The Transvection Machine Read Online Free PDF Page A

way, could he?”
    “That’s just the point, sir—he could! An investigation of the escape now indicates it took place sometime over a week ago. The shuttle rocket from Venus takes only eight days at this time of year, so Frost could be here on Earth right now!”
    The president turned once more to Crader. “I’ll expect your bureau to follow this up, Carl. If Defoe was killed, for a personal or political reason, I want his killer brought to justice. I’ve already ordered the Federal Medical Center to suspend all use of computerized operations pending the outcome of your investigation. I want results—and I want them fast!”
    He smiled as he shook hands with Crader and Jazine and left the room. Already his mind seemed far away, perhaps checking the background for his next meeting. “He’s a busy man,” Jazine remarked.
    Maarten Tromp nodded. “Too busy for one man. I often wish the dual presidency amendment had been approved.”
    “Let’s get down to cases,” Crader said. “What do you two really think killed Vander Defoe? What and who? Earl, back in New York you were convincing me it was murder by computer. Down here you seem to hint that the nurse could be involved.”
    Jazine grinned. “Maybe I just want a chance to question her.”
    Crader had trouble knowing when Jazine was kidding him, and just then he wasn’t sure. “What about you, Maarten? Do you really think this man Frost is a suspect?”
    “Of course, or I wouldn’t have brought him up.” He drew himself up to his full height, a habit he had when his opinions were questioned.
    “And that’s the only suspect you have?”
    The presidential assistant shrugged. “There’s always his wife, I suppose. Isn’t there always a wife in murder cases?”
    “What about his wife?”
    “They’re separated. She has a lover.”
    “Who?”
    Tromp looked pained. “I’d rather not say. I’ve just heard rumors.”
    Crader knew he only needed a bit of urging, so he urged. “Come on, now. In an investigation of this sort, rumors are often the most important things we have to go on.”
    “Well, I’ve heard it was Hubert Ganger, Defoe’s former partner and codeveloper of the transvection machine.”
    Crader nodded. “We’ll check it out. Now what about this man Frost? Can you give us a hologram and a description?”
    Tromp nodded. “I have the file back in my office, if you’ll just follow me.”
    Crader and Jazine went along, out of the relative plushness of the presidential lounge and into the sterile steel corridors of the New White House. Everything was bombproof here, stark and metallic and very functional. Crader admitted the necessity of it, after the White House bombing of 2018, yet he still remembered the old place with a certain national pride. He’d gone there as a child once, on his mother’s arm, and stood in awe of the East Room and the Rose Room and the rest as symbols of a way of life that had made the country great. Sometimes he still thought the true greatness of the nation rested in its past, rather than in the machine-oriented present.
    Maarten Tromp’s office was wood-paneled, with a wall video screen and smaller units capable of monitoring all six networks at once. There was a teleprinter unit, and next to it Crader observed stapled copies of the three video newsmagazines. While Tromp went to get his files, Crader let his eyes wander over the extensive library of video cassette titles. The Venus Colony , The Selected Speeches of Winston Churchill , The Computerized Macbeth , Stage Illusions of Twentieth-Century Magicians , The Inauguration of Andrew Jackson McCurdy , Sea-Rail Vacations , Containerization and the Metric System .
    “You have quite a variety of titles,” Crader remarked as Tromp came back to join them.
    “I watch them sometimes on my lunch hour. Great diversion, really. Much better than the films the networks provide, though of course no one can beat the networks at news coverage.” He pressed a button on