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. Can you access the commercial-zone Connaughtaccounts system? I can do that, said Box. Do you want me to do that? Do it.Run the sample we made off Kara s phone and try topinpoint a guest that matches it. ID systems in the morepopulated areas of the galaxy commonly work on anindividual gestalt of voice print, DNA, retinal pattern,fingerprints, pheromones, extrapolated diet pattern from thevarious bodily effluvia, interesting body-language quirks, andany amount of other stuff - and in the Proximan Chain thatjumps several other levels of complexity from a standingstart.This is an utter pain in some areas and a good thing inothers.Here the odds of it were working in our favour. I ve got a name, Box said almost instantly. One KhristoffRamon Praetorian, bonded intercorporate courier and with awhole life on file to prove it.The files are just that little bit tooclean and complete for my taste - but you know how thesethings work.Something doesn t ring at least a few alarm bellsthen you know it s been manufactured. Indeed I do, I said. Where is he now? He s booked into Room 329, said Box. There s no activetrace on him I could find, so current and actual whereaboutsare unknown. Good enough, I said. Just let me know if he surfaces.Hi, I m Sandii came back with our order, so I put Box onhold until she was clear again.I doubted that anybody wouldbe that obvious, but the whole point about double-and triple-bluffing is that you can never quite be sure.Benny looked atthe contents of the plate before her, then started wolfingthem down like they were the first meal in months for astarving man. Don t mind me, she said around a mouthful of extrudedbeef-product burger. You go right ahead. Any thoughts on that other matter? I asked Box. Well, there are four thousand, five hundred and thirty-tworegistered or otherwise known Artificial PersonalityEmbodiments currently in the Proximan Chain, it said. Given the parameters you set me, though, the only two whofit the profile of being at the murder scene within thespecified time are Kara Delbane and yourself.I was uneasily aware that anybody else who might beinterested could have run those same parameters, and cometo the same conclusion. Doesn t look so good for me, I said. Oh well, at least I know I didn t do it. I know you didn t do it, too, Benny said, mopping up themeat juice from her plate. For what it s worth, Mira gave youthe once-over and I trust her judgement.Now, having read some of the additional information I veinterleaved through this, you ll have known that already, butit might be worth recording that this was the first time Ibecame aware that I d even been a suspect, so far asSummerfield was concerned. Thank you so much, I said indignantly. Trust is such awonderful thing. Don t worry about it, Bernice said. If the worst comes tothe worst, I ll feed you through the bars alternate Fridays, ifI m spared.As I said, the Connaught was an incorporate and labour-intensive concern, which made the process of surreptitiouslygetting to some specific floor slightly different from that ofdoing it via automation.Bernice and I linked arms andmarched up to a stony-faced receptionist, who had noted thetotal lack of baggage and jumped to the completely erroneousconclusion. And that would be a room for just how long? she enquired. Mr and Mrs.? Smith, we said, simultaneously, and both stifled giggles. One standard day/night cycle, I continued, gazing lovinglyinto Benny s eyes and method-acting like crazy that we werea married couple spicing up the old love life and feeling verynaughty about it. And could we have Room 315? asked Benny, simperingback at me in a manner that I thought was overdoing itsomething rotten in the processed-pork department. For itwas in that very room that we spent the happiest fortnight ofour lives, all those years ago - isn t that so.Piglet Poo? Shehanded over her own credit chips to further redefine theapparent social dynamic. Why so it is, I said. How clever of you to remember,Snooky Woo-wums.The receptionist then promptly lost any respect I mighthave ever possibly had for her as a person by not gagging onthe spot, and checked through her readouts. Room 315 is free, she said, which I already knew, havingchecked that it was half a minute before via Box. Have a nicestay.The lack of luggage necessitated nobody coming up withus, by way of the rattling brass elevator cages that seemedendemic, no matter what redesigned face the Connaught wascurrently showing, but a single bellhop.I carried Berniceacross the threshold of Room 315 and tipped him, and he leftus to it.Twenty seconds later we were out again and headingfor the room in which we were interested.I clamped a littleinduction mike to the door and listened through the earpiecefor a while. If there s anybody in there, he s not movingaround or breathing.Nothing but background.Shall weenter, Snooky Woo-wums? After you, Piglet Poo, said Bernice.The nature of hotels means that the locks on the doorsneed to be individually keyed, but with an override for thecleaners and security.This gives rise to an incredibly easyand basic trick that [method for picking hotel locks removed).On the whole, it was probably fortunate that getting intoRoom 329 was so simple and basic, because if it had beenhard it wouldn t have been worth the bother.Khristoff Ramon Praetorian probably owned three identicalsuits, counting the one he probably had on at the moment.Nothing interesting in the two hanging neatly in the closetwrapped in vegetable cellophane.He didn t drink, smoke, eator inject any kind of potable - or at least he didn t drink,smoke, eat or inject any kind of potable in hotel rooms: therefrigerator cabinet and the various courtesy packages hadn tbeen touched.The bed hadn t been slept in either, but thatproves nothing in a place where labour-intensive cleaningstaff come in every morning with blatant disregard for thepoor investigator.Apart from the suits, there seemed to be no personal itemsof any kind, none of the half-read datapacks, old socks,cosmetics, depilatories or any of the other things thatnaturally accumulate after even the briefest of stays.Thesoap in the washroom was still in its little origami-paperwrap. Do you know, said Bernice,  I really don t think we re goingto find anything.The archaic-looking but fully functional mail tube clunked,but, by the time it actually ejected its package, I had pickedup Bernice and jumped for the window.I then recalled that,even on the lower floors, hotels and similar structures put insuicide-proof windows as a matter of course [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]