Chimera Read Free Page A

"I'm not a priest or a lawyer. If you've done something illegal, don't tell me."
    She pulled a tissue and something else out of her pocket, keeping them close to her body. "Can you hide this?"
    I thought she was hiding the second object from Bruno and Co., but realized later she was keeping it out of sight of the casino's surveillance system. I let her drop it in my hand.
    While she vigorously scrubbed her forehead with the tissue, I glanced down at what she'd given me: A perfectly spherical black opal with two thin gold rectangles passing through it like knives, attached to a gold earring hook. The opal and its rectangles looked like something from a Beverly Hills jeweler, but the earring hook looked cheaper. There was a small imperfection in the solder joining the hook to the opal, as if someone had altered or repaired it in a hurry, without the skill of the artist who created the opal and its intersecting rectangles.
    I nodded at the black opal earring. "What's this?"
    "That's what I hired you to find out."
    "Did you steal it?"
    "No."
    I pointed at a smudge of make-up on the cat's head tattoo on her brow. "You missed a bit."
    "Thanks." She scrubbed the tissue across her forehead again.
    This wasn't the time to push for answers. I opened the Infinite Pocket and released the SIG. It flew into the shimmer of space at my wrist as if sucked by a supermagnet. I dropped the earring in after it and closed the Pocket.
    The cat watched the process with an eyebrow raised. "How did you get that thing?"
    "A long, dull story. Sorry about your watch."
    "Counterfeit. Twenty K in Ensenada."
    She didn't crack a smile, so I didn't, either. "Huh. Which means I only owe you half a day's work."
    "Sure. If you want to reimburse the cowboy for the watch."
    "Hmm."
    "A full day?"
    I nodded. "A full day."
    The fire walls rose. Two copbots entered, followed by four human cops, all with sleepguns out and ready to fire. I put my hands up. The cat kept staring at the bots as if she was ready to run without warning. I elbowed her, and she imitated me.
    A hard-looking Asian woman stepped forward. "I'm Sergeant Ling. You two look guilty."
    I lowered my arms very slowly, so she would have plenty of time to tell me to keep them up if she wanted to. "Can't go by appearances, Sergeant. We wanted you to know we're not armed and would do nothing that might seem threatening to a guardian of public safety." If you think it's hard to say that with a straight face, you've never had to deal with a police force provided by the lowest bidder.
    Behind me, Arthur said, "He has a pistol in an Infinite Pocket in his wrist."
    Well, in Arthur's place, I wouldn't have done me any favors, either. I grinned as he came up beside me. The effect was spoiled when a copbot grabbed my right arm and jerked up the sleeve, revealing the pale circular scar on my inner wrist.
    "Open it," Ling said. "Carefully."
    "Damn," I said. "It's jammed." As Ling frowned, I added, "Don't worry. It'll stay closed."
    Ling said, "It better."
    I said, very nonthreateningly, "I'm a P.I. I'm licensed to carry. Want to see the ID?"
    She did. I drew the card from my hip pocket with my left hand and gave it to her. The second copbot stepped in front of me for a blink test. When my soulful browns jibed with CityCentral's records, the bot stepped away and nodded at Ling.
    She handed the card back to me. "Doesn't say anything about an Infinite Pocket."
    "Or anything about where I can carry."
    "If a gun appears while we're around, you'll carry it up your ass. Sideways." She looked at the bot holding me. "Let him go. Trank him if he gets annoying." Then she asked Arthur, "What's the story?"
    I massaged my wrist as I glanced at the overturned furniture and the torn stage curtain. I had the feeling that my day's work for the cat would consist of sitting in an L.A. county cell trying to look like I didn't need a boyfriend.
    "We don't serve critters," Arthur said. "When I asked her to leave, she and her friend decided