Chapter 1: Prudence

She leafed through the magazine she had picked up at a news store. Mostly she read the journals and newsletters she subscribed to on the com rather than buying print. The cover had caught her eye.

Pru noticed a classified ad in the general marketing section.

Executive appointment

International consultancy seeks M/F to train as partner in business and teaching fellowship. Must have excellent language skills: native English — fluent in one or more EU languages. Arabic or Chinese an asset. Heavy travel; challenging work environment. Salary based on skills, commitment. Send resume to CID...

"All those languages," she muttered. "Weird." She had French and German, and her childhood in China had helped; Arabic was the weak one. It was a strange sort of ad: it mixed both marketing and education.

She thought about it off and on, and finally decided to answer on a whim. Her job wasn't going anywhere; her boss was too young to die and too nice to kill. She keyed up her resume. She reviewed her education and language skills, updated her job experience as Chief Operating Officer at a small Web marketer.

After some thought, she added a paragraph:

PREFERENCES AND GOALS

Looking for challenging work in a non-challenging working environment.

She added her Common ID, scanned the CID from the newspaper to her remote, hit Send and promptly forgot about it.

A few evenings later, lounging in her living room, having shed her kilt, and wearing only a wisp to protect the furniture, the com chimed. The com screen was a sheet of luminescence that, when unused, appeared as a favorite painting on the one wall not covered with bookshelves or windows. The painting changed from time to time as her mood changed. Now the picture disappeared, replaced with the com system symbol.

Pru set down her book reader and said, "Voice Only". A man's face appeared on the screen and her remote sucked the CID, revealing his Common Identification information.

"What do you want?" she asked in the off-putting tone she used with evening com calls. Her friends were used to it and it helped put com salespeople off their stride.

"Is this Prudence Whiteside?" a man asked.

"Yes," she said shortly. The limited information in the CID did not appear to identify a salesperson and the image looked like a real person, not a computer image.

"My name is Terry Sideman. I have your resume — the one you sent in answer to my ad." Pru found her remote, and touched keys until the display confirmed the CID was the same one to which she had sent her resume.

"Yes?" she replied, less hostilely, but still not wanting to sound too encouraging.

"I'm sorry to call in the evening, especially when all the com marketers are out hunting. But, I wanted to chat with you and see if you're really interested in the position the ad mentioned."

Pru decided it was time to warm up a little. He had apologized for bothering her. "Look, it's all right. Sorry if I sounded hostile, it's a ploy I use to put salesmen off."

She keyed her remote to Show Face and her face appeared on-screen next to the caller's. The camera followed her face and neck when she moved. "As for the position you mention in the ad, it's pretty vague. What did you say your name was?"

"Terry Sideman. I'm president of Neo-Tantra Consulting near Nyack, outside of New York Sector. We do consulting and seminars on Neo-Tantra all over the world, and I'm looking for a qualified management person to help me with an expanding business. I'm also looking for someone who can become a key member of our consulting and teaching staff."

Pru interrupted. "Neo-Tantra? Tantra? That's the Indian system of sexual mysticism. You want a manager, teacher and consultant? For a sex school?"

"Good," Terry said, "you already know what the old Tantra is. We've developed a new form of Tantra — really very different. Have you read any of the old Tantric literature?"

"Well, I read one book. That is, I started it. It was 400 pages long, and I quit about halfway through. It was totally incomprehensible."

"I'll bet it was. I've probably read it, too, but really, the literature you can find is simply impossible to read and get anything useful out of. They planned it that way."

"Why, for god's sake?" Pru was warming to the man; he was rather interesting. Good-looking, too. The camera carefully followed her smiling face as she reached for her glass of wine and sipped. To herself, she wondered what this had to do with an executive appointment.

"Long ago, when Tantra was first developed, it was as an alternative to the more ascetic methods of escaping the Wheel of Life. Do you know about that?" Sideman seemed very focused, his good-looking face serious.

"Yeah, to stop being constantly reborn you have to attain enlightenment one way or another. Self-denial, good works, whatever. At least that's my take on Buddhism."

"Yes, well Tantra is found in both Buddhism and Hinduism," Terry responded warmly. "Actually, Tantra was originally a way to escape the Wheel by attaining enlightenment through perfect sexual union. Almost immediately, though, the powers that be tried to make it harder. In addition, they did it by re-writing the whole thing in code. So no one could do it easily."