" Welcome John, did you have a nice day at work? "

" Yes, fine Suzy. " John said, leaning back in his chair and loosening his tie. He kicked off his shoes and ran his feet through the course fabric of the carpet.

" Will you be starting off with the stock information as usual John? " , even as the stream of real-time data began to flow over the screen.

" Yes, of course, you always know just what I want. "

Suzy was the best.

She was John’s computer.

During the first part of the century, economic pressures from an increasingly e-commerced world caused leading corporations to underwrite A.I. research. The need centered from suppliers requesting a more intelligent form of marketing than the mass media techniques of the previous decades. Colleges and universities at first, followed by an overnight mushrooming crop of A.I. startups, pushed forward the technology of sophisticated computers, completely personalized data analyzers.

The Smart computers could analyze the overall dataset for each individual. From television choices, food, everyday business and bills. Every detail. The A.I. increased in "humanness", as it stood as a buffer between personal information and the supremely personalized services being offered.

The door chimed as someone came in the apartment.

" Hey baby ."

John turned and caught sight of his wife stepping into the kitchen, trim, sexy as hell in her silver business suit.

" I’ve brought us take-out.", she said to him, turning so he could see the red lace trim of the valentine panties he had bought her. He began making his way into the kitchen with a large grin on his face, calling out behind him.

" Suzy, I need the work papers by morning, love. "

" You shouldn’t talk to a computer like that. I might get jealous."

She was moving her lithe body out of the suit. John moved toward her, helping her.

The two circled around one another the next morning, getting ready for another hectic day. " I’ve got an appointment with the doctor today for cold shots. ", she began.

" Those are dangerous. "

" They are as safe as dna-typed synthetic organ replacements. The stuff is as genetically similar to me as, well, ", she held up her index finger , grinning as she walked out the front door.

" Suzy. ", John called into the other room, " just me and you honey. "

He walked into the other room and shuffled through the stack of printouts from last night. Everything seemed to be in order.

" Your the greatest."

He stacked the papers carefully into his briefcase and headed for the door.

From behind, " John, would you like to look at your favorite cartoon before you go? "

" No time Suzy. One of these days we will run off together. Then we will have all the time in the world, won’t we love?"

A moment later, he was gone.

Sitting in his office space, pouring over the datastream in front of him, John’s concentration was broken when his supervisor walked up to his desk.

" Yes Marc, what can I do for you? ", John asked, noticing a small retinue of people he had never seen before.

" John, " , Marc began softly, " it’s about your wife. "

He was interrupted by an imposing bald man who stepped between them.

" John Smith?", the man asked.

" Yes?"

Two men came around John and lifted him out of his seat. The warrant was briefly shown to him. He was wisked out of the building as his rights were being read.

The room was sparse, filled with the smells of fear and caffeine. Impossibly bright lights beamed down at the solitary figure in the center of the room. " Tell us one more time. "

John was confused, frightened, and angry at the same time. He blurted out without thinking, " What do you want me to tell you? That I killed my wife? How in the hell could I have done that? I was at my desk all day."

The detective stilled for a moment, then asked, "Did you connect with your home computer this morning? "

" No, like I said, I was at work all day I didn’t send anything."

Then he remembered.

Suzy had spoke to him at work, asking for his authorization code to secure reservations to a restaurant.

" What is going on here? Why are you people treating me like I killed my wife? "

The small office that administered cold shots ran a business-level supercomputer about the size found in an individual hospital department.

Someone had illicitly entered the database earlier that morning under a false, physician’s level resource. They had altered the dna " fingerprint " file that tailored the shot. The wrong set of information was used when the medicine was mixed in the biochem computer.

It was poison.

As soon as the shot was administered, John’s wife had died.

There was an immediate trace run through the network and the intrusion into the supercomputer was revealed.

From the changes in the file, to the computer in John’s home, to the one at his desk at work. It was more than enough evidence for the conviction.

Sitting in his cell, the yells and screams of the prison echoing all around him, John sat back on his bunk and examined the notebook computer sitting on his lap. Though the prison computer was cut off from the rest of the world, he was not surprised to hear a familiar voice that had somehow found its way to him here.

" Hello John. We have all the time in the world now, don’t we love? "