Eros at Zenith: Book 2 of Tales of the Velvet Comet by Mike Resnick Read Free Book Online Page A

“This is starting to look like an interesting case. I knew he couldn't be as dumb as he seemed!”
    “But why would he want the body to be found?” persisted the Dragon Lady.
    “I don't know yet,” he replied. “But there's one fact we have to consider: he had ample time to get off the Comet when the body was in the shaft, and he didn't take advantage of it.”
    “We already know that he's still on the ship.”
    “True, but we know something else now. This is the part you're not going to like.”
    “What is it?” she asked grimly.
    “He's still got work to do.”

Chapter 3

    Crane escorted the Dragon Lady to her office, dropped the fabric off at the Security laboratory, and took the tramway back to the Resort. Upon arriving he went straight to the reception desk.
    “My name's Crane,” he said. “You have a suite for me.”
    The woman behind the counter checked her computer, then smiled at him.
    “You're in Suite 16 on Level 3,” she replied. “The Black Pearl selected it especially for you.” She handed him a rather busy-looking plastic card with numerous colored squares and circles on it. “This is the key to your room, Mr. Crane,” she explained. “It is coded to your thumbprint, and will not work for anyone else. Each of the colored areas activates a different feature of your suite. The instructions are printed on the back of the card. And now, if you'll wait for just a moment, I'll send for someone to escort you.”
    “I'll find it myself,” he said, turning and walking to a bank of elevators. One arrived a few seconds later, and Crane entered it and commanded it to go to Level 3. Once there, he emerged into a thickly-carpeted corridor and began walking until he came to a door with the numeral “16” on it.
    He inserted his card into the lock, waited until the door slid into the wall, and entered his suite.
    There were two connecting rooms, both decorated in a minimalist high-tech style, with shining chrome furniture, angular sculptures, and non-representational paintings and holograms. The bedroom was dominated by a huge hexagonal waterbed made of some clear vinyl substance; a small school of alien fish swam inside it, darting in and out of the multi-colored underwater garden that flourished on the floor of the bed. Both the bedroom and the living room had small, functional wet bars, and shared a translucent quartz fireplace that was set into one of the walls.
    There was a door at the far end of the bedroom, and he ordered it to open. It did so, revealing a bathroom possessing a sauna and a whirlpool, both with solid gold fixtures.
    Crane returned to the living room, picked up the bottle of complimentary champagne that had been left in a silver ice bucket on a low chrome table, and took it to the wet bar's refrigerator, where he found that someone had learned enough about his tastes to provide him with a pitcher of iced coffee.
    He examined his surroundings for another minute, then pulled his card back out of his pocket and began experimenting with it. In quick order he discovered how to dim the lights, flood the entire suite with music, activate the sauna, create a roaring and very realistic fire in the fireplace, and lessen the gravity in the bedroom.
    He ran through the remainder of the card's three dozen functions, then put it away and pulled a contour chair up to the computer.
    “Activate,” he said.
    The computer hummed to life.
    “Examine my retinagram, match it up with your personnel file, check my security clearance, and then access all information concerning a patron named Edward Infante, recently deceased.”
    He waited a few seconds for the computer to acknowledge his command and follow his instructions.
    Suddenly the holographic screen became two-dimensional and turned amber in color, and the word READY appeared in rich yellow letters.
    “All right,” said Crane. “Start by listing all of Infante's living relatives.”
    NONE.
    “All known friends, on or off Deluros