Montezuma Strip by Alan Dean Foster Read Free Book Online Page B

attitudes,
     what they had in common and what they didn’t. In what they didn’t commit to storage. They shared their work but they kept
     themselves to themselves.”
    “A cop shouldn’t be full of riddles.”
    “Have you got a terminal here?”
    “Does a cow have udders?” She slid off the bed, jounced across the room, and touched a switch. A portion of wall slid upward
     to reveal a small screen while the vorec popped out of a slot nearby, an obedient metal eel. He walked over andplucked it from its holder, studied the screen. They were both naked, both comfortable with it and each other.
    “Pretty fancy setup for a household.”
    “Think. I have to work at home sometimes. I need more than a toy.” She leaned against him.
    “Look, let me concentrate for a minute, will you?”
    She straightened. He saw her teeth flash in the dim light. “Okay. But only for a minute.”
    He activated the screen, filled the vorec mike with a steady stream of instructions. It was slower than the Designer units
     he’d sponged at Parabas and GenDyne but far faster than any normal home unit. Soon he was running the files he needed from
     both companies. Then he surprised Hypatia by accessing Nogales. The problem he set up was for the Sociopsycultural Department
     at the U of A. It didn’t take the University Box long to render its determination.
    “There it is.”
    She stared at the screen, then back at him. “There
what
is?”
    “Answers, maybe.” He slipped the vorec back into its slot. The screen went dark. “Let’s ambulate.”
    “What, now?” She ran fingers through her unkempt hair. “Don’t you ever give a lady a chance to catch up?”
    “You can catch up next week, next month.” He’d found his pants and was stepping into them. “I think I know what happened.
     Most of it, anyway. The data make sense. It’s what our two boys did that doesn’t make sense, but I think they went and did
     it anyway.”
    She thumbed a closet open and began rummaging through her clothes. “You mean you know who vacuumed them?”
    He fastened the velcrite of his waistband. The blue federales bracelet bounced on his wrist. “Nobody vacuumed them. They vacuumed
     themselves.”
    She paused with the velcrite catch of her bra. “Another riddle? I’m getting tired of your riddles, Angel.”
    “No riddle. They vacuumed themselves. Simultaneously,via program. I think it was a double suicide. And by the way, I’m no Angel. It’s ‘Ahn-hell,’ for crissakes.”
    “That’s Tex-Mex. I only speak anglo.”
    “Screw you.”
    She struck a pose. “I thought you were in a hurry to leave?”
    Security let them back into GenDyne but they weren’t happy about it. There was something wrong about cops going to work at
     three A.M . The guard in the hall took his time. His helmet flared as the scanner roved over both nocturnal visitors. Just doing his
     job. Eventually he signed them through.
    They went straight to Crescent’s office. It was the same as they’d left it, nothing moved, unexpectedly sterile-looking under
     the concealed incandescents. Cardenas found his gaze returning unwillingly to the bright family portraits that hovered above
     the desk.
    He flicked the vorec and brought the wallscreen online. He warmed up with some simple mnemonics before getting serious with
     the tactical verbals he’d decided to use. Hypatia caught her breath as the wall flared, but no psychomorph coalesced to threaten
     them. Cardenas was being careful, additionally so with Hypatia in the room. Charliebo cocked his head sideways as he stared
     at the screen.
    Five minutes later Cardenas had the answer to the first of his questions.
    “It’s tactile. Same kind of concealed setup Noschek had in his place.”
    “Jesus! You could warn a body.”
    “There’s no danger. I’m not sponging deep yet. All surface. There are ways. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to trigger anything.”
    “Thanks,” she said dryly.
    He drove in, the words flowing