The Transvection Machine Read Online Free PDF Page B

around the world immediately thinks he was murdered.”
    “Even you thought that, Earl,” Crader reminded him.
    “But why ?”
    “Because we trust in the machine. The machine is god today, and the machine can do no wrong. If the surgical computer killed Vander Defoe, it was programmed to do so. And that’s murder.”
    “I suppose you’re right.”
    Crader dropped a hand on his shoulder. “Get over to Salk Memorial and see what you can learn. I’m going back to New York and do a bit of checking on Euler Frost.”
    “Where in hell’d he ever get a first name like that?”
    “It’s a crater on the Moon, named after a Swiss mathematician. But that doesn’t exactly answer your question.”
    “Good luck,” Jazine said.
    Crader smiled. “You too.” He climbed into the rocketcopter with a wave of his hand. Twenty-seven minutes later, he was back in New York.

5 EARL JAZINE
    S OMETIMES IT WAS A hell of a way to earn a living, like the two days he’d spent cramped up inside a computer at Internal Revenue, trying to figure out how it was approving certain fraudulent tax returns without question. Or the time he’d been caught in the middle of a Flippie riot while investigating the SEXCO affair.
    But there were certain compensations, and Nurse Bonnie Simmons was one of them. Her youthful body was clearly outlined by the fabric of her jumpsuit uniform, and her smiling eyes immediately welcomed him into the fold. It was the sort of investigation he knew he was going to enjoy. “I haven’t seen you around before,” she purred. “Are you with the local police?”
    He flipped open his case and showed her the bronzed aluminum Computer Investigation Bureau ID card. “New York, but we’re a government agency. We specialize in computer crimes.”
    She bit at the skin of one finger, staring him down. “The Computer Cops—you’re one of them!”
    “I’m one of them,” he admitted, glad that Crader wasn’t present.
    “They sent you all the way down here because of what happened?”
    “That’s right.” They were in the administration office on the ground floor of Salk Memorial Hospital. Jazine had already talked to the hospital administrator and the chief surgeon, both of whom assured him that Vander Defoe’s death could not possibly have happened. He was almost ready to give up the whole case and admit that Defoe was still alive. “Do you think it couldn’t have happened too?” he asked Nurse Simmons.
    “I saw it happen,” she replied. “I’m the only one who did.”
    “Good! Then we’ve established that Vander Defoe is really dead, and that’s a starting point.”
    “I hope no one’s trying to blame me for what happened,” she said.
    “Suppose you tell me exactly what did happen.”
    “Well,” she began, settling back in her chair, “it was late yesterday afternoon when they flew him in from the New White House. I’d come on duty at 4:00, and Secretary Defoe was admitted at 4:35. The examining physician in the emergency ward confirmed the diagnosis of the New White House doctor, and ordered an immediate operation to remove the patient’s appendix. He was placed in my care at 4:55 P.M. , and I dialed an emergency clearance to the Federal Medical Center across town.”
    Jazine had been making a few notes, and at this point he interrupted. “How many of these computerized operations had you assisted in previously, Bonnie?” The shift to a first-name basis came easily to him, as it had many times in the past.
    She smiled and replied, “Dozens! I couldn’t begin to count them! I received my certificate nearly a year ago, and I’ve had at least one a week since then.”
    “How many appendectomies?”
    “Maybe fifteen or twenty. I could check my records if it’s really important.” She was biting the tip of her finger again, and he couldn’t decide if she was being nervous or sexy. “You see, the purpose of computerized operations is to help relieve the critical shortage of surgeons in this