William Shatner Tek War 9 Tek Net

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he said, and commenced climbing.
Pearing his throat, Marriner rose at the head of the large oval plastiglass
meeting table. He glanced around at the eleven other places and asked,
"Where's Maurice Pettifaux?"
Lana Chen, clad in a crisp off-white lab coat and seated next to him, said,
"An accident, so I'm told, prevents his attending." "What sort of accident?"
Anzelmo, at the opposite end of the table, answered, "Maurice got himself
ambushed in a goddamned quaint little alley in the
Left Bank Enclave in Paris."
The plump, crimson-haired Mrs. Dooley said, "They used at least a half-dozen
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lazrifles on poor Maury."
"Yeah," confirmed Anzelmo. "The frog cops never were able to find all of
him."
From mid table Roger Giford said, "This sounds like a reprisal to me,
Marriner."
"Exactly," added Mrs. Dooley. "Our less fortunate Tek brothers getting back
at us because they've heard we're throwing in with you."
"Nobody," Marriner assured them, "nobody whatsoever knows anything of this
plan."
"Oh, yeah? Then what about .. ." Anzelmo began patting his various pockets
with his gnarled hands. "What the frig is that name?" The old
Teklord kept frisking himself until he located, in an inner coat pocket, a
small yellow fax memo "Okay, here it is. What about Natalie
Dent?"
"A minor nuisance," said Marriner. "Nothing more. Certainly not anyone to
worry about."
Anzelmo leaned forward, both elbows smacking the tabletop. "Does she happen
to be aboard this flapping satellite now?"
Marriner held up his hand in a keep-calm gesture. "Natalie Dent was
apprehended soon after she arrived on the Movie Palace," he told the angry
Teklord. "She's not going to tell anyone
2 2 s ever." Mrs. Dooley frowned deeply. "That's the broad who works for
Newz, Inc." isn't it? Always poking her nose into things."
"That sure as hell is who we're talking about," said Anzelmo. "Are you trying
to con us, Marriner, into believing that her bosses at Newz don't have a
fricking idea why she came up here?"
"The few people at Newz who have any hint of this are being neutralized,"
Marriner said. "Trust me. As for Natalie Dent herself, we have her safely
locked away. After this meeting, steps will be taken to .. ." He'd become
aware that Lana was tugging on his sleeve.
Leaning down closer, he asked her, "What?"
Lana put her lips close to his ear to whisper, "Just before I
came in I learned she's not in her room anymore."
"Then where the hell is she?"
"We don't know, but she's being hunted," replied Lana. "Change the subject,
Leon."
He straightened up. "Now that we've got this minor stuff out of the way," he
said, "we can move to the real business of this meeting. My gifted colleague
Lana Chen will give you a demonstration of the just perfected TekNet system."
gO
he looked from the lazgun to the face of the handsome man who stood pointing
it at him, and grinned. "Ramon Rodriguez," he said, recognizing him. "This
looks like a step up for you from being assistant manager at the Boardwalk
Teenage Android
Bordello down in the San Pedro Sector of Greater LA."
"Do I know you?"
"Under these false trappings I'm Jake Cardigan."
Rodriguez took a surprised step backwards. "When I got the call about trouble
down here," he said, "I didn't expect to find Jake Cardigan, ex-con turned
private eye."
"You've found a hell of a lot more than that, Ramon," Jake told him.
"Take a look inside while I get on the track of--"
"You're not going much of anyplace, Cardigan." He made a shooing motion with
his gun hand. "Back inside so I can have a look around. I
understand something pretty serious took place in this joint."
Jake preceded him back into the room. "You must know this lad," he said,
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stepping aside and nodding toward the sprawled corpse. "There's a strong
possibility that--"
"Holy Christ, is that--what the hell is his name?--Quadrill? Yeah, Austin
Quadrill."
"That's exactly who it is, yeah," confirmed Jake. "I'm near certain he
brought a bomb aboard." Rodriguez took a few reluctant steps nearer the body.
"I never can get used to the smell," he admitted.
"What's that about a bomb?"
"It's Quadrill's specialty, sneaking explosives into---"
"Naw, he couldn't have," insisted Rodriguez. "We got too good a sec system
Hell, I supervise that myself."
"Even so, Ramon"--Jake jerked a thumb in the direction of the corpse---"the
odds are Quadrill was hired to take care of Martinet and---"
"What are you talking about, Cardigan? Marriner's nowhere near the
Movie Palace."
"It was most likely Johnny Trocadero who hired Quadrill to take care of
everybody attending Marriner's meeting with An-zelmo and company tonight."
"You're not supposed to know about that."
"Point is, I do," Jake said. "I also know Quadrill was scheduled to take off
from the Movie Palace just under three hours from now. That means his bomb
can go off anytime after that."
"This is all bullshit," said Rodriguez. "You more than likely killed this
poor bastard and now you're trying to con me with some"
"Three hours isn't an especially' long stretch of time, Ramon," he cut in. "I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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