Engineman - Eric Brown [206]
And I yelled, "Dan..."
"Neither," the woman said. "I want you to push the ship through the nada-continuum from here to Frankfurt."
Dan laughed. "You're mad..."
"I'm quite sane, I assure you. From A to B and back again. You'll be in the flux-tank for less than one hour."
"And the ship?"
"An ex-Indian Navy Hindustan-Tata with Rolls-Royce ion drive-"
"Crew?"
"None. Just you and me. The ship is pre-programmed with the co-ordinates. All it needs is someone to push it."
"And I'd be wasting my time asking what all this is about?"
The woman assented. "You'd be wasting your time. Can I take it that you want the job?"
Dan murmured something.
"Good," she said. "Here's my card. If you arrive at five, we'll phase out at six."
They left the restaurant and took the downchute to the landing stage. I sat in the darkness and stared at the wall, wishing that Dan had had the strength of will to turn his back on the flux. He craved union with the nada-continuum, but this gig would be just a quick fix after which his craving would be all the more intense.
I switched off the tape, then switched it on again. I couldn't face Dan and tell him that I was leaving - that way I'd end up screaming and shouting how much I hated him, which wasn't true. I'd leave a message to the effect that I needed a long break, and quit before he got back. I picked up the microphone.
Then the Batan chimed and Claude's big face filled the screen. "Phuong, I got the information on that flier."
"Yeah?" My thoughts were elsewhere.
"Belongs to a guy called Lassolini - Sam Lassolini."
I just shrugged.
Claude went on, "He's a surgeon, a big noise in European bio-engineering."
I remembered the documentary, and Etteridge's last marriage. "Hey, wasn't he married to-"
Claude nodded. "That's the guy. He hit the headlines a few years ago when the film star Stephanie Etteridge left him."
"You got his address, Claude?"
"Sure. De Gaul building, Montparnasse."
"Pick me up in five minutes."
I thought about it.
Now why would Sam Lassolini follow the Stephanie Etteridge look-alike to her mansion in Passy...?
There was only one way to find out.
The de Gaul building was the old city morgue, deserted and derelict but for the converted top floor, now a penthouse suite. Claude dropped me on the landing stage and I told him to wait. I took the downchute one floor and hiked along a corridor. I came to a pair of double doors and hit the chime. I felt suddenly conspicuous. I hadn't washed for two days, and I'd hardly had time to learn my lines.
A small Japanese butler opened the door.
"Lassolini residence?" I asked.
"The doctor sees no-one without an appointment."
"Then I'll make an appointment - for now."
I tried to push past him. When he barred my way I showed him my pistol and said that if he didn't sit down and keep quiet I'd blow a hole in his head. He sat down quickly, hands in the air.
I tiptoed down a passage and came to a vast ballroom with a chequerboard floor of marble and onyx tiles, and a dozen scintilating chandeliers. There was no sign of Lassolini; I would have called out, but the weight of the silence intimidated me.
I opened the first door on the right.
It took me about fifteen seconds to recognise the woman who this morning had visited the office, who I had followed to the mansion, and who, less than thirty minutes ago, had been dining with Dan.
She was hanging by the neck and her torso had been opened with something sharp from sternum to stomach; the contents of her abdomen had spilled, and the weight of her entrails anchored her to the floor.
I heard a sound behind me and turned. A tall, Latin guy looked down on me. He wore a white suit and too much gold. I did mental arithmetic and decided that he looked good for sixty.
"Sam Lassolini?" I asked.
He didn't deny it. "Who are you, and what do you want?"
I drew my pistol and aimed at his chest. Next to it I hung my identification. "Phuong Li Xian," I said. "I have the power of arrest." I indicated the woman. "Why did you do it, Lassolini?"
He looked past me at the the