Ann slipped Wendell into his hidden pouch, reached the ground floor and stepped out into a lobby. She looked at a directory of the building, which was illuminated by a series of small lights around its framework:

            Level 0:            lobby, entrance.

            Level 1:            enquiries.

            Level 2:            school year five students.

            Level 3:            school year six students.

            Level 4:            school year seven students.

            Level 5:            school year eight students.

            Level 6:            school year nine students.

            Levels 7-18:     school children not allowed. Company employees only.

            All visitors please report to level 1.

Ann read it all and then stepped towards the elevator. She pressed the 'up' button and waited, watching the lights change from one number to the next,  on the display above the elevator doors. The elevator admitted Ann to its rectangular structure, and she looked at the man in his business suit, who had not stepped out at the ground floor.

"Aren't you getting out here?" she asked, "It doesn't go any lower. It just goes up now."

"I am the lift attendant. Where are you going to?"

"Oh, of course, the lift attendant. Sorry. I think I should go to level one."

The elevator ascended, and Ann was soon speaking to a lady who worked at the enquiry desk.

"I was wondering what Computer Contact is all about," said Ann.

"Well it's a special company for school children in their last two years of primary school, or in their first three years in high school. We test your intelligence, if you're interested, and then if you're able to do your homework early in the afternoons, you can come here and learn and work with computers. We think that every office  in Australia will have its own computers in about ten years time. So we are offering our special weeknight training now. We don't think that all children should have to wait until they leave school, to learn about all of this, when some of the brighter kids can do their homework in no time and then spend the afternoon and evening feeling bored. Our classes are from five until eight, but it's not all hard learning. You can join in a computer wargame simulation with several other girls. You actually design weaponery on the screen and test it against the computer's mind. We provide you with dinner. So all you have to do is bring your brains and turn up. Your parents pick you up at eight."

"I'm an orphan," said Ann, "but I think it all sounds rather exciting, being up in a tall building, learning about computers at night. I'm only in year eight. So I'm still young enough to start, if you think it's alright."

"Sure. We're always looking for more, but you'll have to get in quick. If you start tonight, you've only a week and two days until the end of this term."

"I'll give it my best," thought Ann, knowing that it couldn't hurt to try something for a week and a half. The robot could replace her at Freedom Fields. She could even still go to school herself, and at this stage in the term they would not be given a great deal of homework. Teachers usually relaxed the workload once the end-of-term exams had been dealt with.

"I would like to come along then," she said.

"Well you will have to take an intelligence test first," said the lady, "I'm not trying to make you feel bad if you don't get enough marks, but you would be wasting your nights here, and our time, if you can't cope with the brainwork that we require of our students."

Ann sat at a desk in an almost empty room and worked her way through the test.

"My robot's probably answering history questions at school," she thought.

*          *          *          *