Tek Power (27 page)

“I met Traynor for the first time years ago, before I went to prison,” said Jake. “Yeah, and I did run into the guy in some of the Tek parlors that we were both frequenting. I saw him again about a year or more ago, when he came by to ask me to help him out with some trouble he was having with his ex-wife.” Jake shook his head. “I knew the guy was still on Tek and I didn't want to get involved with him or his problems. I gave him the name of a divorce attorney in the Glendale Sector. As I recall, he came back a few times more to try to see me when I wasn't here.”

“Twice.” Dan held up two fingers.

“Tell me about tonight,” urged the police detective. “Why was he coming here? What'd he want?”

“That I don't know.” He let his right hand drop to his side and Bev took hold of it. “He didn't vidphone in advance, if that's what you're asking. I had no idea he was going to show up.”

Drexler pointed at Dan. “Maybe the kid knows.”

“He didn't call here at all,” said Dan. “And we sure didn't have much in the way of a conversation when he did show up. I heard him out here, he was shouting and I thought he was with someone.” He shook his head. “When I came out, he was alone and he looked very upset and disheveled. I figured he'd fallen in the sand a few times. I said a few words to him and—well, that was when he died. I thought he had some kind of seizure.”

“Yeah, a rigged seizure.” Drexler's frown deepened and he scratched at his ribs. “We'll drop the questions for now, Cardigan, even though I got a feeling you do know what Traynor was up to tonight.”

“Just so your feelings don't inspire you to bother my son again.”

“I got a robot forensic team due any minute,” the lieutenant told them. “Why don't you and Bev and the kid take a hike along the beach? Stay away a couple hours. I'd truly appreciate that.”

Jake said, “Okay, we'll keep off. But remember that Traynor never got inside my place. I don't want you or your goons in there either.”

“Got something to hide?”

Before Jake could reply, Bev tugged him out of range of the policeman. “Let's take that walk,” she advised. “Come on along, Dan.”

3

T
HE COPPERPLATED ROBOT
waitress at the AllNite Neptune Cafe had been in service there for close to seven years and hadn't gone in for a tune-up in nearly two. She was as amiable as ever, but sometimes moved with a slight wobble and now and then you could hear her inner workings whirring and sputtering. When Gomez, his dark curly hair and moustache dotted with night mist, came strolling into the long, narrow seaside restaurant, she straightened up, making a chuckling noise, and went lurching up to him. “Hiya, stranger,” she said. “Long time no see.”

The detective smiled and returned her hug. “
Buenas noches
, my love,” he said. “I'm hunting for my
amigos
—did they drop in here?”

“If you mean Sourpuss,” she said, nodding her coppery head in the direction of the rear of the place, “he's back there with his son and a pretty blonde who ought to know better.”

“Now, now,
chiquita
, Jake, at the core, is nearly as jolly as you.”

“Not tonight.”

Gomez eased around her and walked through the nearly empty restaurant to the booth Jake was sharing with his son and Bev. “For lack of anything better to do,” he explained as he slid onto the bench next to Jake, “I was monitoring the cop channels on my skycar dash and thus heard that some poor
hombre
was found dead on your doorstep. When I arrived on the scene, the amiable Drexler told me he'd shooed you elsewhere.”

“Yeah, we were just starting to talk about what happened, Sid.” He tapped his forefinger absently on the side of his plazmug of nearcaf. “You knew Pete Traynor, didn't you?”

“Much better than I wanted to. A
burrito
, stubborn and stupid—at least as far as Tek was concerned. You were wise,
amigo
, to cross that guy off your guest list.” Gomez smiled across the table. “Evening, Bev. Daniel.”

Dan nodded, smiling back. “I was filling them in on what I heard Traynor saying,” he told Gomez. “I didn't share any of this with Lieutenant Drexler.”

“He's not the sort of
pendejo
who invites sharing.”

“I heard somebody shouting out there and I figured he was drunk or drugged on something,” continued Dan, resting both elbows on the tabletop. “He—and I didn't catch everything—was talking to people, imaginary people. One name he yelled was Flanders. He said something about not having anything to do with what happened to this Flanders. And he called out to Amy. Oh, and somebody named Denton or Dennis.”

Gomez asked, “Did you actually talk to him before he expired?”

“A little, yeah,” answered Jake's son. “He'd been shouting Dad's name, too, which is why I went out to take a look. I recognized him and it was obvious something was wrong. He looked sick, disoriented. He knew who I was, too, and he told me it was important that he talk to you, Dad.”

Jake asked, “He didn't say about what?”

Dan shook his head. “Well, he started to say something about some kind of hijacking. But he had that seizure—or whatever it was—and just died.”

Bev put her arm around the young man's shoulders. “Rough thing for you to go through.”

“Not that bad,” said Dan. “It was all the cop activity afterwards that really got me upset, Bev.”

Gomez waved away the copperplated waitress, who was heading for their booth with a drawn electronic orderpad. “Give me a few more minutes to gather my thoughts and order, dear lady.”

“You got it, Sidney.” She ground to a halt, tottered, and withdrew to the front of the cafe again.

“It sounds like they slipped this Tek addicted
hombre
a sizzler,” observed Gomez.

Jake said, “That's what our chum Drexler thinks, too.”

