"Smith, E E Doc - d'Alembert 8 - Eclipsing Binaries" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

from the authorities. These required dogged determination to track down-a quality that
was fortunately not lacking in Fortier and his people.

It was in a dimly lit, foul-smelling bar on the planet Lateesta that a major breakthrough
occurred. Fortier and his police contact, Detective Nikopolous, had staked out the
underworld hangout on a tip that Fortier's fugitive, a man named Guitirrez, would be there
that evening. They waited a while and, as predicted, Guitirrez entered the bar and sat
down alone at one of the battered tables. He looked as though he might be waiting for
someone; he kept glancing at the door and checking the time. In view of this behavior,
Fortier and Nikopolous decided not to arrest Guitirrez immediately; he might inadvertently
lead them to bigger fish in his scummy pond.

Their hunch paid off. Forty-five minutes later, a woman joined Guitirrez at his table. She
was Junoesque, in her early fifties, with graying hair, and a hard expression on her face.
Neither Fortier nor Nikopolous had ever seen her before, but Fortier made sure to snap
several pictures of her with his tiny hidden camera.

The meeting broke up after a few minutes. Guitirrez sat nursing his drink while the
woman got up and left the bar. Fortier left his associate to tend to the routine task of
arresting Guitirrez; he was much more interested in tailing this mysterious woman to find
out more about her. She might be just a routine friend of Guitirrez, having no connection
to any illegal activities-but Fortier was not one to give up on a lead until it was proved to
be false.

The woman walked briskly to the nearest tubeway station; Fortier was hard pressed to
keep pace with her and not make himself conspicuous at the same time. He just
managed to catch the same turbotrain, staying as far away from her in the car as
possible and making sure to avoid eye contact. She sat calmly as the turbotrain rode
through several stations, and Fortier was able to rely on his peripheral vision to let him
know when she made any moves.

She got off the tubeway where it connected to the monoliner station and went
immediately into the ladies' restroom. Fortier cursed his luck and used his personal
minicom to call for a female assistant as backup. The monoliner station security had a
woman officer to him within three minutes, and he sent her in to check the restroom. The
woman he'd been tailing was not there.

This particular lavatory had two entrances, one from the station and one from the street.
The woman had obviously gone out the second door and given him the slip. She could be
anywhere by now.

Dejected at his failure, Fortier returned to police headquarters, where Guitirrez was
being held for interrogation. Although it didn't take much effort to get Guitirrez to admit
his part in the piracy, he insisted he knew nothing about the woman he'd met in the bar.
He'd been told to call a certain number whenever he was in trouble. He'd done so on
several previous occasions and had been given instructions on how to hide out safely. On
this last occasion, the person at the other end had told him to wait in this bar for a
woman who'd give him further orders. The woman had come as promised and told him a
ticket offplanet in the name of Martinez was waiting for him at the spaceport. He'd been
arrested before he could leave the bar and pick up the ticket. That was all he claimed to