by Neil Hunter
“If it had its shirt blown off its back every time it went out, it’d need a salary,” the cybo complained bitterly. “Have you seen the mess those combat droids made of my jacket?”
Cade nodded. “They ought to make you wear disposable overalls. No appreciation of decent clothes.”
“I’d hardly call you a man of fashion,” Janek said as Cade left him and headed for the elevator.
Braddock, the department commander, called Cade across as he entered the office. “Hear you had a busy evening, T. J.”
Braddock was a big man with a genuinely friendly face and a manner to match. He was an ex-Chicago cop, and he’d been with the department for close to ten years.
“It got that way,” Cade said. He helped himself to a mug of coffee from the department pot. He was aware of Braddock watching him closely.
“And—?”
Braddock grinned. “Can’t keep anything from you, can I, hotshot?”
“Somebody been making waves?”
“Yes. Local cop named Culver. He claims you’ve been into his department without authorization. Poking around. And you gave him a hard time.”
Cade drank some more coffee as he digested the information. He liked what he was hearing. It meant Culver was agitated enough to try to cover himself by making a fuss.
“He’s right on all three counts,” Cade said, “and I may be going back to give him a harder time if I get the right answers to some questions.”
“Is he bent?” Braddock asked.
“Let’s say that at the moment he has a slight list to starboard.”
Braddock chuckled. The sound was deep, coming from way down in his chest. “Good enough, T. J. Just watch your back.”
“Tell him that,” Cade said as Janek appeared.
Janek ignored the remark and went past the two men. Braddock spotted the shredded jacket and shirt.
“Hey, Janek, didn’t they teach you how to duck at CyboTech?”
The cybo paused at the door to the office. He glanced at Braddock, then slowly raised his right hand, the second finger stiffly erect in a gesture of defiance.
“Sit on this, Braddock,” he said tautly.
Grinning, Braddock turned to Cade. “You teach him that?”
Cade shook his head. “I think he picked it up from watching you.”
“Yeah? You know, that boy’s got good taste, after all.”
Cade closed the office door and sat down at his desk. He checked the vid-phone recorder for messages. It was blank.
“I’ll run some background checks on Culver,” Janek said. He had discarded his ripped jacket and shirt, pulling on a roll-neck sweater from the locker in the corner of the room. “See if I can come up with anything. And I’ll throw in the ID numbers from the combat droids.”
The vid-phone rang, and Cade picked up the receiver. He watched the blank screen light up, and Kate Bannion’s face appeared.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m looking for a smart cop.”
“Sorry, miss, I’m all that’s available.”
“You’ll have to do.”
“Is this purely a social call? Or are you on official business?”
“Both,” Kate replied, giving him one of her smiles. “I just got back from an assignment and I wanted to see you. But I also found a message on my recorder for you. It’s from George Takagi, T. J., and it sounds important.”
“Damn!” Cade resisted saying anything else. He stared at Kate’s image on the screen. “Stay put. I’m on my way over. Don’t answer the door to anyone but me. Understand?”
Kate nodded, astute enough to realize something had to be wrong if Cade was acting in such a manner.
He broke the connection, dropping the receiver. He pulled the computer readout from George Takagi’s office and searched for something. Kate’s phone number was there. He’d missed it when Barney Culver had come into the office. Reaching in the drawer of his desk, he picked up a number of fresh clips for his .357 Magnum auto-pistol. Dropping them in his pocket, he called to Janek. “Grab your hat, partner, we’re on our way out. I have a feeling we just got our break.”
“Break? What break?” Janek questioned as he followed Cade out the office and through to the elevator.
“Kate just called. While she was out, George Takagi left a recorded message on her vid-phone. It was on that damn readout we took from George’s computer.”
They reached the basement. Janek retrieved the SPAS and spare shells from the wrecked cruiser. He indicated a sleek, six-month-old Ford.
“You got that out of old tight-ass?” Cade asked as he slid into the passenger seat.
