Flinx's Folly Read Online Free PDF

was already in a bad mood when she got here,” Marinsky sensibly pointed out. “Antagonizing her further would have been a bad way to secure the police department’s cooperation.” They headed for the central lift.
    “I wish we could have made it clear to her how important it is that we get that patient back. He really is unique. Of course,” Sherevoeu added prudently, “that is only a preliminary finding. Proper verification awaits further investigation.”
    “There’s not much more we can do. Unless,” Marinsky added, “we want to go wide with it and involve the very public we told the officer we want to keep on the sidelines.”
    Sherevoeu nodded. “Alerting the media would certainly locate him faster. But then everyone would know of our interest, and want it explained.” Including other doctors and researchers, and that would result in the dilution of whatever renown that might be gained from further scientific study of the distinctive and regrettably missing Arthur Davis.
    “I see no need to resort to such publicity except as a last option.” He eyed his colleague intently. “You follow my meaning?”
    “I believe I do, Eli. Surely the police will be able to locate our patient. Reides is a modern municipality, with efficient civil services. The constabulary will do its job.” She checked her work pad. “Meanwhile, we must do ours.”
    “Yes, of course.” He checked his work pad. “I have four post-ops to look in on and half a dozen surgeries to program over the next several days. A new piece of capillary dilation software just added to the thrombosis AI needs a final checkout before we can start programming it for work. Whereas you, I believe, have some time off.”
    “Two days, starting in the morning. I’ll be thinking of you, hard at work,” she added playfully. In a more serious tone she added, “You’ll notify me immediately if there’s any sign of our red-headed Mr. Davis? I’ll gladly forgo my downtime and get back to town as fast as transport will bring me.”
    “You’ll be the first to know. Tell me something, Neila: do you think he just wandered off, or left intentionally?”
    “A patient doesn’t remove his ident tag and stick it in a sandwich on the spur of the moment,” she replied gravely. “His flight had to have been carefully thought out. We can ask him about it when the police bring him back.”
    “Yes,” he replied absently as he turned toward his own office. “At least by keeping this quiet we can ensure no one else develops an interest in him.”
    But the neurologist was wrong.
             
    Dr. Neila Marinsky’s house backed onto a section of carefully preserved evergreen forest on the outskirts of one of Reides’s more exclusive suburbs. From her private transport, encrypted signals were broadcast through the high, camouflaged outer wall of the urb, through the gated fence that surrounded her personal property, and into her garage. From there, it was steps to the interior. She was scanned and processed by additional security before she was admitted inside.
    She loved her house. Nestled among the trees and the indigenous wildlife of Goldin IV’s southern temperate zone, it was her refuge from the pressures of hospital work and private practice. Though she occasionally shared it with visitors who did not come to discuss matters medical (though physiology was sometimes involved), she was single again, after one marriage made too early and messily terminated four years earlier.
    So she was more than a little shocked when she entered the sunken living room to see that despite all the expensive, supposedly state-of-the-art home and urb security, her cherished sanctum had been violated.
    The couple waiting there were less than threatening. They were well dressed according to the fashion of the moment, which usually reflected and ran half a year behind what was currently in style on Earth or New Riviera. The short woman seated on the couch had dark hair and