Tek Power Read Free Page A

He indicated the third chair with a tilt of his thumb.
    Gomez was a dark curlyhaired man, about ten years younger than his partner. He remained standing. “When I checked with Dan at your residence, he informed me you’d reported in that you were cavorting here.”
    â€œSo what’s happening?”
    â€œWalt Bascom, our esteemed jefe , wants to see us immediately if not sooner. He awaits at the Cosmos Detective Agency building.”
    â€œI’ll have to go, Alicia.” He pushed back from the table. “We’ll escort you to your skycar.”
    â€œThanks, I’d feel safer if you did.” Standing, she held out her hand to Gomez. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a good deal about you.”
    He bent, kissed her hand. “ Sí , I’m a legend in my own time.”
    Jake stood. “Must be an important case Bascom has for us.”
    As the three of them crossed the deck, Gomez said, “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, since the chief hasn’t as yet provided any details. I have the feeling, though, that there’s something special about this one.”

3
    J AKE NODDED AT the figure that had materialized atop the hologram projection stage. “That’s your son, isn’t it?”
    â€œOne of them,” answered Bascom. “Richard, the youngest.” The agency head was sitting, somewhat stiffly, behind his large desk. “Lives in New York.” His desktop was uncharacteristically uncluttered. “He works for the TriState EdSystem as a Lit professor.” All the windows in the big tower office had been blanked and nothing of the night streets of this part of the Malibu Sector showed. “Until tonight he was married.”
    â€œAnd what happened tonight, jefe? ” Gomez was sitting on the edge of the holostage with part of Richard Bascom’s left foot superimposed on his backside.
    Bascom, whose grey suit was considerably rumpled, reached out to the control panel again. “His wife was killed.” The figure of a slender darkhaired woman of about thirty replaced the image of the detective agency head’s son. “Eve was her name.”
    Standing up and away from the platform, Gomez asked, “Didn’t she work for some public relations outfit?”
    â€œYeah, for Larson-Dunn.” Bascom touched the controls again and Eve vanished. “Their Manhattan office.”
    Jake was straddling a straightback metal chair. “A very shifty outfit,” he commented, “and not one known for its probity.”
    â€œBoth Larson and Dunn are corrupt, moneygrubbing swine,” said Bascom. “Their organization’s been involved in numerous shady deals both domestic and foreign.”
    Gomez had roamed over to one of the high wide blanked windows. He tapped absently on the plastiglass with his forefinger. “How would you rate Eve’s honesty and integrity?”
    â€œNot very highly.”
    Jake said, “Did your son share your opinion?”
    â€œNope, not at all.”
    â€œEver discuss it with—”
    â€œOnly once. That was three years or so ago. Right before he went and married her,” said Bascom. “I’d already heard a little something about the lady, and that public relations gang she was working for. LarsonDunn has its headquarters office in Washington, DC, and I’ve had a few run-ins with them. They tend to represent scoundrels in the business, political and criminal areas—crooked tycoons, Teklords, bloodstained dictators and the like.”
    â€œYou know for a fact that Eve herself was crooked?”
    â€œHell, she’d have to be to sign up with that bunch in the first place,” answered the chief. “And, although I never told Richard about this, I had the lady checked out.”
    â€œRemind me in future incarnations,” said Gomez, “not to have a gumshoe for a relative.”
    â€œHow much of what you found out