Cat's Cradle by Dale Mayer

Author:Dale Mayer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Comedy
ISBN: 9781927461921
Publisher: Valley Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2020-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

Liev had planned to ask Stephen about the raid, … when the alarm went off again in his apartment. He quickly told Lani and Charming to go to the pod room.

She had a puzzled look on her face, but she scooped up Charming as requested. At least she no longer panicked as she had earlier. Good. When she’d entered the pod room, he double-checked that stealth was on to keep her presence secret. Then he turned off the alarm to his front door and opened it.

ComBots. A robotic retrieval death team. Or, as some called them, … death squads.

“What can I do for you?”

“Identification required.”

“I am Liev Blackburn.”

“Acknowledged. We need this man identified.” And a body bag was thrust forward.

Liev blanched. “Why me?”

“We need to know if you recognized him from the earlier altercation.”

“Let me see his face.”

He expected to have the body bag opened, but instead a tablet was shoved under his nose, a large image of a dead man on the screen. “That’s Johan Strand.”

“Thank you.” And the ComBots retreated.

Liev stepped outside. “Wait. Who is in the bag?”

“You just identified him,” the leader said.

“No,” Liev snapped. “I did not. I identified the face on the tablet, not the body in the bag.”

“Same man.”

“No.” He shook his head. No way in hell they were the same man. He didn’t know what was going on here, but they were trying to pull something, and he didn’t want his identification of one dead man to be mistaken for the identification of another dead man. “I need to see his face.”

“We cannot allow that.”

“Then my identification does not stand.”

“You have already identified him.”

The ComBots were only computers. Advanced computers, but not conversationalists. “No. I identified the picture on the tablet. I need to see the face on the body in the bag to confirm.”

“We can’t allow that.”

“Yes, you can. And I have Councilman Stephen Cavendish’s permission.”

The ComBots buzzed, as if forwarding the request to the Council.

“The Councilman cannot be reached.”

“Well, he gave me permission.” Liev walked closer. As much as he didn’t want to look at any dead man’s face in reality, he did want to know who was in the bag. The ComBot turned and conversed with another bot. Liev walked closer. He turned his back on the bots and quickly opened the bag.

“Stop. You cannot do this.”

“Too late. I have done it.” And it was not Johan. “This is Paul Defino. Older brother to Tommy Defino. This is not the man on the tablet. I repeat, this is not Johan Strand.” He turned, anger building inside him. “Where is Johan Strand’s body?”

“We do not have it. This is the only body that we have collected.”

“Why did you not collect the other one?”

“There was no other body to collect.”

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