Tek Kill Read Free

you in charge, were you?”
    â€œJesus, no.” Jake stiffened further, shaking his head and frowning. “But I can sure as hell think of a lot of people at the Cosmos Agency I’d rather have bossing me. I can even draw up a list of lesser assholes I’d prefer.”
    â€œWell, amigo , we must repress our true feelings and concentrate on saving Bascom’s ass,” urged his partner. “So, por favor , control your dislike for Roy when we arrive at this get-together.”
    â€œI’ll behave,” promised Jake with minimal conviction.

4
    DAN narrowed his left eye and studied the slim, dark-haired young woman who stood beside the skycar. “You don’t believe any of that, do you, Molly?”
    â€œI sort of think I do. Especially after last night.” Molly Fine made an impatient gesture that urged him to climb aboard. “Get in or we’ll be late.”
    Dan circled the vehicle and climbed into the passenger seat. “This Susan Grossman is a recovering Tek addict, isn’t she?”
    â€œShe is, yes,” admitted Molly as she took the controls of the skycar. “But she’s off Tek now and what she—”
    â€œGo back, slowly,” requested Dan, “and explain just what went on last night.”
    The car quietly rose up off the morning beach.
    Molly said, “Just shy of midnight Sue saw this image. Well, it was some kind of telepathic vision, sort of.”
    â€œOkay, let’s pause for comments from the audience,” Dan cut in. “I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a telepathic vision.”
    â€œSure, there is. Matter of fact, Sue’s experienced several over the past few weeks. Just about all of them, from what I’ve been able to determine, turned out to be accurate.”
    â€œYou never mentioned any of this to me, Molly.”
    â€œWell, that’s mostly because I anticipated your skeptical reaction.”
    â€œAnd this vision she claims to have had last night isn’t the only one, then?”
    â€œSusan seems to have developed an ability a few weeks ago. She confided in me about what was happening to her,” explained Molly as the skycar climbed to an altitude of 5,000 feet.
    â€œThis time she saw her brother being murdered?”
    Molly answered, “That’s what I’ve been telling you. Sue still isn’t in terrific shape and she’s pretty much afraid of her father and the dreadful woman he’s got living with him. That’s why she waited awhile before getting up the nerve to go downstairs to phone her brother and check on—”
    â€œShe doesn’t have a phone in her room?”
    â€œHer father doesn’t think she’s ready for one yet.”
    â€œHow old is she?”
    â€œAround twenty.”
    â€œWhat you’re putting your faith in is a full-grown woman who isn’t trustworthy enough to be allowed near a vidphone or—”
    â€œYou have to know her father to understand the setup. He’s extremely protective of her.”
    Dan said, “Okay, go back to what happened.”
    â€œSusan tried to phone her brother’s place, twice. But there was no answer, not even from a bot servant.”
    The car sped on across the morning, aimed for the SoCal Police Academy.
    â€œDid she call the law next?”
    â€œNo, she phoned me,” replied Molly. “She knew they’d react the way you have. You know, decide this was just a Tekkie having another hallucination.”
    â€œThen you sent the police to Dwight Grossman’s?”
    â€œActually, I only asked somebody to check and see if her brother was okay,” she said. “They went there and found he’d been killed.”
    â€œYou know they arrested Walt Bascom, my dad’s boss, for the killing, don’t you?”
    â€œYes, but Bascom didn’t have a darn thing to do with it,” she assured him. “Sue saw the