"Ships. Arks, like Noah's," Reuben said. "They're being made right now, I guess."

"All right. So far, so good," Hicks said. Damn . . . he's actually convincing me! "How do they speak to you?"

"I'm going to put my hand in my pocket and show you something," Reuben said. "It's not a gun. Don't be afraid. Is that okay?"

Hicks hesitated, then nodded.

Reuben drew out the spider and put it on the table. It unfolded its legs and stood with the glowing green line on its "face" pointed at Hicks. "People are meeting up with these things all over, I guess," Reuben said. "One of them got me. Scared the shit out of me, too. But now I can't say I'm doing anything against my will. I almost feel like a hero."

"What is it?" Hicks asked softly.

"No name," Reuben said. He picked it up and secured it in his pocket again as the waitress approached. She laid their food on the table. Hicks paid no attention to his baked fish. Reuben brought the spider out again and laid it down between them. "Don't touch it unless you agree, you know, to be part of all this. It sort of stings you, to talk." The boy bit into his hamburger voraciously.

Stings? Hicks pulled back a scant inch farther from the table. "You're from Ohio?" he finally managed to ask.

"Mm." Reuben rocked his head back and forth in satisfaction. "God, it's good to eat again. I haven't eaten in two days."

"They're in Ohio?"

"They're all over. Recruiting."

"And now they want to recruit me. Why? Because . . . they heard me on the radio?"

"You'd have to talk to it, them," Reuben said. "Like I said, they don't tell me everything."

The spider did not move. Doesn't look like a toy. It's so perfect, a jeweler's fantasy.

"Why are they doing this?"

The boy shook his head, mouth full.

"Let me . . . well, at the risk of putting words into your mouth, let me see if I understand what you're saying. There are two different kinds of machines in our solar system. Correct?"

Reuben nodded, mouth full again.

"One type wants to convert planets into more machines. We've been told that much. Now there's an opposing type that is designed to destroy these machines?"

"Exactly," Reuben said after swallowing. "Boy, they were right to pick you."

"So we're dealing with von Neumann probes, and probe killers." He pointed to the spider. "How can these pretty toys destroy planet-eating machines?"

"They're just a small part of the action," Reuben said.

Hicks picked up his fork and flaked away a bite of fish. "Incredible," he said.

"You got it. At least you're learning about it the slow and easy way. Me, this thing nearly blew my mind."

"What else do you know?"