Liquid Cool: The Cyberpunk Detective Series (18 page)

PJ walked to the door and opened it. We hadn't connected the door buzzer yet, because we still had to get the hallway camera.

There he stood. Dot's father, Mr. Wan.

He completely ignored Punch Judy as he walked past her. His eyes avoided me too as he walked in. He casually held his hands together behind his back as he strolled around. First the reception area, then to PJ's desk, then he walked into my office. PJ and I looked at each other and then I bolted to my office. Just as I was about to go in, he came out. Mr. Wan strolled to the door, opened it, and closed it behind himself. We looked at each other again.

"That's China Doll's father?" Punch Judy asked.

"Yeah."

"You are not in good standing with him. I would not marry her if I were you. You marry her, you marry him."

"Don't say that. I'm trying not to think about it."

Chapter 25: China Doll

"What's in your bath tub?"

I sat with my back to the door as I gazed out the droplet covered window, wearing some new headset gadget PJ took the liberty of getting for me. Normally, people didn't like talking on the v-phone unless they could see the other party. Texting was the exception, but you surely didn't conduct business by texting. The video-phone headset was an eyepiece, a metal band around one side of your head, and a small arm attachment with a microfilm thin video screen. Quality was perfect, but I had PJ return it to get me a less than perfect model. I didn't want them to see my eyes too clearly so I could look out the window and they'd not realize it.

"There's a gator on my bath tub?" the woman on the other end of the video-phone said to me and then started to laugh.

"Why are you calling a private detective? Shouldn't you call Animal Control?"

"I want to hire you to find out who put this gator in my bath tub."

"Maybe it just came up from the sewage pipes."

"Mr. Cruz, this is a seven-foot-long gator."

"Is it a gator or a crocodile?" I asked.

"Very sharp question, Mr. Cruz. I can't remember which is which, so let's stick with gator. Will you take the case?"

"I'd be stealing your money. Believe you me, Animal Control will want to find out exactly where a seven-foot gator or croc came from too and how it found its way into your bath tub. They'll do the detecting for you for free. So here's what you do."

"What?"

"Video tape it with your mobile first, send the footage to the local news, and tell them to get there fast before Animal Control. Then when the camera crew gets there, before you let them in, call Animal Control. You'll be famous for a day and will have the government find out who put that water reptile in your tub."

"Boy, Mr. Cruz. You're so smart. That's exactly what I'll do."

"Liquid Cool is all about helping people. Even when there's no real case for us to take. Now go do your video-taping."

"Yes, sir."

I hung up the video call and pulled the video call headset off of me. "PJ!"

She appeared at the door laughing.

"I do not want any more crazy calls like that!"

"There's a gator in my bath tub," PJ said with her fake American Free City accent, or what she thought people who live in Free City sounded like, and then she started laughing.

I sat at my desk staring out the droplet covered window with my cup of silk coffee in hand. There was no view but the line of monolith office tower buildings across the street with their tinted windows. However, I had a deep sense of satisfaction. It was almost like a dream that I prayed would never end. I was just some laborer, legacy baby one moment, now I was a self-employed, business owner with an employee.

"Surprise!"

I was startled, but the smile never left my face as I turned around to see Dot peeking into the office from the door. She waltzed right in.

"Look at this," she said, looking around my space. "This is cool. You have a real place of business."

I set my cup down as she rushed me, threw her arms around me, and planted a kiss.

"Very impressive, Mr. Cruz," she said as she looked around again, then back at me. "You are a detective now. How do you like it? Wait."

She ran over to my door and closed it.

"I don't want to hear no animal sounds in there!" PJ yelled.

Dot laughed and I held my laughter in.

"Well, Mr. Cruz?" she asked.

I picked up my cup as I bobbed my head up and down. "Love it."

She was back next to me. "Is it dangerous?"

"Not at all," I replied. "Lot of variety, which I like."

"Oh. Tell me about the corporate case."

"The Case of the Nighttime Bionic Parts Thieves."

"Cruz, that's a stupid name. Your agency is named Liquid Cool. How can you come up with a cool name for your business, but give your cases such pathetic names. What was the name of the case before this one?"

"The Case of the Guy Who Scratched My Vehicle."

We both burst out laughing.

"That's what I mean," she managed to say while still laughing. "Enough! Cool names for all cases going forward."

"Gotcha."

"Tell me what happened."

I had a couple of chairs in front of my desk, but I did like I saw so many other business guys do, like Run-Time and others. In the corner, I had my own arrangement of plush chairs around a glass table, the whole set-up on another neon dark blue rug. Dot and I sat on adjacent chairs.

"It was some case," I started. "This company makes all these high-end bionic parts, but almost monthly thieves were ripping off their warehouse. They had tons of security but all their internal security guys couldn't figure out how it was possible. They fired a bunch of security heads over it. It was going on for months."

"How did you solve it then, Mr. Cruz?"

"Well...Mrs. Cruz...since it was the megacorporate world, I knew it had to be an inside job, but I knew that they would have checked that right away. So how can a theft be an inside job without being an inside job? Answer. The boss is playing nighttime footsy with his neighbor, who happens to be the VP of his main rival. He thinks he's scammin' her for corporate secrets, while in actuality, she's swiping and copying his access cards while he's sleeping."

"Ohhhh," Dot said.

"Fake trucks, fake uniforms, and all they had to do is drive in and out with a cloned access card."

