messages, recently?"

"Naw, not for a couple of days," Todd replied, still pounding away at the keyboard. "I been working."

Hal went over and pushed the play button on the machine. There was the sound of a tape rewinding, then a deep, gravelly voice barked from the speaker.

"Dis is Manny. If youse two hacks don't pay up on dat loan in the next t'ree days, I'm gonna send someone over ta take it outta yer stinkin' hides!"

There was a sharp 'click' and then the tape rewound. Hal stood staring down at the machine for a few moments. "So, Todd," he said, as casually as he could, "when did you say you last checked the messages?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't know, two or three days ago. Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Hal mumbled, rubbing his chin, where several days worth of stubble had somehow accumulated. He wandered back over near Todd and asked, "So, how long have we been holed up in here, anyway?"

They had, as usual, put off working on their assignment until the deadline was almost upon them and they now had to have their "Cliffhanger" chapters turned in by the end-of-business, today, or they wouldn't get paid. And if they didn't get paid, it also meant that Manny wouldn't get the money they had borrowed from him, a week ago. They had started working on the latest story, almost non-stop, three or four days ago and Todd was just now putting the finishing touches on the last chapter.

"I don't remember," Todd answered, rather testily.

"You about done, there?" Hal asked, deciding that it didn't matter, much, as long as they got the chapters to the editor in the next couple of hours.

"Yeah, yeah. A couple more minutes."