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Gomez and--" "A putz."
"I'd hoped, as I've been trying to convey, despite your constant snide
interruptions, that being rebuilt and reconstructed would have modified your
character some. It strikes me, and I am, after all perceptive enough to be
considered one of the best, if not the best, investigative reporters in the
vidnews business, that a robot such as yourself, Sidebar, ought to know his
place and not be continually--"
"My place is to be an ace cameraman." Sidebar was piloting the Newz, Inc." sky
car through the rainswept Madrid afternoon. "Not to chauffeur you around this
rinky dink town."
"Madrid isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, rinky dink Natalie shook her
head, causing her long red hair to brush her shoulders. "We are, after all
comrades in arms, as it were, and you ought to be glad to do me a good turn
now and then, especially since our regular pilot
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is laid up with some sort of rare virus."
"Booze isn't a rare virus." The robot punched out a landing pattern.
"We're over the Cane Mayor. And there's the side street where that abysmal
monstrosity the
Hotel Condor aspires above the--" "I think it's rather cute." "That it is."
car glided down through the rain and landed on
Lot Quatro, which was next to the towering sil metal and black plasdglass
Hotel Condor. ""I trust, Sidebar, that you won't simply sit here and
I'm in the Cafe Picasso talking to Secretary of State Torres. Use the time to
improve your mind or to meditate, which, I understand, is as valuable for
mechanical brains as it is for--"
"My calling in life is to take insightful pictures." The robot tapped the
vidcamera built into his chest. "Not sit on my toke and listen to the
raindrops falling on--"
"Secretary Torres wants to talk to me privately. That's what he said when he
called this morning."
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"Privately in a hotel restaurant?"
"We're operating, as I shouldn't have to point out, in the realm of the
political intrigue here," said the redhaired reporter. "Senor Torres wants
this to look like a perfectly routine interview, yet he doesn't want any of it
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going on the record. I should think by now, having ably assisted me on a
variety of highly complex and dangerous investigative reporting missions,
Sidebar, you'd be in possession of a heck of a lot more political savvy."
Sighing, she unfastened the safety gear, tugged a small force-field umbrella
from her coat pocket and stepped out into the rainy afternoon.
"He's SUFFERING FROm a bad case of granulated eyeballs," mentioned
Gomez as he headed the sky van down toward Parking Lot Quatro.
"Thought it was your ankle and your wrist that got bunged up on the island."
"I'm suffering from those battle scars, too, now that you mention it.
But lack of rest and sleep is also taking its toll." "I had the impression you
were snoozing away while the van was on automatic en route here to Spain."
"I slept fitfully," explained Gomez as their vehicle set-fled down onto a
landing space. "I've never stayed at the Hotel Condor before, but
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Bascom assures me it's a deluxe estabhshment.
"Have to be to get away with that facade."
Gomez asked, "You still going to concentrate on locating the multifaceted
Janine?"
"Initially, yeah. While you start tracing the Devlin Guns."
"First thing for me to do is make certain they ended up with Janeiro
Martinez--and then find out where 'he's got them stashed." Unhooking his
safety gear, Gomez nudged the door open. He was halfway out into the rain,
when he sat back down again, sideways, legs hanging out in the downpour. "Do
my bleary eyes deceive me, amigo, or is that indeed a Newz, Inc." crate over
yonder?"
Jake glanced in the direction his partner was pointing. "Looks to be."
Gomez nodded forlornly. "I didn't think I'd be encountering my nemesis so
soon," he said. "But I recognize the smug camerabot sitting there in the car.
It's Sidebar, known accomplice of Natalie Dent. That means, alas, that the
lady herself must be in the vicinity."
"You'll get soggy perched there, Sid. Let's get inside damn hotel."
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ate is a peculiar thing, observed Gomez as he
stepped completely out of the sky van "It never throws me into the path of
sweet-tempered and highly intelligent young women, but rather strews my uphill
path with--"
"A highly intelligent young woman would head for shelter the moment you came
within range."
"Another nasty trick that fate plays on me," said Gomez, "is to pair me with a
partner who doesn't appreciate my immense charm."
A few. spaces to their right the pilot side window of the Newz, Inc."
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sky car opened a quarter. "Hi there, putz," called the robot cameraman.
"WTelcome to Madrid," muttered Gomez, heading for the hotel entrance.
The CAFE PICR$ was a large multilevel place adjacent to the vast soaring lobby
of the Hotel Condor. Natalie and the short pudgy secretary of state had taken
a table on the level that featured a replica of Pablo Picasso's studio built
on a floating platform. An androidsim of an aged Picasso was at work at an
easel, clad only in a pair of khaki shorts and sandals.
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Turning away from watching the android, Secretary
Torres said, "A very fascinating artist. Full of fire." "He's okay,"
said Natalie.
"Before we leave, we'll go up to the top level of the cafe and see the
animated Gzeica." From his breast pocket he took a bright orange plyochief and
dabbed at his perspiring forehead. "I find myself, my dear, in an un Not
merely unpleasant but danger She rested one arm on the small table, which had
a Picasso dove etched on its plastiglass surface. Leaning closer to the
politician, Natalie said, "This has to do with what we talked about the other
day, Senor Torres?"
He wiped his forehead. "S/, my dear," he replied. "The guns, si On that
previous occasion I made light of your suggestions that the Garcia regime was
going to be the target of an imminent coup."
"You were perspiring a lot then, too, Mr. Secretary," reminded
Natalie, watching the pudgy man. "Being a seasoned reporter, I knew you
weren't being absolutely honest and forthright with me."
"Es ver dad admitted Torres. "I already knew that weapons of some kind had
been delivered to Janeiro Martinez, that he was planning to use them in an
attempt to overthrow our government."
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"Does President Garcia know what you know? I assume, as a trusted member of
his cabinet, you'd have--"
"The situation, senorita, is a complex one, very delicate," he said, wiping at
his forehead with the orange ply-ochief. "One has a loyalty to one's country,
but also to oneself."
"So you haven't discussed this with Garcia?"
"There are several factors to consider," said Torres, glancing again at the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]