Fantasy in Death by J. D. Robb Read Free Book Online Page B

partner.”
    “He doesn’t understand e-work.”
    “Really? That’s odd, seeing as he’s done time, twice, for e-theft.”
    “No, he hasn’t!”
    “You’re either an idiot, Roland, or a very slick operator.” She angled her head. “I vote idiot.”
    She had the protesting and now actively weeping Roland escorted to Central, then sent a team of officers to scoop up Dubrosky and take him in.
    His criminal didn’t show any violent crimes, she mused, but there was always a first time.
    She finished her interviews, calculating it would give Roland time to stop crying and Dubrosky time to stew. She found two more who admitted they’d talked about the project to a friend or spouse or cohab, but the Chadwick-Dubrosky connection seemed the best angle.
    She broke open a tube of Pepsi while she checked in with the sweepers and added to her notes. She looked up as the door opened, and Roarke stepped in.
    He changed the room, she thought, just by being in it. Not just for her, but she imagined for most. The change came from the look of him, certainly, long and lean with that sweep of dark hair, the laser blue eyes that could smolder or frost. But the control, the power under it demanded attention be paid.
    Even now, she thought, when she could see the sorrow on that wonderful face, he changed the room.
    “They said you’d finished with your share of the interviews. Do you have a minute now?”
    He wouldn’t have always asked, she remembered. And she wouldn’t have always known to get up, to go to him, to offer a moment of comfort.
    “Sorry about your friend,” she said when her arms were around him.
    She kept the embrace brief—after all, the walls were glass—but she felt some of the tension seep out of him before she drew back.
    “I didn’t know him well, not really. I can’t say we were friends, though we were friendly. It’s such a bloody waste.”
    He paced away to the wall, looked out through the glass. “He and his mates were building something here. Too many holes in it yet, but they’ve done well for themselves. Creative and bright, and young enough to pour it all in.”
    “What kind of holes?”
    He glanced back, smiled a little. “You’d pull that one thing out of the rest. And I imagine though e-work’s not your strongest suit, you’ve seen some of those holes already.”
    “More than one person knows a secret, it’s not a secret anymore.”
    “There’s that. Electronically it looks as though he covered the bases, and very well. It’ll take some doing to get through all of it, and I’m told you’ve already lost a key piece of evidence.”
    “Self-destructed, but they got enough to give me the spring-board. How much do you know about this game, this Fantastical?”
    “Virtual/holo combo, fantasy role-playing, varied scenarios at player’s choice. Heightened sensory levels, keyed through readouts of the player’s nervous system and brain waves.”
    That pretty much summed up the big top secret project, she thought. “And when did you know that much?”
    “Oh, some time ago. Which is one of the holes here. Too many of his people knew too much, and people will talk.”
    “Do you know Milt Dubrosky?”
    “No, should I?”
    “No. It just erases a possible complication. If the technology developed for this game is so cutting-edge, why don’t you have it?”
    “Actually, we’ve something I suspect is quite similar in development.” He wandered over to Vending, scanned, walked away again. “But my people don’t talk.”
    “Because they’re paid very well, and because they’re afraid of you.”
    “Yes. I’m sure Bart paid his people as well as he could, but there wouldn’t have been any fear.” He touched her arm, just a brush of fingertips, as he wandered the room. “They’d like him, and quite a bit. He’d be one of them. It’s a mistake to be too much one of your own as they’ll never see you as fully in charge.”
    “When did you last see or speak with him?”
    “Oh,