The Automatic Detective Read Online Free PDF Page B

While I waited to be questioned, I played and replayed the whole thing, second by second. I'd handled myself well, but there were a few things I could've done better. Small mistakes that I wouldn't make again. It had taken me one hundred four seconds to knock out all the drones. My combat review analyzer assured me, given the exact same scenario, I could now accomplish it in ninety. The thing about real life though, is that rarely are any two scenarios exactly the same. Still, my adaptive, evolving programming picked up a few tricks.
    The advantage of a complex electronic brain was that I could multitask in my obsessions. While I kept running thefight through my analyzer in hopes of trimming a few more seconds, I also played this morning with Julie's family, Four Arms, and his ray gun; April and her drawing, and the message scrawled on the back in crayon.
    If only I'd scanned it. If only I'd looked. If only she'd said something. She'd known. She'd seen her future with gleaming purple eyes, and she'd let me walk away. Didn't she know not everyone was clairvoyant? Didn't she have sense enough to slip me a damn clue? Since she was psychic, shouldn't she know I wouldn't read it until it was too late?
    "Damn kid."
    That was the problem. April was only a kid. Being clairvoyant didn't change that.
    A mutant interrupted my ruminations. Not that I didn't have the calculating power to talk to him, continue my recriminations, and analyze my battlefield techniques all at the same time. He gave me a good excuse to close the file, so I took it.
    He was three feet, two inches tall, covered in white fur, with a pink tail sticking out the back of his trousers. He had small ears, beady black eyes, and a pointy snout. His name was Alfredo Sanchez, and he was a cop. His beat was the High Science Crime Unit, specializing in criminal abuses of technology.
    We had history. Too complicated to get into. I'd saved his life. He'd saved mine. His was the second name, after Doc Mujahid's, on that list that had pushed my probation through, but we weren't close. Still, he'd gone to bat for me, and there was something in his eyes, a vague displeasure, that made me feel like I'd done something wrong.
    He activated a drone in his jacket. It hovered to his lips, inserted a cigarette into his mouth, lit it, and returned to his pocket. "Rough night, Mack?"
    "I've had better."
    My alloy had popped most of the dings by now, but therewere still heat scars and plenty of smudges in need of buffing out. I was also naked as the day I was activated. I didn't need clothes, but I'd gotten used to wearing them. Just another strange habit a bot might pick up in a world full of biologicals.
    Sanchez blew a smoke ring. Impressive, considering the shape of his toothy snout. "You want to tell me what happened?"
    "I'd rather download it."
    "You have the right to refuse download."
    "I've got nothing to hide."
    "Didn't say you did. But the law says I have to let you know."
    "I'm on probation," I said. "Thought I didn't have rights. Anyway, I've already wasted an hour and nine minutes standing here."
    "Got places to be, Mack?"
    I didn't bother lying. Sanchez could always tell. Maybe I should've checked his ear for a hearing amplifier, but I doubted it was as simple as that. He was just a damn good cop.
    "Nothing much to tell. Somebody tried to scrap me," I replied.
    He glanced down the hall at the men in orange suits and gangly forensic drones gathering evidence. "Made a hell of a mess of it, didn't they?"
    "I don't scrap easily."
    "I'm aware." Sanchez removed his hat while he put together his thoughts. "So do you think it has anything to do with Megalith?"
    I shrugged. "Doubt it. These were high-end drones, but not that high-end. The professor is in the cooler, isn't he?"
    "Yep. Just checked. Still tucked away nice and cozy in Moriarty."
    Moriarty Asylum for the Criminally Inventive was the cold, dark box where they locked away all the great evil geniuses. Itsstated goal was