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Part of the far wall slid away. "Which is part of the problem,
Warren." Vice President McCracklin stepped into the room.
"Jim!" The president sat up. "Can you explain to me what in the hell
is going on?"
"Sure, that's why I'm here, Warren." He smiled as the grey wall closed
behind him.
Brookmeyer started to stand up. "Okay, first off tell me why they--"
"Stay on your cot," suggested McCracklin.
"Why the hell are you--"
"Stay there." Hands in trouser pockets, he leaned against the metal
wall. "I hear you've been making a lot of fuss, Warren."
"You're damn right I have," agreed the angry president. "I came here
voluntarily, Jim, as you well know. Admittedly I have a problem, but I
don't think--"
"More than a problem," cut in the vice president. "You're a hopeless
Tek addict. You've been doing two, three hours of the damn stuff every
day."
"I'm not really arguing that part of it." His frown deepened as he
stared, perplexed at the blond younger man. "That's the reason I'm
here, Jim."
"Well, not exactly."
"What do you mean?"
McCracklin smiled slowly. "The original plan has been somewhat
modified."
President Brookmeyer stood up. "Who gave you the authority to modify
my plan?"
"Sit down."
Brookmeyer sat. "The plan, as you damn well know, was for me to spend
a couple of weeks here to get rid of my Tek habituation." He watched
the other man. "We had Mechanix International construct us that
foolproof android simulacrum, which is filling in for me while I--"
"Thereby perpetrating a fraud on the American people."
"That's not what you said when we first cooked up this idea, Jim."
"Possibly, Warren, I wasn't completely truthful with you." "But,
listen, no permanent harm'll be done," Brookmeyer insisted. "Once I'm
off Tek---or at least get my preoccupation under control--then I'll be
back to run this country as well as ever. You know I--"
"Oh, there's not going to be any need for that."
"What are you talking about?" He left the cot.
"Sit down again." There was a stun gun in Vice President
McCracklin's hand.
President Brookmeyer returned to the metal bed and MCCracklin explained
to him what the real situation was.
THE THIN, PALE man turned away from Jake. "We weren't actually.
friends back in Greater Los Angeles," he said, gazing out the wide vie
window of his living room at the hazy green of the walled courtyard
garden. "In fact, we were little more than casual acquaintances."
Jake was sitting in a high back wicker chair, legs straight out in
front of him, hands in his pockets. "I'm not," he explained, "in
Nicaragua looking up old pals, Mat."
"There's another proof that we were never close. My real friends,
Jake, all call me Matson," pointed out Matson Tabor. "Anyone who
actually knows me, or knew me, would never address me as Mat."
"While you were teaching at SoCal Tech, you were Mat." Jake grinned.
"You seem a lot more uneasy than you used to be, Mat son."
"Nicaragua isn't Greater LA." He frowned over his shoulder at Jake. "I
really can't afford to have it known I was interviewed by a cop
from--"
"Private investigator," corrected Jake.
"It doesn't matter. The university is very conservative when it comes
to--"
"You teach at the same college as Dr. Izabel Morgan& don't you'?."
Tabor faced him. "I won't discuss Izabel with you," he said, . eyeing
the ceiling. "You'd better just get--"
"Relax, Matson. None of the surveillance gear is functioning."
"What? My god, they'll think that I--"
"Nope, they'll think it was a malfunction. I rigged things that way
before I arrived at your doorstep," explained Jake. "When I
leave, I'll fix it back the--"
"I think you'd better leave right now."
"I have pretty thorough itineraries, put together by the Cosmos
Detective Agency, for both Arnold Maxfield, Jr. and Eve Bascom during
their stay here," Jake continued. "When I was going over them, I
noticed that both Junior and Eve visited you twice. Once for dinner
with you and--"
"It doesn't matter who he was."
"And then, the day before Junior was killed, he and Eve attended a
small cocktail party you gave. Another of your guests that night was
Dr. Morgana."
"Izabel and I aren't close friends either," said Tabor. "But it's
important that I ask certain faculty people over now and--" "Ever hear
of Surrogate 13?" "No."
"Curious about what it might be?"
"Not in the least. Now, please, you have to leave."
"Anything unusual take place at your party?"
"Did Arnie tell me he expected to die a violent death the next day, do
you mean?" He shook his head. "It was just another dull party. Were
you tailed here? I don't want them to know that--"
"I ditched all my tags within five minutes of the hotel," he assured [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]