter. He sighed, ruffling his thick auburn hair.

"Jaysis.....okay....have you checked the walk-in?"

Sam shut the fridge door, holding two icy packages.

"What? You're too good for fish-sticks?"

"I don't even know what the hell they are......." he sneered with a mild headache. "Have you checked the walk-in?"

///Fish-sticks are frozen pieces of--///

Shut up!, Danny 'yelled' at Hal.

"Dude! You call up any animal gene you need, and you don't know what fish are?" he asked incredulously.

"Of COURSE I know what fish are!" he yelled in irritation. "It's the fucking 'sticks' part I'm having a problem with! What are you 21st-century people? Cro-Magnons?!"

Sam gained a mock-serious expression on his face.

"Ohhhhh! NOW I get it.....the future-boy has champagne tastes...."

Danny grabbed the sides of his throbbing head, the hangover beginning to re-intensify.

"What the FUCK is CHAMPAGNE?!! WHAT THE HELL ARE FISH-STICKS?!! SPEAK GODDAMN ENGLISH!!" he yelled in sheer annoyance, his face reddening to a glow.

Sam stared at him a moment, still mock-serious.

"....dude....you don't know what champagne is?"

///Champagne is an alcoholi--///

"FUCK YOU!!" Danny finally yelled, realizing that he hadn't got around to all of the 21st century's culinary delights. Including champagne. Whatever it was.

He immediately bolted for the walk-in freezer, around the corner, cursing the entire way.

".......fucking primitive cave-dwelling......<grumble>......ignorant....never should have come out of the FUCKING trees......<gripe>.......scared of fire and shit........<grumble>......"

Flinging the walk-in freezer open, a waft of cool air briefly fogged his eyes. Stepping in, he found over a hundred different food items, securely stored in the nice, state-of-the-art freezer.

"DUDE!" he yelled over his shoulder to Sam, who was walking up, trying to bite down a snicker. "There's LOTS of food in here!"

"I know..." Sam shrugged.

Danny slowly turned towards him.

"You....know..."

"Yeah..." he shrugged again.

A small vein began poking along Danny's forehead.

"Then, why, Samuel...." he began, very, very slowly, and very, very quietly. ".....didn't you....tell me......"

Sam shrugged again.

"Eh....I just thought you might want fish-sticks....." he replied, his mouth beginning to give-way to a smile.

Danny immediately tackled him in a flurry of hungover anxiety, beating Sam's cackling form repeatedly with his fist.....

Meanwhile, on the ground floor, Shirley was going over a few tax forms on her desk, studying her PC for information on advertising. She sipped her coffee gently, allowing the hot liquid to drift down her throat. Tobias had gone for his daily jog of fifteen-thousand laps around the perimeter of the entire island, and she could swear that she heard scuffling and laughing from the second floor.

She smiled, playing with her hair a bit, still engrossed in her work.

Kids.... she thought.

The main lobby door suddenly swung open, a slender, bald man, around 6'7, stepped in. His robe blew a bit as the glass door slid shut.

"Hello...." she began with a smile. "...can I help y---"

"Thank you, but you have much work to do...." he interrupted, walking towards her, his eyes never leaving hers, holding up a single finger. "....and, besides, why would you want to waste time talking when there is no one here.....?"

The end of his sentence drifted off, as her eyes glazed over, still staring at the spot where he had entered. He never broke his stride, entering the elevator. the silver doors closed, as he eyed the numerical keypad. He winced a bit, technology out-foxing him. Doors. Minds. Objects. Even laser trip-wires. These were key simplicities to him. But, complex data pads were a bit out of his league.

"....if Z were here, she could just 'boom' me straight in....." he began with a smile. And, suddenly, his face grew very calm and serious. "......'Z'....what.....who is that?"

He was confused. A.....letter? A name? Why had it suddenly popped into his head? Who was 'Z'?

He quickly dismissed this. It was neither the time, nor the place for such a thing. The young woman that he had met sunbathing had spoke of this place. She had advised him that this new consulting agency specialized in.....strange...things. And, since he was a stranger in a strange land, what better place to start looking for questions than here.

Going up through the elevator shaft, sprinting nine levels had been easy, his toes gripping the edges of the thick, steel cabling. Stopping on the tenth floor, he felt something.....odd. Something quite undefinable.

He asked the doors to open, and they did. Strangely enough, he was expected.

"Greetings stranger...." Naecken began, standing directly in front of the elevator shaft. "May I offer you a drink?"