Janek fired up the supercharged vehicle, giving his partner a sly grin. “Hell, no, but who gives a damn?”
He freed the brake and dropped the car into gear. It shot forward, burning rubber as the cybo floored the pedal. The droid came out of its cubicle, waving its skinny chrometal arms as the car roared by him. It hit the exit ramp, leaving a trail of bright sparks in its wake. At the head of the ramp Janek executed a sharp left turn, gunning the engine as he forced his way into the traffic. Horns blared and tires screeched in protest as drivers stood on their brakes, but Janek ignored them. He pushed the Ford to the limit, with the siren howling and red light flashing.
“Have you been sniffing brake fluid or something?” Cade asked incredulously.
“You do want to get to Kate’s in a hurry, don’t you?”
“Hell, yes, but I want to be alive when I get there. Preferably with dry pants.”
“Trust me, T. J., I can handle it.”
“Remind me to have a word with Abby Landers,” Cade said. “Time she started cooling you down.”
“Abby told me I have to be natural. Act on the spur of the moment.”
“Yeah? You remind her I’m the sucker who has to sit next to you when one of these moments takes hold.”
Cade resigned himself to their erratic drive, and they reached Kate’s apartment block in record time. Janek swung into the basement parking area, and they took the elevator up.
“Kate, it’s me,” Cade said, activating the door-vid.
Kate unlocked the door and let them in.
“What’s all this about, T. J.?” she asked.
“George is dead,” Cade said. “He called saying he wanted to meet me. Said he had something to tell me. We got there too late.”
“Soon enough to almost get our asses shot off,” Janek grumbled as he locked the door.
“T. J., I’m sorry about George. He was a nice guy.”
“Where’s the message?”
Kate slid the tape into her VCR, and moments later George Takagi’s face appeared on the TV screen.
“That’s his office he’s calling from,” Janek observed, then they all listened silently to a man who was no longer alive.
“Hi, Kate. I want you to get this to T. J. as soon as you can. I’m going to call him for a meeting, so if everything goes as planned we won’t need this. If things go wrong, at least he’ll have this to use.
“I pulled some info from the computer tonight, and I have a feeling there’s something odd going on. Can’t explain why. Maybe it’s just my mystical Japanese ancestry coming through—ho, ho.
“I have three dead people, all killed in exactly the same way and within days of each other. Now the odd part. They all worked for the same company. The Amosin Corporation. And somebody tried to lose their death reports in the computer system. Thing is, you can’t erase death reports. They are automatically filed. So they were pushed into an obscure corner until my retrieval system accidently pulled them back out.
“Maybe I’m chasing shadows, but I have a feeling something stinks. I see a cover-up. Right now I don’t have anything else to go on except good old gut feeling.
“T. J., I know you won’t let this go. I’m going to bring my boss, Barney Culver, into the picture. I can’t handle this by myself.
“I’m keying in the modem now, and it will send you a copy of the files I picked up. See
you soon, guys.”
Takagi’s image was erased by static, then the computer clicked in and relayed the files Takagi had mentioned. They showed the three death reports, followed by computer files on the three dead people.
“He must have called me shortly after,” Cade said. “Couldn’t mention what it was about over the phone.”
“You say he was dead when you arrived?” Kate asked. “Then someone must have overheard his conversation with you and arranged for his killers to be at the location. That’s fast work, T. J.”
“Has to be someone in the department,” Janek said. “And I put my money on Culver.”
“From what George said, Culver was the guy he was going to contact. If Culver is involved, he’d have been in a good position to tap in on George’s calls. George calls me, Culver calls his hit squad and they trail George to the meeting place. Take him out and wait for us.”
“But why?” Kate asked. “What’s so important about the deaths of three people from Amosin? Why kill George and try to kill you?”
“If I had the answer that fast, I’d be chief of police,” Cade said.
Janek shook his head. “You’d look terrible in the uniform.”
“Cut the comedy and get that expensive brain of yours cranked up to figure this deal out.”
