"Where have you been?" Carson shouted, stretching his arms out.  "I've been going nuts!"

"Relax, Chief.  The cavalry's here," reassured Jason.  "Did you make the date?"

"Yeah," answered Carson in a sarcastic tone, "And it's in less than fifteen minutes!"

"My man Carson; way to go!  I didn't think you'd pull it together so fast."  Jason patted Carson's back.  "Al, get Tyler on the phone and tell him to meet us... where is he going to meet us, Carson?"

"Cafeteria A"

"Excellent." said Al as he picked up Jason's phone to make the call.

"Listen," said Carson, biting one of his fingernails, "I've been thinking about this all morning.  I really don't see how this is going to work.  I don't know how I'm going to get it into her food, and even if I do, how do I know she'll swallow it?  She'll probably bite it and break a tooth or something.  There are just too many things that can go wrong..."

"Relax, man, you need to have a little faith.  Everything's going to go just fine."  Jason reached in his pocket for the capsule and then held it in the air.  "We'll cause a distraction that will last long enough for you to drop it in her food without her noticing.  She looks like a salad person; they put all sorts of crap in salads these days.  She'll never know."  He grabbed Carson's hand and placed the capsule in his palm.

Carson examined the tiny device and looked back at Jason. "What kind of distraction?"

"Don't worry about that; it'll be obvious"

"I need to be able to communicate with you, in case something goes wrong."

"Just find a seat facing the front of the cafeteria so you can see us. We'll stake out by the vending machines."

"One more thing: Ruben's on my case and wants a configuration management plan for Dreadnaught on his desk by Monday morning.  Can you help me with that?"

"That's not a problem.  You'll get all the help you need."

"Okay, then.  I'm ready"

Jason grinned and slapped him on the back.  Carson choked and coughed in response.

Al put the phone down and said "Tyler's in; we are go, go, go!"

Jason grabbed Carson by both shoulders and stared him in the eye.  "You can do this thing! Are you ready, chief?

"I don't know... I've got a bad feeling about this."  Carson's face took on a shade of pale green.

"Don't worry," replied Jason, "you can always abort if things get dicey, and then we'll go to plan B."

"What's plan B?"

"You take her out for drinks and a nice dinner."

"Heck no!  I'm not going that far!"

"Then make plan A work," Jason said and winked at Carson.  As they turned to leave the cube, Jason grabbed Carson's arm and turned him back.  "And don't forget to turn on the capsule before you plant it!"

***

Carson arrived at the front of the cafeteria promptly at twelve-thirty.  He purchased a soda and then scanned the crowd looking for Chandra.  He put his hand in his pocket and grasped the small capsule, checking that it was still there.  He spotted Sadie standing by the trash cans.  She stood perfectly still but her eyes dotted back and forth, examining people's trays as they passed.  A group of people approached her to empty their trash into the bins.  She grabbed an empty soda bottle from a man's tray like a frog snatching a fly out of the air.  She was so fast the man never noticed.

"Hi there.  You actually showed up."

Jason jumped and turned to see Chandra standing there.  "Oh, hi.  Yeah, I'm glad you could make it.  Let's grab a seat."

Forgoing his manners, Carson charged into the dining room to pick the perfect spot.  He found a table in the corner of the room and made his way around the far side to ensure he could see the vending machines.  He moved so fast that Chandra was still several tables behind him.

"My, my, we must be hungry," she said, as she approached the table.

"I'm sorry," said Carson as he came back around the table.  "I just wanted to find a quiet spot."  He pulled a chair out for Chandra and waited for her to sit.

"That's more like it," she said.

Carson returned to the other side of the table and took his seat.  The spot was perfect; he had a clear view of the vending machines.  He stretched his neck and tried to locate Jason and Al.

"What are you looking at?" asked Chandra, turning to look.

"Oh nothing.  I thought I saw someone I know."

She turned back and looked down at Carson's soda.  "Where's your lunch?  Is that all you're having?"

Carson looked down at the empty space in front of him.  "Oh, yeah... I, uh, was really hungry and ended up eating at my desk."

Chandra looked annoyed.

"It's, ah, better this way, so I can focus on asking you questions."

"Okay." said Chandra as she opened her lunch bag, "Fire away."

"So, what do you have for lunch?" asked Carson, examining each item as Chandra placed her lunch on the table.

"I have some yogurt and a green salad," she answered, with a strange look on her face.  "Why, are you still hungry?"

"Oh, no, no. I was just curious about what kind of foods you eat.  Do you like vegetables?  How do you feel about whole grains?"

She stopped what she was doing and rested her elbows on the table.  "I thought you wanted to ask me questions about work, not about my eating habits."

"Sorry, I was just curious.  You just seem really healthy."

"As a matter of fact, for all intensive purposes, I'm pretty much a vegetarian," she said, as she opened the yogurt container and poured some granola into it.

Carson watched as she stirred the granola into the yogurt.  Perfect! Lots of hard little chunks would make an excellent cover for the capsule.  Now all he had to do was wait for the distraction.  He rolled the capsule between his fingers in anticipation.

"Vegitarian.  That's great," he said. "So, how do you like Omnivan?"

"So far, so good.  It's my third job since college.  I was looking for an environment where I could really grow, you know, as a professional female.  There's still a lot of prejudice in the work place today, and I think it's important that woman work hard to land important positions and prove their capabilities..."

