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Bascom, smoothing at some wrinkles in his trousers, worked his way over to a
four-foot-wide hologram projection stage. He side-armed the folders stacked
there off: onto the rug. "Can you see from where you're perched?" Jake raised
off his chair, moved aside the disabled bartender robot that had been in his
line of vision and sat again.
"Just fine."
On all fours, the head of the Cosmos Det:ective Agency searched around on the
floor. "Ah, here she is." He'd located the hologram cartridge he was after
and, smiling, held it up toward Jake before inserting it in the base slot.
Upon the stage there appeared a life-size, full-dimensional image of
Beth Kittridge. She was sitting in a lemon-yellow rattan chair, smiling at
someone to her left and carrying on an unheard conversation.
Her dress was of dark green neo rayon
Jake stood, moving closer to the projection stage. He was feeling an odd
constriction across his chest.
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"Something?" inquired Bascom, glancing over at him.
"Nothing, no." He returned to the chair, trying to remember where he'd seen
her before.
"This is Beth Kittridge," explained Bascom. "Our footage was taken three
months ago during a reception at SoCal Tech for a few scientific gents who
were visiting from the Moon Colony." He circled the platform. "According to
our sources, she still wears her hair like this--long, down to the shoulders.
A pretty young woman, if you like them on the slender side. You obviously find
her attractive."
"Do I?"
"Well, Cardigan, when a fellow jumps up, clicks his heels together and lets
his tongue unfurl a foot or two--an astute detective such as myself deduces
there's an interest."
Jake grinned. "Okay, she's attractive."
"Agreed. But don't let that foul up your investigation. And keep in mind that
all you may find down there is the young lady's corpse."
"Yeah, I know."
Beth was suddenly gone from the stage, replaced by her father.
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He was standing, leaning against a section of neo steel railing and apparently
conversing with someone out of camera range.
"Same reception," said Bascom as he made another circuit of the hologram
stage. "Supposedly Dr. Kittridge has lost approximately ten pounds since then
and will appear even leaner than--"
"Why the weight loss?" "We don't know." Bascom sat on the edge of the stage,
merging with part of the image. "Could'ye been ill-health, worry or something
else again."
"Any of which might tie in with what happened to him down in
Mexico."
"Dr, Danenberg might know, but she remains among the missing." He rose up and
away from the stage. "Another fellow I want you to observe..."
Kittfidge vanished and was replaced by the image of a good-looking blond man
of about forty. "Here we have--" "Bennett Sands," supplied
Jake. "You know him?" Jake replied, "My wife--my former wife--worked for Sands
for a while as a sort of private secretary and girl Friday.
That was right before I went up to the Freezer. And for a while thereafter, I
think." "She worked for him fourteen months all told."
Jake said, "Then you knew I knew who he was."
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"Forgive me for being tricky when I don't even have to be."
Bascom started another slow circle of the stage. "Sands remains a
multimillionaire and the director of Bio Foods Inc. His late father it was who
came up with the exclusive tissue-culture bio process system that allows Bio
Foods to manufacture what I still think of as artificial real food--meat,
vegetables, whatever. They have plants and headquarters all over the
world--and on the Moon."
"When Kate--when my ex-wife--worked for Sands he was based in CLA."
"He operates out of Mexico nowadays," said the Cosmos chief.
"We believe that Kittridge was involved with Sands in some way and may even
have been en route to visit him in one of his Mexican hideaways when the crash
occurred."
"What does Sands say?"
"We haven't been able to locate him since the Kittridges, father and daughter,
disappeared."
The stage made a clicking sound and Sands was gone.
"This case," said Jake. "We're really not talking just about a simple
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insurance claim, are we?"
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Bascom busied himself with extracting the cartridge and then hunting for a
place to set it. "What makes you say that?"
"For one thing, someone just tried to kill Dr. Danenberg when they suspected
she was going to pass information on to us," he said. "It could be that the
Kittridge heirs are a violent bunch and they want to make sure they collect
the insurance money. But I somehow doubt that."
"The beneficiaries under the Moonbase-Hartford policy are Kittridge's two
sisters. One's married and lives in Seattle; one's divorced and resides in
Paris. Neither one is in need of money, and their activities over the past two
weeks don't tie them in with Dr. Kittridge or his daughter in any way."
"Okay, then who is it who's taking such an interest in Kittridge?"
Putting both hands behind his back, Bascom stared up at his off-white ceiling.
"Well, there are a few others who may be interested in the present whereabouts
of the doctor."
"Such as who?"
"I can't provide a complete list of names just yet," said Bascom
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zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkwiatpolny.htw.pl
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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