[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
sharpened teeth. “Lady, we were just trying to have
a little bit of fun. It was just a joke.”
Diane hesitated only a moment, remembering
the bloody body of Mrs. Goldberg who had lived
down the hall from her.
Her finger tightened on the trigger.
Three times.
The riddled body of the giant drooped, hanging
in the thorns that had prevented his escape. His
helmet bounced onto the sidewalk, spinning like a
wobbly top as Diane dashed toward the main door.
“That’s for Mrs. Goldberg,” she whispered to the
corpse as you passed it. It might not do the departed
neighbor any good. It’s impossible to help the dead,
Diane reflected. And chances were good the three
thugs
lying
behind
her
weren’t
involved
in
butchering Mrs. Goldberg.
All the same, it gave the searcher a good feeling
in the pit of her stomach to think she’d evened up
the scales of justice just a bit. Little by little, she
and her MP-5Z were making the world a better
place.
She smiled grimly, placing her hand on the
scanner that opened the heavily armored door to
the apartment complex.
57
CHAPTER 9
iana stared at the muzzle of the autogun in
Tim’s door. “Tell your door to lighten up,” she
said over her phone after dialing his number.
D
“Don’t get into a panic,” Tim’s voice answered.
“It must have mistook you for a door-to-door
salesman.”
The gun abruptly swiveled away from her and the
door popped open a crack.
Diane pushed her way through the opening,
closing it behind her and listening to be certain the
electric locks latched securely. “You need to check
your defense program. I could hear the safety on the
gun disengage and the trigger linkage tighten. Some
day you’re going to ace a friend if that thing
malfunctions.”
“Maybe,” Tim answered, his face a motionless
mask of stainless steel. He rose from his chair with a
clank and turned toward her as she entered his
apartment. Although only his hands and face had
actually been replaced with metal parts, he had
58
added enough armor and cyborgic modules to his
anatomy to give the impression to a casual observer
that he was all metal — a misconception he enjoyed
exploiting from time to time.
“Your door can’t have a legal defensive program
in it,” Diane said, unslinging her submachine gun and
laying it on a table piled high with old computer
manuals and a slice of fossilized pizza.
“I’ll admit I tweaked the program a bit. But I
figure better safe than sorry. If anything goes wrong, I
can always get new friends should I fry one by
mistake.”
“Very funny,” Diane said. “When your gun
malfunctions, leaving my corpse in the hall, you’ll
have a lot of lonesome nights with only your ethereal
cyber babes to keep you company. I’m not sure who
else would want to be a friend to a rust bucket like
you.”
“Stainless steel and copper doesn’t rust. What
you’re mistaking for corrosion is an attractive patina.
Like an ancient statue of a Greek god.” He struck a
pose and stood completely motionless in front of the
massive table containing his computer and meter-
wide flat screen.
“Cut it out. You know it gives me the creeps
when you do your statue routine.”
“Listen,” Tim said, abruptly coming back to life.
“Did you come here to make jests at your faithful
bionic friend’s expense or did you need something?”
“I need information.” She laid fishing the data
dot from a belt pocket. She handed the chip to him.
“But first we need to do some house cleaning.” She
retrieved her comphone and switched on its new
59
circuits, extending the extra long antenna. Stepping
over a partially dismantled sweeper-bot lying on the
floor, she initiated her electronic sweep of the room.
“What?” Tim asked. “You’re not going to
rearrange everything so I can’t find it, are you. You
remember how that messed me up last time.” Then
he saw what she was doing. He turned to one of the
keyboards on the desk behind him and typed, then
cleared his throat to get her attention.
Diane turned glanced toward him and read the
meter-high letters that had appeared on the giant
monitor.
“Bugs?” he had typed in neon pink fonts that
jumped from the screen.
She nodded, thankful he had the good sense not
to say anything that might tip a listener off so he
could shut down any of the electronic listening
devices that might be present, making them harder to
find.
The display on the comphone lit up. “Detection —
1 circuit.” Diane turned the tiny screen so Tim could
see.
He retrieved a screwdriver from his desk and
plugged it into the end of one of his metal fingers.
“I’ll handle this part,” he whispered, reaching to take
the phone from her.
She shook her head. “It doesn’t rain but it
pours.”
“More?”
“Probably.” She picked up a pen from his desk
and circled the spot the bug was embedded in the
wall. Then she continued the sweep of the room.
Five minutes later, she was finished. “That makes
60
three all together,” she said, smashing a cockroach
under her boot. She studied the smashed creature a
moment. “Now we’re down to two.”
“You didn’t have to smash the cockroach,” Tim
protested. “I could have used the transmitter it had
glued to its back.”
“We don’t have time to capture bugged bugs so
you can dissect them. Besides, you can play with the
two mechanicals we found in your walls. Let’s dig
them out.”
They spent the next three minutes retrieving the
twin transmitters embedded in the walls of the room.
“Of course you’ll need to pay me for destroying
my expensive décor,” Tim said, extracting the last
from the sheet rock.
“Loss of yellowed wallpaper isn’t covered in our
contracted expenses.” Diane smiled. “And the dead
cockroach spot on the carpet will never be noticed
among all the grease stains. Besides, if you’d been on
the ball, no one would have been able to plant these
in here. Don’t tell me you actually left your
apartment long enough for someone to get in here.”
“I haven’t.” Tim held one of the tiny units under
a magnifier. “But I think I know how they did it with
me here. I opened the door for a delivery man a
couple of days ago — he supposedly had a wrong
address. I was suspicious at the time, but didn’t think
about the possibility I had let in some bugs.” [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
sharpened teeth. “Lady, we were just trying to have
a little bit of fun. It was just a joke.”
