The Fellowship of the Hand by Edward D. Hoch Read Free Book Online Page B

for?” Jazine asked.
    “I have to get inside Nova’s election headquarters to see the results. The place has fantastic electronic defenses that I can only begin to comprehend. I need an expert with computers and wiring mazes.”
    “Defenses didn’t stop HAND at the Federal Medical Center,” Jazine pointed out. “You just blasted your way through.”
    “It’s not yet time for such a rash move. I want to see those election results without Blunt or Ambrose knowing I saw them.”
    “Why not wait until they tell their members the results? Then your informer can pass along the information.”
    “It may be too late by that time. My informer is very close to one of the candidates. If the other man won, I won’t know anything in time to take counter-measures.”
    “If what you’re telling me is true, I can get President McCurdy on the vision-phone and have these people arrested.”
    “No, for two reasons. There’s not enough evidence of their plot, and such a move would only bring the government down on HAND again. I’ve served enough time in the Venus Colony.”
    That seemed to remind Jazine of something. “Did you know this Ambrose when you were there?”
    “Only as a prisoner knows his warden.”
    “He wrote to his former mistress about you.”
    “How nice of him,” Frost said dryly.
    They drove for a time in silence, until finally Earl Jazine asked, “Just where is this secret election headquarters?”
    “They have a building in Chicago. I could show you tomorrow.”
    Jazine grunted and was silent again.

6 CARL CRADER
    T HE FIRST THING HE noticed about the girl was her youthful beauty, and the lightness of her walk as she came forward to meet him on the dock. She shook his hand and introduced herself, and he was surprised to learn that this child was Jason Blunt’s wife.
    “You say he’ll be back soon?” Carl Crader asked.
    “Soon, yes. Won’t you come in?”
    She led the way up a landscaped path to a great cube of glass and metal that dominated the man-made drilling island. It was a house, he supposed, but such a house as he had never seen before. The door slid open silently as they approached, and closed just as gently behind them. She motioned to a great white couch that looked as if it might devour him, but Crader sank into it with surprising ease and found it really quite comfortable. The view through the front window, of the sea-rail line curving gently to the north, was truly breathtaking. It was obvious that the place was more of a home from the inside than it had appeared from the outside.
    “Quite a place you have,” Crader said. “Been here long?”
    “Jason and I have been married three years. We met in New Istanbul. I am Turkish.”
    “A credit to your country.” He bowed a bit as he said it.
    “Sometimes I miss New Istanbul,” she confided. “Especially when Jason is away and I’m alone here. The house is fully automated, and we need only a few servants. They’re very little company.” She walked to the window and stared out at the sea. “Do you play aqua-golf, Mr. Crader?”
    “I rarely have time.”
    “We have a nice little course here.” She pointed out the window and he could see the familiar green pod anchored just off shore. Aqua-golf was the sport of a crowded civilization, where there was no longer space for the elaborate courses of the twentieth century. On little more than an acre of land, usually built over the water, this version of clock golf used a single grouping of holes at its center, with the eighteen courses laid out in a radiating pattern.
    Crader heard the familiar roar of a descending rocketcopter and glanced skyward. “Would that be your husband?”
    Masha nodded. “That would be him.”
    He followed her to the door to greet the trim, bearded man who bounded up the steps like a youth. Jason Blunt stopped short when he saw the visitor, and his questioning eyes were on Crader as he bent to kiss his wife.
    “Darling, this is Carl Crader, from