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talking to us," he said. "My ops have also found out, which does little to
cheer me, that most of the other people whom Jake and Gomez talked to down
there are also among the missing."
"Damn it." Dan got to his feet. "This whole case was just some kind of dodge.
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A plan to kill them."
"Maybe."
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"Maybe? Good Christ, you know damn well that--"
"Easy, Dan. All I know for sure is that neither your dad nor
Gomez has reported in for three days," Bascom said. "We don't have enough
facts yet to speculate much."
"There's got to be something more we can do. Do right now."
"Jake is a good man, so is Gomez. I'm still inclined to bet that if they're in
a mess, they can get themselves out," the agency chief
said. "You better head for home now. I'll contact you soon as any news comes
in."
Dan stood, hesitant, for a moment. "Okay," he said finally, turning away and
leaving the office.
Jake was waiting for Beth in Berlin.
It was on the morning after she arrived in the city that they met.
A cold grey morning filled with heavy rain.
Beth, accompanied by Agents Neal and Griggs, had just stepped free of an IDCA
land car near the side entrance to the
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World Drug Court on Potsdamerplatz.
There were ten armed guards, human and robot, lining each side of the long
pass way from the curb to the narrow entry gate. All around them, huddling
under dark umbrellas, a small crowd of curious onlookers had gathered.
Beth was only a few steps from the car when she saw Jake. He was pushing his
way through the bystanders, waving, trying to attract her attention. "Beth!"
he called, grinning his familiar grin. "Thought for awhile I wasn't going to
make it."
"Jake!" Her smile turned into a pleased laugh. She pulled free of the grip of
Agent Griggs, ran the fifteen feet to where he stood.
"My god, what happened to you?"
"Long story."
A uniformed Berlin policeman was standing between Jake and the young woman,
warning him back with his drawn stun gun
"It's allright, officer," she said. "He's okay. I know him. Please,
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stand aside."
"I'm sorry, Miss. Kittridge." He held out his free hand and gently pushed her
back. "Jake, I was so damned worried," she said around the cop.
"Where were you?"
"Gomez and I ran into some extra trouble. Tell you about it later. You okay?"
"I'm fine--now." Using her elbow, she started to nudge the officer out of the
way.
"Beth, wait a minute." Agent Neal had come trotting over. He reached out to
grab her.
"Oh, really, Emmett." She eluded him, pushed around the policeman.
She put her arms around Jake. "I'm so glad--"
There was an enormous explosion.
It was a small town on the edge of the vast forest. Just a scatter of low
buildings and a couple of streets sitting there in the bright morning
sunlight.
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Jake SPOtted the cafe first. "They ought to have a vidphone there," he said,
leaving the jungle trail and starting for it.
Gomez, limping some, followed Jake onto the dusty street. "I'm hoping they can
also provide food and beverages," he said. "After living off the land for
several days, I'm ready for--"
"Beth must be in Berlin by now," said Jake, hurrying, his footfalls stirring
up dust. "I'll have to contact the IDCA office there to find out where she's
staying."
"If we call Cosmos first, Bascom will know what--"
"Rather do it my way, Sid."
The cafe had a rickety verandah running along its front. The name of the
place, judging by the single word scrawled on the window in milky paint, was
IiM^o's.
Jake went running up the shaky wooden steps, pushed through the lopsided swing
doors.
There were only three people in the dining room, plus a sleeping dog and a
very old parrot.
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The two customers were at separate tables and the waiter, a gaunt man in white
trousers and a tattered polka dot shirt, was leaning, against a crooked wooden
pillar. They were all watching a dirt-smeared vidwall screen. Jake was about
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to ask where the phone was, when Beth appeared on the screen.
It was footage taken a few months earlier at a conference in San
Francisco. She was smiling, making her way into a meeting hall, politely
refusing to answer any questions about the Kittridge anti-Tek system.
A newsman, speaking Portuguese, started to explain.
Jake couldn't make out every word, but he got most of them.
"... Beth Kittridge was twenty seven when she.." death... this morning.." in
Berlin..."
Everything around him seemed to fade away, to vanish from the room.
There was only Jake, feeling suddenly very cold, and the images on the wall.
As he watched, the wall showed him Beth getting out of a land car in
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