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Department,” it said. “Top of the morning to you, Mr. Cardigan.”
    â€œSome goon just made an intruder call to my number two home number,” he said. “Find out how they managed that—and who.”
    â€œComing right up. Will you wait?”
    â€œNope, call me again in fifteen minutes.”
    Jake shed the pajama top he slept in, took a quick liteshower and dressed. He slipped the stungun into his shoulder holster.
    When he stepped out onto the deck of the condo, his son was sitting there drinking a plazcup of citrisub.
    â€œA person your age, Dad, really needs more than two hours of sleep.” Dan, a lean young man of sixteen, was wearing his SoCal Police Academy uniform.
    â€œI got an unexpected wake-up call.” Walking to the rail, he scanned the surrounding beach.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œOh, just some lout trying to dissuade me.”
    â€œYou on a new case?”
    Nodding, Jake told him about the disappearance of Jill Bernardino and what he and Gomez had accomplished thus far in trying to find out what had become of her.
    â€œOne of Gomez’ wives, huh? Did I ever meet her?”
    â€œYears ago, yeah.”
    â€œShe’s the redhead, right?”
    â€œNo, that was Georgine, Gomez’ third wife.”
    Dan shook his head. “Then I don’t think I remember her.”
    The deck phone buzzed.
    â€œYeah?” answered Jake.
    The Cosmos bot smiled. “The phone call in question was made from a landvan in the Long Beach Sector of Greater Los Angeles,” it reported. “The vehicle was found abandoned a few moments ago. Listed as stolen from the Altadena Sector late last evening.”
    â€œAnd how’d they break through my screening system?”
    â€œWhat was used, Mr. Cardigan, was one of these new gatecrasher phones.”
    â€œI’m supposed to be resistant to gadgets like that.”
    â€œSo we thought, too,” replied the bot. “Your entire security system is being reevaluated from here. We’ll get all the kinks out of it, never fear.”
    â€œGreat, that gives me enormous peace of mind.” He hung up.
    â€œSome of the Teklords are unhappy with you again,” observed his son.
    â€œI’m on the permanent shit list of a lot of the cartels.” Jake looked out toward the brightening Pacific. “But this particular warning was prompted by our hunting for Jill.”
    â€œIt’s possible, isn’t it, that Gomez’ ex-wife is doing something illegal herself? From what you’ve told me about her Tek habit and all.”
    â€œSupposedly Jill is no longer hooked on the stuff,” he said to his son. “She’s clean, upright and gainfully employed.”
    â€œSure, but she’s not faithful to the guy she’s married to now,” Dan pointed out. “That means, to me anyway, that she can’t be trusted.”
    Jake grinned a thin grin. “I sure as hell wouldn’t trust her, no.”
    Dan stood up. “How are you and Bev Kendricks getting along?”
    â€œWe have ceased to be a romantic twosome, I’m afraid.”
    â€œThat’s too bad. She’s a terrific person—and you can trust her.”
    â€œThat you can,” his father agreed. “The problem is that she thinks I’m still moping too much over Beth Kittridge’s death.”
    â€œWell, you are, you know.”
    â€œI am, yeah,” he agreed. “I’m probably going to have to talk to somebody—somebody professional—about it.”
    â€œWhen?”
    â€œRight after,” he promised, “we clear up this case.”

8
    There was nothing but darkness.
    She awakened to it.
    The blackness was warm and impenetrable and Jill Bernardino was sprawled in the center of it. Very tentatively, she felt around her.
    She seemed to be lying facedown on a smooth surface, probably a metal floor.
    Her head ached, but she was feeling much more pain than