Engineman - Eric Brown [195]
"Gassner sent me, Sita."
"That much I figured."
"He told me to make sure you did your stuff. To me, it doesn't look like you're doing that out here."
He hesitates, watching me. "I'll let you into a secret, Sita. Gassner's in big trouble. Business is bad and a few of the bigger Agencies are going for the take-over. They'd buy Gassner out for peanuts and employ him as a nothing button-pusher. As for you - you'd be taken on by whichever Agency buys. You'd be on longer shifts for less pay. You're a second-grader, remember..."
I let him mouth-off. His secret is no secret at all. He's telling me nothing I don't already know. I let my lazy posture describe apathy, and stare at the stars.
Spider tries again. "This case is worth two million to Gassner. It would mean solvency for him, and who knows even a rise for you. But you're blowing it."
"And won't Mr Gassner be angry with me," I say.
"Sita... this is the biggest case you've ever had to crack. You don't seem to be trying..."
Languid, I give him a look, long and cool. "Maybe I don't need to try," I say.
"Sita..." His Oriental features pantomime despair.
"I'm serious, Spider. Hasn't it occurred to you that maybe the reason I'm lazing around here is because I've got the case wrapped up?"
His eyes glint with quick respect, then suspicion.
"No shit," I say. "I know where Becky Kennedy's meat is hidden."
"You just this minute left the office, Sita."
I shrug. "How would you like to earn your Agency the two million riding on this case?" I ask him.
He tries a probe. I feel it prickle my head like a mental porcupine in a savage mood. But my shield is up to it.
"You don't have to probe, Spider. I'm honest - I'll tell you. Your Agency can pick up the creds from Kennedy when you find the body and deliver it to the resurrection ward-"
"But Gassner..." Understanding hits him.
"Yeah," I say. "You've got it."
Spider looks at me.
"Why you doing this, Sita? If Gassner folds, you get transferred, and that won't be a picnic for you."
"Listen, Spider. I'm getting out of it altogether. No more probing for this kid after tomorrow."
"You're not-" Alarm in his voice.
I laugh. "No, I'm not. I'm getting out and I want to see Gassner sink..." But there's an easier way than this to tell him.
I take my shield and toss it to him. He catches it, holds it for a second, then throws it back. That's all it takes for him to read what I'm planning. And he reads everything: my love for Joe and the reason I need big money, what I did yesterday and why I did it. He reads what I want him to do, and he slowly nods his head. "Very well, Sita. fine..." We finalise the arrangements, and then slap on it. We sit for a while, watching the starships and chatting, until Spider's handset calls him away on a case. He cranes himself upright and strides off down the jetty like someone on stilts.
I stay put a while. Above the city a hologram projection, like a stage in the sky, is beaming out world news. I watch the pictures but can't be bothered with the sub-titles. Only when the business review comes on do I take an interest. After five minutes the take-over bids are flashed up. Multi-Tec International today made bids for a dozen small-fry - one of them, I learn, Gassner's Investigative Agency. But the bid didn't make it and Gassner is still independent. I smile to myself. By the time I finish with Gassner he'll be wishing he never bought me, all those years ago.
I leave the coast and ride back into the city. I stop off at a call booth and get through to the Kennedys, using the teleprinter to make the demand. Then, instead of going straight to the Union towerpile, I make a detour to take in the cryogenic hive-complex, uptown. I ride the chute to the seventh level and squat beside Joe's pod. If I concentrate I can just make out his thoughts, deep down and indistinct. Even diluted, crystallised and fragmented by the freeze, his emotions