Wild speculation likewise swirled around Male Infinity Magazine itself. It was mature, issues-related -- a little dull, in fact, and not nearly as accessible as Maxim or FHM. Here, too, Troy tried to be clear. "The Infinite Male can do anything, be anything, have anything. That includes real power over his life. Male Infinity will do the dull, hard, necessary things -- to look out for our health, to keep each other out of prison, and to say what's on our hearts. Women are supposed to be the great communicators, but a little too often they are also the great nags. We're confident we're getting our message across."
There was a cult following, but the big numbers were slipping after the inaugural splash, and as Troy Callahan entered the Male Infinity building, it seemed to him that winter was hanging on by long tough fingernails to keep away the spring. He was glad to get in from the slight drizzle of snow and opened up his trenchcoat.
"Everyone has arrived, Mr. Callahan."
"Thank you, Janice," Troy said to the chief guard, and took the elevator to the top floor, a combination restaurant and seminar area.
Troy surveyed the expectant faces as he went to the head of the table and removed his coat. He could only hope that they were in a mood to listen.
"All right. I'm here to listen to you, but for the record, you are not speaking to a vacuum, because I have some ideas too. Let me see if I can sum up the problem. How can a magazine be called Male Infinity and not be very sexy? Sexual, but not in-your-face sexy like all the competition.
"What we need is to make a leap -- but not the same old leap that everyone else is making. Our magazine hasn't been wrong before, and we're not going to go back on the ground we've broken. I want progress, not compromise, and no copycatting. We pride ourselves on being both thoughtful and daring, and always will. So here's what I propose.
"I call it NextRib. Our magazine will propose a third sex."
Roger McPherson chuckled in his too-smug way. "Come on, Troy. Hermaphrodites? Trannies? Is that where we're going?"
Sharon Rosenkranz settled back in her chair with shrewd sharp eyes. "No, I don't think that's what Troy means at all," she said, her eyes on Troy. "Let me guess. NextRib. Rib, as in the garden of Eden. You want to build the next race of women."
Troy smiled and pointed. "Do you all see why I keep her? Exactly right, Sharon. We are going to design the ultimate woman."
Sharon pursed her lips. "And this distinguishes us from Maxim -- how?"
"It's a semiserious project. We are going to push computer technology to create the ideal companion for man. The day is coming when households will be alive with AI. Why not give that house AI a female personality?"
Sharon shook her head. "This is the most retro idea you've ever had!"
"No. Not retro. People, nothing will ever replace woman -- or Woman 1, as I will now refer to her. Woman 2, the NextRib woman, will never make a serious dent in reality, in the way the world is actually run. But what Woman 2 does ... is up the stakes." Feeling looser now, Troy eased into perambulating and gesturing. "Women have what Seinfeld calls the sex thing. If men had the sex thing, women would never get taken out to a restaurant, we would just show up at their apartments with food. Women have the ass, the pussy, the tits -- and by that package, they also have our desperation." He raised a placating hand to Sharon before she could speak. "I'm not saying women don't face their own desperations -- but it's different. The message continually given by our modern social dystopia is that women could use men a lot less than men could use women. It's deeply frustrating -- and women are horrible at giving useful advice, besides 'Just comply with a hundred contradictory whims.'
"Enter Woman 2. She relieves the frustration."
Sharon's eyes narrowed. "Robot hookers!"
"We may never get that far ... but even if we did, why not?" He looked around. "Honestly. Why not a high quality robot hooker?"
"It's the sign of the loser!" Roger opened his hands, as if to explain the superobvious. "A real man gets a real woman."
"And what good is that, Roger? Sharon, you think about this too -- what good is that, if the man still wants the things from the real woman that he would want from the robot hooker? 'Oh, honey, can't we try this or that?' The real woman is going to ignore him and rebuke him, so this 'real' man will just have to keep hunting up more women until he finds one who will be his robot hooker after all! To build a robot hooker is not really to invent anything ... because the fantasy embodied by that robot has been around for thousands of years. This isn't technology imposing anything. This is technology servicing the public. The public wants mobility: build a car. The publc wants entertainment: build a television. The public wants sexual bliss: build Woman 2. It's inevitable.
"I want an end to male frustration. Women don't want me as much as we'd like them to, and they're not changing. The way out, then, is to want women less -- by enjoying Woman 2 more."
Sharon looked ready to laugh. "You want Woman 1 to become jealous of Woman 2!?"
"Woman 1 is already jealous of Woman 2. A woman catches a man with a porn magazine, or even admiring some infobabe on television, and instantly she gets all catty and sniping and depressed. So I say: up the jealousy."
"You've given this a lot of thought," said Sharon. "One hell of a lot more thought than you're really letting on. What are you really after?"
Troy just smiled.
"The design of Woman 2 will be primarily physical ... so I'd like you all to brainstorm how she'll get built." Troy looked around with satisfaction. "And now ... does anyone have anything to say?"
He enjoyed the sheepish silence of those gathered. It was standard procedure: the rank and file would begin to gripe, but before they could even phrase a complaint he would already have a solution. Troy Callahan could be intimidating that way.
Sharon came up to Troy as the meeting broke. "'How she'll get built?' Let me take a wild guess. Really big tits."
"A lot of men get turned off by that. Of course, I'm a fan of really big tits myself."
"I never know what you're up to. Maybe you enjoy being a lightning rod of controversy just for the hell of it. Troy, this will get you some attention, of the worst possible kind, but then it will blow over, and then what?"
"Sharon, I'm serious about this. This is an investment for the long haul. We are the right people to do this, and this is the right time. Right now, it's all a big fuzzy mess, what men want and what women can do about that. This will go a long way to sharply defining the terms of the whole argument. A lot of this is going to be just plain silly, absolutely. But some good is going to come of this."
"Robot hookers? Come on. What good?"
"Ever since I gave the magazine its name, I've been obliged to keep asking for Female Infinity. Ask yourself: would it be so bad, to be the Infinite Female?"
He winked and left.