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he said. i!. "It's got a hell of a lot of privacy," she pointed out to the
large black cyborg.
They were in one of the stables in the Robotic Rodeo complex.
i'twenty robot horses were lined up in neo wood stalls on each side fthe big
structure, and actual horse odors were being pumped :_
by the air circ system. The horses had been deactivated for night and they
each stood still and silent. The lights were set dim.
had just come in by way of the door at the far end building and was
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walking toward where Marney stood in the middle of the neo wood plank floor.
His metal hand flickered palely in the dim light. "You've made contact with
the grease ball
"Hey now, there's no need to call Gomez nasty--"
"Tell me what you have to report." He grasped her wrist with his metal
fingers.
"You're the squeezing est feller I have ever--"
"Give me some information," he urged.
Grimacing, she struggled to get free of him. "Let go of me or I'm not going to
be able to talk straight."
He loosened his grip very slightly, but kept hold of her. "I'm not especially
fond of delay."
"Okay, okay. Gomez is in Sweetwater lookin' for some palooka named
Avram Moyech."
"That we already know."
"How in the dickens am I supposed to know what you know when you don't confide
a darn---ow."
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"Less blather, Marney."
She took a deep breath. "He was aimin' to talk to Al Lavinsky, who works right
here at the rodeo," she continued, exhaling. "But something went wrong and he
never got to---" "All right. So what's his next move?" "I don't know."
Cimarron leaned closer to her. "If you want to keep in my good graces, you
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damn well better find out what he's planning to do next. And you're going to
have to find out damn--"
Cimarron suddenly let go of Marney and pushed her away from him. He spun
around, swinging up his metal hand.
Gomez, who'd slipped out of a nearby stall to come slowly up behind him,
ducked now and made a dive at Cimarron.
The black man had a lazgun built into his middle finger. He fired it now, but
the beam only went sizzling through the air where
Gomez no longer was.
The detective tackled the big man around the knees, then brought a fist up
into his groin.
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"Yowl" Cimarron started to move his metal hand up for another shot.
But Gomez slapped a sharp-pronged metal disk against his lower left arm.
Gasping, Cimarron's body began to tremble and jerk.
He slumped back, flat out on the floor and lay stiff with his eyes open wide
and staring.
Gomez tapped the disk with his forefinger and untangled himself from the
fallen man.
"Darn sakes," commented Marney, "I didn't think he'd hear you tiptoein'
up behind him, Gomez darling'."
"We underestimated the acuity of his hearing, sr." Gomez squatted beside
Cimarron. "What I attached to you, Sam, is a trudisk. I'm sure you and the
pendejos you work with are familiar with them."
"You're... a... bastard," said Cimarron in a droning voice. "Es ver dad Gomez
agreed. "But right now the disk sees to it that you have to answer each and
every one of my queries with an absolutely truthful response."
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"Yes," agreed the drugged Cimarron.
"Where's Avram Moyech?"
After a few seconds, Cimarron blurted, "Tekelodeon."
"That's what?"
"Big Tek den," supplied Marney.
Nodding, Gomez asked the drug-controlled man, "Where is Moyech within that
joint?"
one of the suites in the Exec Wing." "Which suite?"
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"12A."
"Is he guarded?"
"Two human guards. One on the hall, one in the suite with him."
"Any passwords I can use?"
Cimarron answered, "Say 'sibber elf' to the guardbot at the corridor
entrance."
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"What are the guards' names?"
"Outside man is Leon and--"
"Trouble coming!" Marney gestured toward the doorway. Gomez jumped to his feet
and turned. "iChihuahua!"
A tall, lean man with a lazgun in his left hand was coming into the stable.
"What the hell'd you do to Sam?"
"Dios, we did nothing," said Gomez. "This poor hombre has suffered some kind
of seizure."
As the man came running toward them, Marney slipped away and into a stall.
"We were having a polite chitchat," explained Gomez as he casually moved his
hand closer to his shoulder holster, "when Seaor Cimarron just fell over."
The new arrival stopped beside his fallen colleague. "How come his eyes are
wide open?" "Must be a symptom of what ails him."
"And I suppose that trudisk you stuck on his arm has nothing to do with--"
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"Out of the way, Gomez!" shouted Marney.
There was a slapping sound, followed by a loud snorting.
A huge black stallion came charging out of the stall Marney had ducked into.
Gomez hit the floor, rolled several times, and sat up with his stun gun in
hand. The lean man wasn't as fast. The robot horse hit him directly,
ocked him the floor, and then him under his hooves to trampled as he went
galloping by.
Gomez leaped to his feet, aimed his stun gun and shot the thin man.
He sprinted closer and used the stun gun on Cimarron.
Marney popped free of the stall. She poked at the small silver control box she
was holding in her hand.
At the other end of the stable, the robot stallion whinnied twice, reared up
on his hind legs. He settled down, ceased to function, and was once again
silent and unmoving.
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"Gracias." Gomez caught Marney's hand. "Soon as we store these chingados,
we'll pay a call on Avram. We'll have a few hours before these two return from
slumherland."
"Soon as they do," observed Marney ruefully, "they're going to want us dead."
robot doorman was chrome plated. He wore a multicolored flowered shirt, white
trousers, yellow sandals, and a gun belt holding twin stun guns He dropped his
silvery right hand to one of the guns as
Jake came striding into the apartment complex lobby out of the hot, sun-bright
morning.
"Your business, sir?" he inquired in his deep, slightly echoing voice.
"I'd like to see Hazel McCay," Jake told the got.
He hadn't intended to come here, but the New Town Pharmaceuticals R&D
exec had failed to show up for their dawn meeting.
Closing his metal fingers around the sin ivory handle of the stun gun the
doorman asked, "What was that name again, sir?" "Hazel McCay.
She lives in 135."
The robot produced a jumpy humming noise in his broad chest.
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a few seconds, he told Jake, "You're mistaken, sir."
"You mean that isn't the apartment number?"
The robot shook his silvery head. "There is no such person residing here."
"This is the Tropicana Villa building, isn't it?"
"It is, sir."
"Then she lives here."
"There is no Hazel McCay living here. There never has been."
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