The In Death Collection Books 16-20 - J. D. Robb [178]
“I can check.”
“She’ll check.”
“Fine. I’d like a sample of it, too, if you don’t mind, and the names of any staff members who were authorized to make purchases for you in London.”
“I’ll take care of that.” Li glided out again.
“I don’t quite understand how my writing paper could interest you.”
“There was a note, written on that style of paper, left with the body.”
“Please.” He lifted both hands, drawing them up his own body as he breathed in, pushing them outward as he exhaled. “I don’t want that sort of image corrupting my senses. That’s why I listen only to my own music. I never watch the media reports, except for specially selected features on entertainment or society. There’s too much darkness in the world. Too much despair.”
“Tell me about it.”
When Eve left, she had a sample of his writing paper, and the names of his staffers in London.
“He’s weird,” Peabody commented. “But he’s built. And he just doesn’t seem like the type who’d go hunting LCs.”
“He likes to have multi-partner sex, occasionally with minors.”
“Oh.” Peabody wrinkled her nose as she glanced back toward the house. “So much for my instincts on this one.”
“Maybe he figures underage groupies have less negativity, sexually speaking, than any grown woman who could listen to that crap he plays and not run screaming after five minutes.”
She got into the car, slammed the door. “If that stinking ‘Love Lights the World’ sticks in my head, I’m coming back here and beating him with a club.”
“Now that’s positive,” Peabody decided.
Chapter 5
Knowing the security at the U.N. was tight, Eve decided to avoid a possible pissing match with guards and parked in a second-level street ramp on First Avenue.
The little cross-block hike would help work off the doughnuts.
They still allowed tours—she’d checked—but they were stringently regulated with the threat of terrorism always a thunderhead ready to storm. But nations throughout the world, and the recognized off-planet factions, had their meetings and assemblies, their votes and their agendas, inside the huge white building that dominated its six-block stretch.
The flags still waved, a colorful symbol, Eve supposed, of man’s willingness to get together and talk about the problems of humanity. And occasionally do something about them.
Even with their names on the visitors’ list, she and Peabody went through a series of checkpoints. At the first, they surrendered their weapons, a requirement that always made Eve twitchy.
Their badges were scanned, their fingerprints verified. Peabody’s bag was scanned, then hand-searched. All electronics, including ’links, PPCs, and communicators, were taken through analysis.
They passed through a metal detector, an incendiary device detector, a weapon identifier, and a body scanner, all before being cleared through entry level.
“Okay,” Eve declared. “Maybe they’ve got to be careful, but I’m drawing the line at a cavity search.”
“Some of these security levels were added after the Cassandra incident.” Peabody stepped with Eve and a uniformed guard into a bomb-proof elevator.
“Next time we need to talk to Renquist, he comes to us.”
They were escorted off the elevator and directly to another checkpoint where they were scanned, analyzed, and verified again.
They were passed from the guard to a female aide who was equally military in bearing. The aide’s retina scan and voice command unlocked a bomb door. Through it, they moved from paranoid security to daily business.
It was a hive of offices, but a very big hive with very efficient chambers. Here, the high-level drones wore conservative suits and headsets, with heels that clicked briskly on tiled floors. The windows were triple-sealed and equipped with air-traffic detectors that would slam down impact shields at any threat. But they let in the light and a decent view of the river.
A tall, thin man in unrelieved gray nodded