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what we thought," May says.
     
    "True," Philo agrees. "We will need more scans at
different frequencies."
     
    "Well fortunately, the good Doctor will walk in and
out of his workshop several times a day," Feller says. "So let's
hope we can scan the heck out of him. There has to be something in
there."
     
    "Yeah, he looks really weird," May says.
     

098 - A Limousine in Scar City

     
    Sam and Rebecca have traded the back of an unmarked
white van and two thugs for a limousine and several people in
identical dark suits and sunglasses. These have to be Casino
personnel - no one else runs around in matching outfits like that.
The two of them have been installed in the back, their new
entourage ignore them in the front.
     
    "Hey, did you read that note?" Rebecca asks.
     
    "What? Oh! Right. I totally forgot. We were supposed
to be at Darby's because it was quiet, right? That turned out
great," Sam says, digging in his pockets.
     
    "You had a little fan club," Rebecca says. "Normally
people leave you alone, at Darby's. Something's changed over
there."
     
    "Here it is," Sam says, unfolding a piece of
paper.
     
    "You can discard that," a voice says over a speaker
inside the car. "It was from us. Then we heard you were getting
arrested, so we just picked you up."
     
    "Um, okay, thanks," Sam says. He unfolds the paper
anyway. Sure enough, it's Casino. There's a gold Casino logo
stamped in the bottom center. Above it is a handwritten note:
     
    WE REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE TO RETRIVE AN ITEM.
     
    "That's it?" Rebecca asks, leaning in to read. The
folks in the limo haven't even bothered to take her gun. The
concept of "arrest" in Scar City is a loose one.
     
    "They want my mad skills," Sam says, grinning. "to
retrieve an item. I wonder what the job pays."
    "Indemnity," the voice says through the speaker.
     
    "Indemnity? From what? For what?" Sam asks. There is
no answer.
     
    "They seem to think they have something on you,"
Rebecca says. "That doesn't explain why I am still here."
     
    Nothing through the speaker. The limo winds through
city streets, people, vehicles, storefronts, gleaming lobbies,
lights, and the rest of the life that populates the ground level of
Scar City.
     
    Soon the car veers to the left and down a ramp
underneath a building. They curve around and around until they come
out into a wide, low-ceilinged concrete area lit with rows of
sickly yellow fluorescent lights. They park and the suits get out.
One of them, a man with enormous shoulders, takes off his shades,
tucks them in a breast pocket, and opens the door for the two
passengers.
     
    "I guess this is where we get off?" Sam asks.
     
    "Don't be a comedian," Rebecca says, elbowing him.
"Eyes and ears open." Always the captain.
     
    They climb out.
     
     
     

099 - Agent Millman's Apartment

     
    David Millman, Agent, stops in to check his anonymous
post office box. There's another package, this time it's smaller.
Just a thick envelope. He takes it up to his apartment.
     
    Some haggling down at street level has resulted in
Millman gaining possession of several large, digital display boards
which he has leaned up against the interior walls. This only serves
to further emphasize the industrial appearance of the unfurnished,
concrete-floored apartment.
     
    He peels open the envelope and pulls out a series of
small cards, each of which he inserts into a slot on the side of
one of the display boards. The boards come to life with diagrams,
schematics, personnel, and the recent history of an organization
called Vertical Technologies.
     
    The contents of the box from earlier have been laid
in neat rows on the floor. Some of these turned out to be copies or
photographs of hand-written notes, seemingly taken from an
engineer's notebook. Many of them are written backwards or in code.
The first task will be to translate it all and index it.
     
    Actually, his first task is to place pieces of tape
over all of the cameras at the tops of the boards, so