Diane hesitated only a moment, remembering
the bloody body of Mrs. Goldberg who had lived
down the hall from her.
Her finger tightened on the trigger.
Three times.
The riddled body of the giant drooped, hanging
in the thorns that had prevented his escape. His
helmet bounced onto the sidewalk, spinning like a
wobbly top as Diane dashed toward the main door.
“That’s for Mrs. Goldberg,” she whispered to the
corpse as you passed it. It might not do the departed
neighbor any good. It’s impossible to help the dead,
Diane reflected. And chances were good the three
thugs
lying
behind
her
weren’t
involved
in
butchering Mrs. Goldberg.
All the same, it gave the searcher a good feeling
in the pit of her stomach to think she’d evened up
the scales of justice just a bit. Little by little, she
and her MP-5Z were making the world a better
place.
She smiled grimly, placing her hand on the
scanner that opened the heavily armored door to
the apartment complex.
57
CHAPTER 9
iana stared at the muzzle of the autogun in
Tim’s door. “Tell your door to lighten up,” she
said over her phone after dialing his number.
D
“Don’t get into a panic,” Tim’s voice answered.
“It must have mistook you for a door-to-door
salesman.”
The gun abruptly swiveled away from her and the
door popped open a crack.
Diane pushed her way through the opening,
closing it behind her and listening to be certain the
electric locks latched securely. “You need to check
your defense program. I could hear the safety on the
gun disengage and the trigger linkage tighten. Some
day you’re going to ace a friend if that thing
malfunctions.”
“Maybe,” Tim answered, his face a motionless
mask of stainless steel. He rose from his chair with a
clank and turned toward her as she entered his
apartment. Although only his hands and face had
actually been replaced with metal parts, he had
58
added enough armor and cyborgic modules to his
anatomy to give the impression to a casual observer
that he was all metal — a misconception he enjoyed
exploiting from time to time.
“Your door can’t have a legal defensive program
in it,” Diane said, unslinging her submachine gun and
laying it on a table piled high with old computer
manuals and a slice of fossilized pizza.
“I’ll admit I tweaked the program a bit. But I
figure better safe than sorry. If anything goes wrong, I
can always get new friends should I fry one by
mistake.”
“Very funny,” Diane said. “When your gun
malfunctions, leaving my corpse in the hall, you’ll
have a lot of lonesome nights with only your ethereal
cyber babes to keep you company. I’m not sure who
else would want to be a friend to a rust bucket like
you.”
“Stainless steel and copper doesn’t rust. What
you’re mistaking for corrosion is an attractive patina.
Like an ancient statue of a Greek god.” He struck a
pose and stood completely motionless in front of the
massive table containing his computer and meter-
wide flat screen.
“Cut it out. You know it gives me the creeps
when you do your statue routine.”
“Listen,” Tim said, abruptly coming back to life.
“Did you come here to make jests at your faithful
bionic friend’s expense or did you need something?”
“I need information.” She laid fishing the data
dot from a belt pocket. She handed the chip to him.
“But first we need to do some house cleaning.” She
retrieved her comphone and switched on its new
59
circuits, extending the extra long antenna. Stepping
over a partially dismantled sweeper-bot lying on the
floor, she initiated her electronic sweep of the room.
“What?” Tim asked. “You’re not going to
rearrange everything so I can’t find it, are you. You
remember how that messed me up last time.” Then
he saw what she was doing. He turned to one of the
keyboards on the desk behind him and typed, then
cleared his throat to get her attention.
Diane turned glanced toward him and read the
meter-high letters that had appeared on the giant
monitor.
“Bugs?” he had typed in neon pink fonts that
jumped from the screen.
She nodded, thankful he had the good sense not
to say anything that might tip a listener off so he
could shut down any of the electronic listening
devices that might be present, making them harder to
find.
The display on the comphone lit up. “Detection —
1 circuit.” Diane turned the tiny screen so Tim could
see.
He retrieved a screwdriver from his desk and
plugged it into the end of one of his metal fingers.
“I’ll handle this part,” he whispered, reaching to take
the phone from her.
She shook her head. “It doesn’t rain but it
pours.”
“More?”
“Probably.” She picked up a pen from his desk
and circled the spot the bug was embedded in the
wall. Then she continued the sweep of the room.
Five minutes later, she was finished. “That makes
60
three all together,” she said, smashing a cockroach
under her boot. She studied the smashed creature a
moment. “Now we’re down to two.”
“You didn’t have to smash the cockroach,” Tim
protested. “I could have used the transmitter it had
glued to its back.”
“We don’t have time to capture bugged bugs so
you can dissect them. Besides, you can play with the
two mechanicals we found in your walls. Let’s dig
them out.”
They spent the next three minutes retrieving the
twin transmitters embedded in the walls of the room.
“Of course you’ll need to pay me for destroying
my expensive décor,” Tim said, extracting the last
from the sheet rock.
“Loss of yellowed wallpaper isn’t covered in our
contracted expenses.” Diane smiled. “And the dead
cockroach spot on the carpet will never be noticed
among all the grease stains. Besides, if you’d been on
the ball, no one would have been able to plant these
in here. Don’t tell me you actually left your
apartment long enough for someone to get in here.”
“I haven’t.” Tim held one of the tiny units under
a magnifier. “But I think I know how they did it with
me here. I opened the door for a delivery man a
couple of days ago — he supposedly had a wrong
address. I was suspicious at the time, but didn’t think
about the possibility I had let in some bugs.” [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]