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out, and toppled the table.
The defunct android that had been reclining there hit the floor,
spewing inner workings, and went rolling and rattling toward the
charging butlers.
Diving to the floor again, but drawing out his stun gun as he dropped,
Gomez fired.
"Blimey!" exclaimed one of the androids when the beam of the stunner
hit him full in his broad chest and disabled him.
He fell floorward and hit with an impressive hollow thunk.
The surviving butler tried a lazgun shot at Gomez, but only succeeded
in slicing the table clean in half.
Gomez jumped upright once again and shot at the second would-be
assailant.
The stun beam went wide, hitting a plump cook android and knocking her
off her perch.
Gomez's second shot did better, and the andy butler dropped his lazgun
and then followed it to the floor.
Leaping over the sundered table, Gomez caught Pegler by the collar and
yanked him out of the cringing crouch he had assumed. "Now, perrito,
I'd be most grateful if you'd inform me, at no charge, who hired you to
do me in?"
The shivering informant sneezed. "You really shouldn't get so close to
me, Sidney, you're liable to catch my--"
"Who?" "How's that?"
"Who arranged to have those mechanical louts assassinate me?"
Sniffling, Pegler replied, "It was, I swear, as big a surprise to as it
must have been to you when those lads came to life. I assumed they
were dormant and--"
"Apparently, ton to you are unfamiliar with the fabled Gomez
intelligence." The angry detective commenced shaking the other man
some. "S, each and every member of the Gomez Dan is nowhere near
stupid enough to believe this kind of bunk. Por favor, before I lose
the saintly patience I am exhibiting at the moment, give me the truth."
He shook the sniffling Pegler several more times.
"I swear I have absolutely no--"
"Usually, pendejo, I refrain from using a lazgun," said Gomez quietly
and evenly. "However, I notice that there are two handsome such
weapons lying about your establishment, dropped by the cholos you
rigged to do me in. If you wouldn't like to have your nasal passages
cleaned out by a lazbeam, now's the time to confide."
"I don't know who they were, truly."
"Details, por favor."
"There was avid phone call about midday, but the screen stayed blank
and the voice was filtered." Pausing to sneeze, the informant
continued. "I was instructed to fix a couple of my androids to throw a
scare into you. In fact, Sidney, they suggested four, but, being a pal
of yours, I only--"
"They knew I was going to call on you, huh? But I didn't con in
advance."
impression, for what it's worth, is that they contacted who has
knowledge about people who are expert at sec-modifications."
muy interesting, their knowing what I was going to be digging into
today," reflected Gomez, letting the ailing informant go.
"I'd be extremely careful, Sidney, if you're planning to call on any of
my colleagues for further info."
Stepping back, Gomez scrutinized the man. "Were they Tek hoods,
Pegler?"
"I tell you, I don't know who they were. This voice offered me a
fee--and, Sidney, he threatened to do me considerable harm if I didn't
go along with it," said Pegler. "The an dies in spite of what you
might think, weren't fixed to kill you. Only to scare you off."
"Oh, st I believe that," he said. "Scare me off what, did they tell
you that?"
Pegler shook his head and then sneezed twice more. "Whatever you're
working on. That was the message."
"I think it would be beneficial if you remained quiet and
uncommunicative for the remainder of today."
"I will, Sidney. I'll close up shop and go to the beach down at--"
"No, you'll simply take a long nap." Pointing the stun gun at him,
Gomez squeezed the trigger.
U p N EAR the high, curved ceiling of the immense Ad Village reception
area a huge six-foot-tall green plazbottle of Bliss Kola tilted exactly
every twenty-one seconds to send a foamy stream of brownish liquid
cascading down fifteen feet to splash into the wide oval fountain at
the center of the mosaic tile floor. Each projected tile represented a
product label, and the hundreds of them made for a bright, gaudy
spread.
Jake was sitting in one of the seven Lucite chairs in the row to the
left of the boomerang-shaped reception desk. The six others of'
seats were all clad in medical garb, doctor and nurse uniforms.
] The portly gray-haired man next to Jake leaned and mentioned,
should have dressed for the part."
"Hmm?"
"The casting android for the Stan Co Pharmaceuticals account likes
auditioning actors to show a bit of initiative and imagination,"
continued the man in the white coat. "Another friendly tip-you're a
mite too weather-beaten to do a convincing physician."
"Think so?" asked Jake.
"I see you in tobacco sub spots, maybe booze and brains tim That kind
of muscular stuff," said the actor. "I don't know your work. What are
your credits?"
Jake grinned. "Actually I'm not here to audition for anything,"
he said. "I'm waiting to see an agency art director." "Not an actor,
eh?" "Nope."
"Odd, very odd. Because you have that mixture of' cockiness and
desperation that characterizes our profession."
"That could be because--"
"Mr. Cardigan?" said the voxbox embedded in the reception desk.
He stood up. "Yeah."
"Door G, please. That will lead you to the Persuasion, Ltd., wing of
Ad Village
Jake bowed toward the portly would-be physician, gave the a lazy
salute, and headed for the designated doorway,
across the multicolored imitation tiles. Her attention was divided
between Jake, whom she'd nodded onto a polka dot couch, and the six
large comp-screens on the wall facing her.
"Which color scheme up there makes you feel less anxious?"
Dwight Grossman's former wife asked.
"I don't feel anxious."
"Well, hell, play along, Cardigan," she urged. "Assume you are, which,
Jesus, most every other living soul in Greater LA is. Which of those
rough-intrusion ads would soothe you?"
"When intrusion ads pop onto my vidwall or my comp screen I merely get
ticked off. There's not a one of them would soothe me," he answered.
"Now, about the--"
"How about the one that's all blues?" Margo touched the keyboard that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]