“See what I have to put up with, Kate?” Janek said, looking for sympathy. “There are times when he treats me like a machine.”
“I’m finding you more and more—how shall I put this?—all too human. Quit being a nuisance, or I’ll trade you in for a new model. One without an attitude.”
“What damn attitude? I don’t have an attitude, Thomas.”
“Let’s get the show on the road, Janek.”
The cybo sat down, his gaze fixed on the TV screen where Takagi’s computer readout was still displayed.
“The three Amosin employees worked in the same division of the company,” he said. “They were in the robotics division. Military contracts department. That would mean work for the Department of Defense. The droids who killed George were combat machines built and supplied for the military. Give you odds those droids turn out to be Amosin models.”
“That chopper we took out was a Skorpion,” Cade added, peering at the screen. “Military use only.”
Janek gave a pleased smile. “It is amazing what even you can come up with when you try, T. J.”
“Hey, quit arguing, you guys,” Kate protested.
Cade straightened up. “Who’s arguing?”
“Just a lively debate,” Janek agreed.
Kate shook her head, smiling at them. “You two are a pair. You squabble just like siblings—adolescent siblings, at that.”
“Adolescent?” Janek repeated huffily.
“Yeah, Janek, just don’t forget that women love to feel superior to men.” Cade paused to grin at Kate, then went on. “So how do you read this stuff?”
“If Culver is involved, he must have acted fast to get those droids out after George. Okay, he panicked and went for overkill, but he was still able to round up help in a short time.”
“He’s got local help, in other words,” Cade said. “Military hardware.”
“Narrows the field down,” Kate said. “Should be easy enough to get the military to make a check on any missing hardware. Shouldn’t it?”
Cade frowned and ran his hand through his hair. “Trouble is, we don’t know who we’re dealing with. If we’re bucking some high-ranking guy, we could just hit a blank wall. The military has an old habit of closing ranks when civilians start asking questions. We’re going to have to do this the sneaky way.”
“Why are you looking at me?” Janek asked.
“Run your checks on those droids. If you come up with any military tag numbers, see if you can pin them down with ComNet.”
“Hah!” Janek said. He twisted around, fixing his gaze on Cade. “Now you want me to break into the military computer network. What next, T. J.? Fraud? Extortion? No please or thank you. Just break the law, Janek, it’s all in the name of justice.”
“You finished already? Good. Now, do you think you can do it?”
Janek looked hurt. “Can I do it? Can a cat lick it’s own—”
“I get the picture. So let’s get back to the office.”
Cade took the video from Kate’s VCR.
“You don’t know a damn thing about this, Kate. Forget the tape. We were never here tonight. When you hear about George’s death, you’ll be surprised and upset. And if anyone starts asking questions, you play dumb. It might even be a good idea if you skipped town for a few days.”
“No way, T. J. I’m not running away.”
“Listen. Your number was on a readout we took from George’s computer. If we could find it, so could somebody else. I don’t want you in the line of fire, Kate.’”‘
“I’ll be careful. If I get worried, I’ll call you.”
Cade knew better than to argue. Kate Bannion was as stubborn as she was beautiful.
“Make sure you do.”
She nodded, then said, “Hey, you be careful, T. J. Don’t get yourself in too deep.”
He kissed her, holding onto her for a moment.
“I’ll be careful, too,” Janek muttered as he followed Cade to the door.
Kate grinned. “Watch out for those cute little microchips, Janek.”
“Come on, partner,” Cade said. “Quit mooning and let’s get back to the office …”
As soon as Janek was settled before his computer bank, Cade headed for the door.
“Where will you be if I need you?” Janek asked.
“I’m going to keep a watch on Culver. Sooner or later he’s going to contact somebody, and I’d like to be around when he does.”
“We’re going to look like a couple of idiots if we’re wrong about him.”
“He’s our man,” Cade said. “I feel it in my bones.”
