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yellow desert and a good deal of cactus. There were also
several holographic Joshua trees out there. Leaving her in the chair, the
robot wobbled over to shut the door to the deck. "There'll be a beck of a lot
less trouble for the both of us, lady, if you'd follow the Medplan you were
given."
"I'm sorry It's just that I never had smog-asthma until I moved out here three
months ago," she said in a weary voice. "Takes some getting
.. . used to." "Here we go again," remarked the medibot, turning its back on
the view. "Self-pity time in the desert. Going to blame your husband for
dumping you and giving you such a trauma that you acquired this malady."
"Jeffrey didn't dump me," she corrected. "I left him." The little robot
shook its ball of a head. "You're not living in the right century, lady," it
observed. "Why let a little harmless adultery bother you? Instead you
should've used it to get more of what you want out of life. "Sbu're rolling
in the hay with assorted bimbos, Jeff so now I want a bigger house, a sky car
of my own and all the stuff on this list!" That's the way to handle things."
Eleanor didn't reply. After a moment the got remarked, "If you can keep from
having any more fits for an hour or so, I'll get back to tidying up your
sloppy bedroom."
She said, breathing mask muffling her voice, "I'm fine."
"You sure don't look it." The medibot took three steps toward the bedroom
door and then ceased to function. The air circ system died at the same
instant. "What's wrong?" Eleanor started to stand up.
The door to the deck came slapping open. A large, wide robot, painted a pale
green, came lumbering into the room. "Sit down," he boomed.
Behind him came a small bald man with a frizzy moustache and a trace of a
beard. "Afternoon, love," he said, smiling and holding up his silvery stun
gun "We thought we'd drop in for a bit of a chat, don't you know."
$ 3 Gomez hesitated on the threshold of the toyshop, frowning down at the
fuzzy little mechanical puppy. "Hey, perrito, what are you doing to my boot.
"Using it to teethe on, schlep," replied the toy dog in a deep roughhouse
voice.
"Your voxbox needs some urgent fine tuning." With a terse kicking motion, the
detective managed to send the pup sailing across the
Wondersmith's Toyshop showroom.
"Cheezit!" cried a two-foot-high Fairy Princess who was occupying a little
gilt throne atop a slowly rotating plaz pedestal. "It's some kind of
perverted molester come to abuse us one and all."
"Keep your knickers on, sis," advised an overstuffed redheaded rag doll who
was slumped in a slowly ticking little tin rocker. "I know this dorf. He's
an old patron."
"He looks like an ancient patron to me." The puppy was huddled behind a toy
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white piano, glowering at Gomez. "He's got more wrinkles than a relief map of
a senile prune."
"NirSos y nitS as it truly warms my heart to exchange all these pleasantries
with you se the detective assured them. "But I actually dropped by in
response to a summons from your boss." "Nertz," said the princess.
"Don't let these little hooligans razz you, honey." A large, fat
woman with a good deal of crinkly silver hair emerged from the toyshop office,
arms spread wide and smiling at him. Her three-piece sin silk suit was a
mixture of bright citrus hues. "G'wan, you imps, back to your posts. Look
cuddly and desirable for our customers."
"Corky, we haven't had any customers since those half-wits this morning,"
reminded the rag doll. "Couple of aging dim bulbs from the
San Berdoo Sector who decided I was too flamboyant for their pansy grandson."
Corky Keepnews bent to give his chair a slap that set it to rocking at a more
rapid rate. "You can't refer to prospective customers as 'a pair of old
farts' and expect them to ask Inc to gift wrap you, kiddo.
Let's hole up in my office, Gomez, I want to talk to you."
Her toyshop was up on the seventeenth ]eve] of the Westwood Sector
Mall. From the one narrow vie window you could see part of the
University of SoCal Campus #26, where either a riot or a rally was in progress
in the glade.
As soon as Corky had settled in behind her new pink neo wood ", desk, Gomez
asked, "Why the urgent need to see me, cataoaza.
He settled into a tin rocker, a grown-up version of the one the rag doll
occupied out in the showroom.
"We've been buddies and business associates for a heck of a long time,
darling," the fat woman told him.
"You're just about my most reliable informant."
Corky's chair made small groaning noises as she shifted her weight and rested
a plump elbow on the desktop. "I just came across some information that
pertains to you and that reckless partner of yours,"
she said, lowering her voice some. "It has to do with this case you're
working on."
His left eye narrowed. "What case would that be, cara?"
"Hey, you don't have to be cute with me, honey. I know you're trying to find
that hot-pants bitch that you used to"
"What do you know about Jill's kidnapping?" He left the rocker, moved closer
to her desk.
"The most important thing I know," Corky said, "is that some people are going
to do their damnedest to throw a spanner in your works. They want you to
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