Chimera Read Free Page B

to make trouble."
    I thought it was decent of Arthur not to mention that the cat had been passing. Then I realized he had nothing to gain by revealing it now and could always mention it later if it seemed useful.
    Ling glanced at the cat. "Scan her." As a copbot read her retinas, Ling asked Arthur, "Do you want to press charges?"
    He looked at me. "You broke a table."
    "With my back," I said.
    "Can you pay for it?"
    "You know I'm good for it—"
    "Right."
    "I can't make money in jail, Arthur."
    He considered that. It's not precisely true. Even before trial, you can join a prison work force. But they pay a hundred dollars a day, and food, laundry, and rent cost ninety-eight. It's a great system for prison barons, but not so good for creditors.
    "True." Arthur turned to Ling. "Thanks for responding so promptly, Sergeant. The club won't be pressing charges."
    Ling nodded.
    I said, "We're free to go?"
    A copbot stepped up beside Ling. "Sergeant?" It put its head by her ear, and she glanced at the cat.
    The cat looked around the room, then at me. I shook my head slightly. I would help her against Arthur's little carnivore club. I wasn't about to take on L.A.'s finest, what our Libertarian mayor proudly calls "the best police that money can buy."
    Ling said, "Zoe Domingo?"
    The cat said, "Yes."
    Ling looked at Arthur and me. "She comes with us."
    The cat said, "Don't I get any say in this?"
    Ling looked at her with surprise. "Where are you from?"
    "Minnesota."
    "Oh, yeah. They passed some kind of critter rights bill, didn't they?"
    The cat nodded.
    Ling said, "You should've stayed there."
    "I'm here as a visitor—"
    Ling said, almost kindly, "We won't sell you, girl. Not if you're innocent, anyway."
    The cat glanced at me. That was my third and final chance to drop the case. But she had helped me with Arthur's pets when she didn't have to. I said, "I'm responsible for her."
    "You haven't been doing that great a job." Ling shrugged. "All right. You can come along. But you're both getting searched, and any activity from the Pocket will be treated as a potentially lethal threat. ¿Comprende?"
    I raised my arms. A human cop patted me down, then smiled a bit too much as he headed for the cat.
    Ling said, "I'll do it," and searched her. They didn't find anything interesting on either of us.
    Arthur said, "Would you mind taking them out the back way?"
    "Not at all," Ling answered, and I remembered that the casinos are major contributors to the Police Officers Association.
    Bruno and his friends with fangs smiled as we passed. I ignored them and asked Ling, "What do you want her for?"
    "Questioning."
    I glanced at the cat. She looked away.
    As we went through the back doors, a band began a Ragtime Revival tune in the main room. Chimera janitors and cleaning bots hurried in to tidy up. Within a few minutes of our departure, customers would once again be happily presenting their hard-earned money to the priests of the gods of chance.
    A cruiser pulled up in the alley to meet us. Its doors sprang open, and Ling said, "Hop in." The cat and I climbed in front, the doors closed and locked, and the cruiser drove silently away.
    I looked back at the cops in the alley. "She didn't even wave."
    "Can we get out of this thing?"
    "If for some reason we wanted to—" I met the cat's slitted eyes. "—we'd find the windows are shatterproof and the drivebox can't be opened without special tools. But since we're just trying to help the police with some problem they have, it's reassuring to know that we're safe in here. And if, God forbid, something put us in danger, we're fortunate that the car's microphones will pick up our cries for help."
    "My. That is a relief." The cat leaned back in her seat, brought her knees up to her chest, and hugged her legs as she watched L.A. speeding by the window.
    I watched the scenery, too. I know this town well, but it was odd to travel the streets without stopping to pay to use any of them. The cruiser slid into the