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I've noticed the lieutenant gazing at me with that kind of look young
boys reserve for sports heroes."
Jake grinned. "Maybe you're right, Sid. You well could be the guy's
role model, his idol."
"Looks and brains. That's what impresses the multitude." "Phone
call," announced the voice of the condo computer. "Take a message,"
suggested Jake, not moving. "I advise you to respond to this one,
sir."
Jake said, "Hold on, Sid." He went into the living room.
The vidphone screen was blank. A thin, nervous male voice
"You're on a tap-proof phone, aren't you, Cardigan?"
Who are you?"
"This is about Hermione Earnshaw."
sat in the chair facing the screen. "Okay, let's hear it." "You
have to come and see me."
"Not unless I know a hell of a lot more about you and the setup."
Silence followed. Nearly a full minute of it.
Then the phone screen made a faint humming noise. The image of a
slender black man of about forty snapped into view. He was sitting on
the edge of a silver chair in front of a blank gray wall. "My name is
Sam Hopkins," he began. "You're certain your phone is tap-proof?"
"It is. And my condo isn't bugged. What do you know about her
death?"
Hopkins hesitated. "I know why she was killed," he said finally.
"Suppose you tell me now?"
"You've got to come out here. I don't want to stay on the phone that
long," he said, glancing offscreen. "I'm staying at a friend's place
here in the New Town Sector and--"
"Whoa now, that's a rough area," cut in Jake, shaking his head.
"A completely private township with its own cops and--" "I know what
Hermione and Grossman knew." "How'd you come by that?"
"I'm the one who provided the information that got them both killed."
"Give me your address," said Jake.
SusAN'S FATHER WAS a trim, handsome man of forty-five.
He smiled, slipped an arm around her shoulders as they walked away from
the tennis court at the rear of their mansion.
"I thought I'd win that one," he said, hugging her.
"Congratulations."
"It was close, Dad," she said, laughing. They strolled up to the
terrace and sat at one of the small tables. "What would you like to
drink, princess *"
She felt, briefly, tearful. "You haven't called me that in a long
while."
"I regret that, Sue," her father told her. "Whilethat terrible woman
was here, I simply ceased to think clearly."
"She's gone, gone for good and all," reminded his daughter.
"Pretty soon we'll forget that Juneanne was ever here." "That's what
I'm hoping." "Shall I call a butler to---"
"Who's that down by the courts?" He half rose from his chair,
eyes narrowing.
Susan turned to look, then inhaled sharply. "It's them. It's them."
A slight red-haired man and a large hairless man were walking up across
the simulated green lawn. They were laughing and now,
realizing they'd been spotted, they both waved.
"Are these fellows friends of yours, princess?"
"No, they're not. They... they're the ones who killed Dwight." He
frowned at her. "So you do know something about that?" he said.
"Juneanne told me you were involved, but I didn't want to believe that.
Now it turns out that--"
"It was them, Dad. I tried to stop it but--"
"How could you have stopped them from killing your brother?
Were you there when--"
"No, but I saw it."
"Good God, Sue, are you going to start that psychic nonsense again?"
She made fists of her hands, saying, "This isn't going right.
This isn't the Tek dream I--"
"Hiya, Susie," said the redhead as he hopped up onto the outer stones.
"We're here to take care of your problems." "No, I don't want you
to do a damn thing. Go away."
The hairless man's laugh was high pitched. "You want us to kill
Juneanne and your father, kid."
"And you ordered two of the deluxe coffins for them," added his
partner.
"Stop it," she cried. "I don't want this."
The hairless man said, "You've got no idea of everything you're going
to get, kid."
Reaching out, he yanked the headset off her head.
She sat up on the cot and cried out.
He was still there. He smiled and took hold of both her arms. was
nothing in the parlor except two metal chairs.
Sam Hopkins sat in one, Jake straddled the other.
The one-way vie window showed a matching row of identical small, square
houses outside in the foggy night. The artificial bay was downhill
with thick mist drifting in across its dark waters.
"The friend who's letting me use this place just moved in," the man was
explaining. "Hence the lack of furnishings."
said, "I don't like the New Town Sector. I don't want to around any
longer than I have to."
Hopkins glanced toward the window. "I hate New Town he acknowledged,
"but if you work for New Town Phar you pretty much have to reside
here." "That's who you work for, huh?"
"Yes, in Promotion & Publicity." He laughed a thin, dry laugh.
"Ironic, considering what I've been up to lately."
"How'd you know to contact me, Hopkins?"
"Hermione Earnshaw mentioned your name. She was planning to contact
you, I believe, but then..." He rubbed his thin fingers over the
bridge of his nose a few times.
"She was a friend of yours?"
"We actually lived together for nearly six months--year before last. I
should have stayed with her." He glanced at the window again. "Let me
start off by explaining, Cardigan, that I don't know as much about the
situation as Grossman did. But because of what I told Hermione...
well, both of them are dead."
"So what exactly did you tell her?"
Hopkins asked, "Do you know anything about something called SinTek?"
"Not a damn thing."
"The Burdons--that's Rowland and Rebecca Burdon, the twin tycoons who
run New Town Pharmaceuticals--the Burdons arranged nearly a year ago
with both state and federal authorities to try to develop a safe
electronic drug. A synthetic one that will deliver the gratifying
fantasies that real Tek provides its users. But, and this was the
selling point, the damn stuff isn't addictive. Not even habit-forming.
Plus which, it doesn't have any of the terrible side effects that Tek
does--no brain damage from prolonged addiction, no seizures or
blackouts."
"Sounds like another miracle of science and technology," commented
Jake. "How far along are they?"
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