"Very good, Mr. Cruz. How did you Sherlock Holmes all that? Are you that good?"

"I am, Mrs. Cruz. Oh, let me get my cup." I jumped up to grab my cup from my main desk. "What can I get you? I even have my own mini stash in my office."

The door to my office smashed in as a large man flew past me, knocking the cup from my hand. The thug slammed into the window.

We heard the pulse blast sound from under his jacket. After a second delay, the window shattered as the thug rose from the floor with such a look of menace that I knew that no good was about to come next. The thug glared at me, reached into his jacket, and began to raise his arm towards me. I didn't consciously notice the gun, until after I already acted.

Pop!

My pop gun popped out and the pulse bullet blew through his neck with a cloud of smoke and blood. His face, with a shocked look, fell forward off his body and then his entire body fell back out the window.

Part Seven

Intermission

Chapter 26: Officers Break and Caps

I ran to the window, or what used to be my window, which was a completely idiotic action. At this height, the wind could have easily sucked me out, but my behavior was on auto-pilot. From the corners of my eyes I saw Punch Judy was next to me on the left. I would later notice that she had a layer of sweat on her face and neck; Dot was on my right.

The whole thing was like the proverbial out-of-body experience. In fact, I was quite sickened by my behavior, the "stop for the bad hover-car crash to see if there were any dead bodies" behavior, but that's what I was doing. We wanted to see. Even Dot, who'd ordinarily run the opposite way was with us, precariously balancing with our legs as we looked out over the edge of the side of the building. Dot, PJ, and me hanging out to see the aftermath of the carnage. It was the reason people had under-vehicle cameras on their hover-cars--not for safety as was always the claim, but if there was an accident with a return-to-earth crash, they could be an easy spectator, maybe even get to snap a few photos from their mobile.

We barely caught the end of the thug descending to the ground, but at this height and the rain, we would never hear a splat or thud, or whatever our minds were expecting. I felt we were watching an episode of Science Fantastic. Which falls faster, a disembodied head or a decapitated body? Answer: they both hit the ground at the same time!

The tower's alarms screeched, and we all grabbed our ears. If this were a real business district, blast doors would have raised or lowered to cover the shattered-out window. We just stepped back.

Damn! I said to myself. The cops would be here at my office again!

"Oh!" I realized. "Dot, stay here!" I bolted from the office.

"Where are you going?" I heard her yell, but I was racing down the hallway to the elevators. For once, I wanted them to arrive fast.

I had to get to the ground and check the body. Another sucker shooter in my place of business. I had to get his ID and figure out who he was before the cops arrived. Once they did, it all would be inaccessible.

The elevator arrived!

I raced out the main doors of the office tower into the street. People were already encircling the mess that used to be a human being. Besides my germophobia, I had no tolerance for anything disgusting or nasty, which a splattered body definitely was. I pushed through the crowd and held my hand in front of my eyes to try shield my delicate sensibilities from the mess. The rain had stopped. Now when it needed to rain, it wasn't.

The man used to be a large man. I couldn't believe I was kneeling in front of the mess, but I had to get his ID. My hand went for his pants pockets and, lucky for me, my fingers found the wallet. I pulled it out and quickly opened it. There was the ID card of my sucker shooter. I pretended my eyes were a camera and I memorized the name, address, phone, and stats.

I paused and felt a wave of panic. The crowd that was surrounding the body and congregating on the streets was gone. It was like a bad movie where the guy realized he's the only one on the street and wonders why as he looked up to see Godzilla stomping him with his left foot. I looked around and my gaze stopped at the reason. Two big street cops were watching my every move. I never even saw or heard their hover-cruiser.

Officer Break and Officer Caps--Ebony and Ivory I called them (silently). PEACE in big bold white letters on their chests, but they could kill you in an instant, like all police, if you did the wrong thing.

"You a body snatcher, Mr. Cruz?" Officer Break asked.

"No, officer. I was finding his wallet for his ID, so I could see who exactly assaulted my employee and myself."

"Body snatching is a felony, Mr. Cruz. Disturbing a dead body is a felony, Mr. Cruz. Taking items off a dead body is a felony, Mr. Cruz."

"I didn't take anything. You were watching me. I looked at his ID and put it back. That's it."

PJ had arrived on the scene a minute ago and stood next to me with her arms folded. Break looked at his enhanced forearm display screen.

"...says you like to punch people with those bionic arms," he said to PJ.

"No, he attacked me. He punched me. I'm not allowed to punch anybody. It's illegal," Punch Judy said to him.

"But you have done just that at least six times."

"No, I learned my lesson. I'm not going to jail anymore. I have a job now."

"And Mr. Cruz is your employer?"

"Yes."

"Imagine that," Office Break said. "Two troublemakers. You sure you didn't punch that man out of the window?"

"No, I never punched him. In the struggle, he crashed through the window himself."

"Officers, you can check the body for punch wounds," I said, not trying to be funny.

The officers gave me a look.

"The man takes a header fro
m 100-st
ories up and is literally spread out on the concrete like peanut butter and jelly jam and you want us to check the body for bionic punch wounds into his body. How do you suppose we'd do that?" he asked.

"Yeah, sorry," I said.

"How did you lose your arms," Officer Caps asked PJ.

"They were cut off."

The two policemen looked up. "Cut off? By who?" Officer Caps asked.