Chapter Three
Cade leaned forward, easing the ache in his back. He glanced at his watch. It was almost 8:00 a.m., but the heat was already building up. Above the roofs of the buildings, he caught a glimpse of the hard blue sky.
He glanced at Culver’s apartment building. The cop’s car was still in its parking slot where Culver had left it when he’d arrived home just after midnight. Cade had been in his car, across the street, watching ever since.
Now he saw a long black limousine slide silently up behind Culver’s vehicle. The limo looked out of place on the street. Cade made a note of its registration plates, then picked up the handset and punched in the office number.
“T. J.”
“Run a make on this registration number,” Cade said.
“Give me a couple of minutes,” Janek replied. “Is something happening?”
“No. I’ve just decided to start collecting registration numbers. Everyone should have a hobby.”
“Yeah? I’ve got a human for mine,” the cybo said dryly.
Barney Culver stepped out of his building. He was in a hurry. Without pause he went straight to the waiting limo and climbed in the back. The moment he’d closed the door, the limo pulled away from the curb and accelerated down the street. Cade fired up the Ford and moved ahead, careful to keep a good four car-lengths’ distance.
He followed the limo through the rush-hour traffic. It was easy to keep the vehicle in sight. Traffic, as ever, was slow. New York’s overcrowded streets were at saturation point. Nothing changed where traffic was concerned. The American love affair with the motor vehicle was as strong as ever. Despite the cost, the appalling driving conditions and the rapid development of air-cars, people still wanted their gas-guzzling motors. There was a surfeit of oil, with the massive finds in the Arctic and the redevelopment of the Alaskan fields. There wasn’t a politician in the country who would have dared suggest a cutback in car production.
Cade picked up the phone when it buzzed.
“The vehicle is registered to the Amosin Corporation,” Janek said. “Now do you want to tell me w
hat’s going on?”
“Barney Culver just got picked up by this car. It called at his apartment building.”
“Where’s it heading?”
“Right now along Lexington Avenue. I’ll let you know where we end up. Any luck with your computer search?”
“This is a tough one, T. J. I managed to pin down the numbers I took from the combat droids. They’re U.S. Army code numbers. That was the easy part. The difficulty is breaking into ComNet. I’m having to take things steady in case they have some kind of alert code built in to warn if there’s an unauthorized command.”
“Stay with it, buddy,” Cade said. “I’ll get back to you.”
A few minutes later the limo cut off across town, heading down toward the docks on the East River. Cade was forced to drop back even farther as the traffic thinned out. He lost sight of his target a couple of times when lumbering diesel rigs and trailers pushed their way past him. Finally tiring of playing games with one of the rigs, Cade accelerated and passed the rig just in time to catch a glimpse of the limo’s taillights as it shot down a side street. Cade swore forcibly, standing on the brakes and spinning the wheel. As the car slid around, the approaching semi was forced to make a hard stop. The driver, a massive six footer, jumped from the cab and stormed up to Cade’s car. He thumped a ham like, fist on the driver’s window.
Cade thumbed the button, dropping the window.
“You got a problem?” Cade asked.
“No,” the trucker yelled, “you got the fuckin’ problem, jerk!”
Cade slipped the door catch and booted it open. The door whacked the trucker in the gut. He backpedaled, his beefy face darkening with anger. “Tough guy, huh?”
Cade held up his badge with one hand and the .357 with the other.
“You want to find out?”
The trucker read the badge and the gun, the anger still boiling in his eyes.
“Maybe I should call in the local cruiser. Get them to run a check on your rig. See how many violations we can spot.”
The trucker backed off, muttering darkly. He climbed back in his cab and roared off, leaving a trail of diesel fumes behind.
Cade got back behind the wheel and swung it along the side street. There were no hidden entrances for the limo to have taken, so he assumed it had traveled the length of the street. When he got to the far end, he saw that the left turn reached a dead end after twenty yards, while the right led to a dock area where a sprawling warehouse complex stood.