Carson lost track of the conversation and looked past Chandra towards the vending machines.  He spotted Al and Jason, just as they had promised.  They saw him and gave the thumbs up signal.  Carson smiled and nodded slightly.

"...and that was about the time when I joined the American Association of University Woman and the Society of Woman Engineers.  Hey, are you listening to me?" She slapped the table to get Carson's attention.

"Huh?  Oh, yeah.  I'm sorry. You were saying?" he asked.

Just then a loud voice boomed over the din of the cafeteria, "Excuse me.  Excuse me!  Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please?"

Chandra and Carson looked towards the front of the room and saw Tyler standing on a chair.  His shirt was untucked and barely made it around the curve of his belly.  The cacophony of the cafeteria ceased as all eyes turned their attention to the balding man standing before them.

"Thank you, folks. Please pardon me for interrupting your dining experience, here in the lovely venue of Cafeteria A, but I seem to have misplaced my medic alert bracelet.  You see, I'm, ah... an anemic chocaholic, who's allergic to bee stings, and I must carry my bracelet at all times," he shouted to the crowd, enjoying his time in the spot light. "If you could just take a quick look around your tables, I would really appreciate it."

Carson seized the opportunity and pointed past Chandra "Hey, is that it over there?"

Chandra turned and looked down at the floor.  Carson dropped the capsule into the yogurt and stirred it in with her spoon.  He looked over at Jason and gave the thumbs up signal.  Jason beamed and waved to Tyler.

"Where?  I don't see anything," said Chandra as she turned back to the table.

"Excuse me!" shouted Tyler.  "It looks like someone located my bracelet."  Tyler held his arm out to the crowd like a banana republic dictator. "Thank you, thank you, for your cooperation."

All of the sudden, Carson's heart stopped as he realized he had forgotten to turn the device on.  He frantically looked at Jason and waved his hand.  Jason looked back with a puzzled look on his face and then realized Carson was in trouble.  He waved at Tyler who was still standing on the chair.

"Who are you waving at?" asked Chandra, turning around once again.

"Ah... excuse me, folks," Tyler announced, looking at Jason.  "It seems the bracelet that was found does not belong to me.  Could you all please take another quick look?"

Chandra turned back to Carson.  "What a goofball," she said, reaching for her yogurt.

"I really think I see it, over there.  Do you see it?  Under that table?"  Carson leaned toward her and pointed past her shoulder.

"Where?"  She turned her head again and Carson dug his shaking fingers into the yogurt, frantically searching for the capsule.  "I see something, ah, just under that table behind you."

"I really can't see what you're talking about," said Chandra, bending to get a better look beneath the table.

Carson found the capsule and pulled it out of the container and quickly sat back down in his chair.  Yogurt ran down the side of the container and some spilled on the table.  He wiped his other hand over the spill and gave the thumbs up signal to Jason.  Jason, still looking confused, signaled to Tyler.

Tyler turned back to his audience.  "Oops.  My bad.  Sorry once again folks.  It appears this bracelet is mine.  I was, ah, reading it upside down.  Thank you."  Tyler now looked embarrassed and quickly got down off the chair.

Chandra turned back to the table once again and looked at her yogurt container.  "That was bizarre," she said, running her finger up the side of the container, cleaning up line of yogurt Carson had spilled.  She put her finger in her mouth and smiled at Carson.

Carson returned the smile but it looked more like an expression babies get when they have gas.  His heart still hammered in his chest and he gulped at the air with deep breaths.  He held the capsule beneath the table in his yogurt covered fingers.

She gave him a strange look.  "You okay?"

"I'm fine," his voice cracked.  "Sorry about that.  I guess it was just some garbage I saw."  He lifted one leg and wiped the yogurt on his sock, moving slowly so she wouldn't notice.  He looked over at the vending machines.  Jason had his hands on his hips and spoke to Tyler and Al with his head down.  He glanced towards Carson.  Carson's mind raced.  He had to come up with something fast.  He didn't think he would be able to last through a whole dinner date with Chandra.

"Boy, I'm tired," said Chandra.  "I'm usually going a million miles an hour, and when I slow down, I can really feel it."

"You put in a lot of hours, don't you?"

"Yeah, I'm in the office quite a bit.  There's a lot of work to do and I don't dare let up for a minute."

An idea crept into Carson's head.  "You know," he said, "I used to be the same way, but I found a solution."

"Oh really?" Chandra looked up from her yogurt.

"I have this Asian friend who gave me an herbal supplement, and it keeps me going with very little sleep."

"Oh, I've heard of that.  What's it called... Ginseng?"

"No, this stuff is much better than Ginseng, and you can't find it in US stores, at least not yet."

"Really, what's it called?"

"I, ah, can't remember its official name, but we just call it, uh... Fastrack."

"Fastrack?  I've never heard of it.  You say it works well?"

Carson twisted the capsule to activate the device.  "Yeah, it's great.  You want to try it?  I have some with me."

"Does it have anything illegal or dangerous in it, like amphetamines or something?"

"No, it's completely herbal."

Chandra stared into her yogurt and stirred it.  "Yeah, why not?  I'll try anything at this point. I don't know how much longer I can keep up this pace."

Carson pretended to reach into his pocket and then handed her the capsule.  She examined it closely for a moment. "You sure it's not going to kill me?" she said, looking sideways at him and squinting.

"I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"Can I have a sip of your soda to wash it down?"

"You sure can," said Carson as he handed her the bottle.

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