Read Brother Death for Free Online

we'll get the names and titles later."
    Moving slowly and with care, Taz worked her way toward the inner office, the door of which was open.
    Bork catalogued what he saw around him. Plush carpet, some kind of animal fur analog, a dishwater blond color and centimeter-thick nap. Not cheap. The furniture was organoplast, fully mechanized and computerized. Paintings on the walls, some flats, some holoprojics. Probably not copies, either. Lots of money showing here.
    "Bevin was in his office, working," Trager said. "Door closed, only two ways in or out, both locked from inside. Secretary and bodyguard, three of them, parked at the main entrance in the outer office; three guards outside the connecting door to a hall that leads to the fresher. Three more guards outside the fresher door into the hallway. He was alone in the room."
    "Windows?" Taz said.
    "Full wall, view of Vilas Park. Denscris plate as thick as your wrist, comp-control polarized against photon or lasers. Can't be opened, not a scratch on it."
    "Keep talking."
    "An alarm went off. The guards called to Bevin, didn't get an answer, overrode the door's lock. Didn't wait for the simadam to clear the system, two of them were knocked cold going in before somebody coded the door field off.
    "Bevin's body was on the floor. Except for his head. That was in the middle of his desk." She sounded crisp, but Bork caught a hint of something in her voice. Squeamishness. Revulsion. Something.
    There was a com and computer terminal on the secretary's desk, a form-couch and chairs on either side of the inner office door. Indirect lighting. A chem and smoke detector was mounted in the door frame, and a poison and probably a hard-object scanner pick-up was inset flush into the frame. Somewhere there would have been an operator checking the sensors.
    "Zap field inside, too?" Bork asked.
    A moment of silence.
    "My brother," Taz said. "He's working with us on this."
    Trager's voice again. "Yes. Variable field, state of the art, automatic in the door if a weapon is detected, manual override on Bevin's desktop. All he had to do was wave his hand and anybody anywhere in the room but his chair would get zapped cold."
    "Unless maybe the attacker was in an insulated groundsuit," Bork said.
    "And invisible," Taz put in. "Even a ninja in a shiftsuit couldn't open the door and sneak in without somebody noticing. And a groundsuit makes you look like you're wearing an overstuffed chair."
    Bork didn't speak to this. If you were good enough, you could rascal almost any machines. If the computer was blanked and the guards were bribed, the scenario was possible.
    "We've already run fast truthscans on the guards and secretary, deepscans to follow. So far, our people tell us, nobody is lying."
    Interesting, Bork thought. But not certain. Anybody who was sharp in fugue could beat a shallowscan. It took a lot of skill and practice, but it could be done.
    They reached the door. Blood had pooled on the carpet, much of it soaking in, but some of it jutted a sticky, congealing finger almost to the entrance. There was a bloody footprint halfway to the desk. The room had a funny smell, not just the metallic odor of spilled blood, but something sharper.
    "Looks like somebody threw up on the desk," Taz said.
    Bork nodded. That was the sour stench he detected.
    In life, Tibois Beven had probably been a handsome man. Bork estimated he'd been a fit sixty or seventy, hair naturally gray, features clean, either by nature or surgery. His body, sprawled in a fetal pose on the rug, was attired in a silk suit that revealed a certain amount of care as to its appearance. Not fat, not too lean, fairly sthenic.
    Bevin's eyes were open, fogged somewhat as they dried, staring into infinity. But his mouth was closed and his expression was almost neutral, no fear, no surprise. A certain amount of blood formed a small puddle under the cleanly cut neck on the desk, but the severed head appeared remarkably neat otherwise.
    "Somebody with