Gomez gave a shrug. “Even a nitwit can have a right notion occasionally,” he said. “Traynor was apparently having hallucinations about things that were on his mind. I assume his nocturnal visit wasn't announced in advance.”

“Nope, I had no idea he was coming by—and I don't know what he wanted to talk to me about.” Jake leaned back, took a sip of his nearcaf. “In spite of his Tek habit, the guy was a pretty good weapons technician. Last I heard, he had a fairly responsible job with Gunsmiths, Ltd., out in the West Hills Sector.”

“Those
cabróns
cook up a lot of the nastier weapons used by our esteemed nation—and for a whole stew-pot of less esteemed countries around the globe—to exterminate their current shitlist entries,” said Gomez, rubbing at his moustache. “Could it be that the late Pedro Traynor was agitated and het up about a hijacking of some of Gunsmith's engines of destruction?”

“Something stolen from an outfit like that,” said Dan, “that could be dangerous all right.”

“The thing is, Traynor's dead and gone,” said Jake. “So we'll probably never find out.”

Frowning thoughtfully, Bev said, “Flanders. We started working on a case a few weeks ago—my agency gets a case every so often, even though it's nowhere near as big as the Cosmos outfit you guys work for—a case involving a Wes Flanders, who was gunned down in the Casino Strip in the Hollywood Sector. He worked for the Banx Card central office. We haven't solved it yet and neither have the police. I'm wondering if he could be the Flanders your visitor was referring to.”

“I didn't hear any first name,” said Dan. “But this Flanders
was
killed recently and Traynor apparently thought somebody was trying to blame him.”

“Is there a pattern here, folks?” inquired Gomez, making another shooing motion at the robot waitress, who seemed on the verge of rumbling toward their booth again. “A banker and a weapons technician—what's the link?”

“Probably isn't one,” Jake said. “As for Amy—that has to be Amy St. Mars, Traynor's erstwhile missus.”

“Of the St. Mars Ponics agriculture empire?” asked his partner, sitting up straighter “There's a family with
dinero.
”

“The same, yeah. They divorced about a year or more back. Traynor came to me to help him prove she wasn't treating their two kids right,” said Jake, his fingers circling the mug. “He hoped to get custody from her—but I didn't want to get tangled up with anything like that. For one thing, it would've been impossible to prove he was any fitter a parent than Amy.”

“Well, we've checked off most of the names you heard, Dan,” commented Bev. “Except for Denton/Dennis. Anybody got a suggestion on him?”

Jake shook his head. “You know, why don't we simply forget all about this?” he suggested to them. “Traynor and I were a hell of a long way from being pals. Okay, he died—assassinated apparently—on my doorstep, but I sure don't feel any strong desire to avenge him. Unless it starts to look like Dan and I are in danger, I'd just as well back off completely from this mess.”

Bev asked him, “Aren't you even curious, Jake?”

“Not especially, no. Tekheads are getting knocked off with considerable frequency in these parts.”

Gomez said, “But usually not so close to your hearth and home,
amigo.
”

“Even so,” said Jake. “I'd like to pass on this one. Especially since nobody is paying us to poke around and investigate.”

After a few seconds, Gomez signaled to the robot waitress. “Long as we're here, I think I'll have a vegetarian fish sandwich,” he decided.

Buy
Tek Money
Now!

A Biography of William Shatner

William Shatner (b. 1931) is a celebrated Canadian actor, author, and film director known for his irreverent charm and his star turn as Captain Kirk on the first
Star Trek
television series, as well as many other roles.

Shatner was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. He majored in economics at McGill University and upon graduating took a job as the business manager at Montreal's Mountain Playhouse, where he also pursued classical Shakespearean training. In 1954, Shatner began performing at Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival, appearing in
Henry V
,
Oedipus Rex
, and Christopher Marlowe's
Tamburlaine the Great
—the play in which he would make his Broadway debut in 1956, as the understudy for Christopher Plummer.

After his first film appearance, in MGM's
The Brothers Karamazov
(1958), and roles in the television series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
and
The Twilight Zone
, Shatner was cast in NBC's
Star Trek
, playing the courageous, unpredictable Captain James T. Kirk. Though cancelled in 1969 after three seasons,
Star Trek
became a cult hit in syndication, leading to an animated series and a number of spin-off television series and movies. Shatner starred in seven
Star Trek
films beginning with
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
in 1979.

Shatner went on to star as a veteran police sergeant in
T. J. Hooker
(1982–86) and as aging trial lawyer Denny Crane in
Boston Legal
(2004–08). He has also remained in the public eye with frequent television guest appearances.

Shatner has published a number of novels, most notably
TekWar
(1989), a science-fiction thriller that inspired eight sequels as well as video games and a television series. His autobiography,
Up Till Now
, was published in 2008. He has also released three musical albums, including the infamous
The Transformed Man
(1968), which introduced Shatner's unique spoken-word style, and the critically lauded
Seeking Major Tom
(2011).

In 2012, Shatner returned to Broadway after a fifty-year absence, in
Shatner's World: We Just Live in It
, a one-man show based on his life and work. After a three-week run in New York City, he took the show on the road, touring around the country. When he isn't working, Shatner and his wife, Elizabeth, divide their time between Southern California and Kentucky.

After graduating from McGill University in 1952, William Shatner began participating in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. This headshot dates from his early days with the festival. (Photo Courtesy of William Shatner.)