[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
into the floor behind him.
Panting, the shocker hanging from his fingers, he rose to his feet and assessed the damage. Thrashing
and twitching like a live thing, the artificial gull spewed sparks and smoke for more than a minute before it
finally stopped flailing its composite wings and lay still. He looked up.
No voices rang out challengingly. The cleaning robots continued to run their preprogrammed routines as
though nothing had happened. One was already busy sweeping up the remains of the first gull. Otherwise,
the chamber was as silent as the seabed on which it rested.
Where,he wondered as he cautiously resumed walking toward the back door,was the third bird?
Though it boasted only an ordinary plastic handle and no visible security, the door would not respond to
his tug. Expression tight, keeping a cautious eye alert for mechanical sea birds, he pocketed the shocker
and removed the compact instrument he had previously utilized to access the concealed doorway in the
bathroom storage closet. Starting at the top of the door, just as he had done with the closet's rear wall,
he began slowly and methodically running the device over the door. This time he would not neglect to
check the floor.
"Hello there, son. Watcha doing?"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Swapping the sesame from his left hand to his right, Cardenas fumbled awkwardly for his pistol. At the
sight of his questioner, he relaxed slightly. But he kept his hand near his chest, in the vicinity of the gun, as
he pretended to scratch at the front of the windbreaker.
Framed in the entranceway at the bottom of the ramp that led to the bathroom storage closet was an old
man. Too old, the Inspector knew instantly, to be The Mock. Although in an age of synthollagen
injections and epidural neuron massage and skin replacement therapy it was difficult at a glance to tell
anyone's age for certain, Cardenas was reasonably confident that the intruder who had surprised him was
at least in his seventies, and quite possibly older.
The Inspector would also have been surprised if the man weighed much more than fifty kilos. He was
considerably shorter than Cardenas. Amerind characteristics sharpened the highs and lows of his
weather-worn face, the type of environmental facial sandblasting that began early in life in the kind of
small villages that were scattered all through southern Namerica. Instead of weaponry or communications
gear, the service belt encircling his waist contained janitorial supplies. Both hands clutched an
electrostatic broom.
"Looking for someone," Cardenas finally thought to respond.
The old man flipped a switch on the broom and began to work it methodically back and forth in one
corner, occasionally pausing to move a chair out of the way. The idling box terminals and busy floor
robots ignored him, and he them. While adding an invigorating flow of ions to the air, the broom's
charged fibers silently sucked from crevices, cracks, and other hiding places the dust and debris that the
tunnel-visioned robot sweepers had missed.
"Ain'tnobody here. Ain't beennobody here for a while. I reckon you belong, or you wouldn't have been
able to find your way in."
Cardenas saw no reason to disabuse the elderly custodian of this useful assumption. He fell back on the
same story he had recounted to the warehouse supervisor. "That's right. I have a special delivery from
Agua Pri, for The Mock." Hesitating only briefly, he added, just to make certain, "You're not by any
chance The Mock, are you? That's not a clever disguise?" Able to tell in most cases whether someone
was lying or not, he waited expectantly for the custodian's reply.
It took the form of a quiet chuckle. "Me,The Mock? Why would you say something like that? C'mon,
son; you're having fun with an old man." He flashed a smile replete with man-made teeth. "I'm Rodrigo. I
do the cleaning."
Pointedly, Cardenas indicated the still-active floor robots. "What about them?"
"They need cleaning and maintenance, too. They are a big help to me, since the owners of this place
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]