or something.'
Her eyes lit up with hope.
'I never thought of that,' she said. 'I must be really thick.'
'No. Just worried. Let me talk to them. I need to if I'm going to earn my money.'
She thought a moment then said, 'You're right, of course. Go ahead. But whatever you say, don't mention the threats. No need for anyone else to get worried.'
She couldn't bring herself to believe they might know all about the threats already. He hoped she was right.
They won't feel a thing,' he promised. I'll start with Eddie. By the way, I noticed you only put him and Mary in the frame.'
She didn't understand for a moment, then she said disbelievingly, 'You don't mean Mum or Dad? Come on, Joe! That's so way-out, I couldn't even have nightmares about it! Listen, we're OK now, Mary's earning and I'm starting to pull it in, but they really had to work hard to bring us up the way they wanted. Everything was for us, nothing for themselves. This house, when we moved here Dad was just a junior officer, something like this was way out of his range. But Mum worked full time then. Dad moonlighted in his time off, and the only reason why was they wanted to live in the Grandison Comp. catchment area. OK, the government makes a lot of noise about parental choice, but living on the spot makes a hell of a difference. So I can tell you for certain, either of them would rather chop their hands off than do anything that would hurt any one of us.'
She was magnificent in her fierceness. Put this into her running, thought Joe, and they were right, she was going to be a world-beater.
He said, 'Sorry, just asking, no offence.'
But as he went up the stairs he was working out ways in which a passionate and protective parental love could be twisted to produce an apparent betrayal.
He tapped lightly at Eddie's door and went straight in without waiting for an answer. The boy, as anticipated, was crouched before his screen. Without looking round he said, 'Give me a minute, OK?'
'Sure,' said Joe, his eyes drawn irresistibly to the cork bulletin board which stretched along one wall. There in the middle of it in glorious colour was a familiar face. His own!
He went closer to examine it and saw that it was surrounded by a print-out which lived up to Zak's description of it as a life history. There was stuff about himself which he'd long forgotten. At first he was too interested to be indignant. Also there were some laughs here, such as the words QUERY: SUBVERSIVE? alongside the account of his presence on a trip made by the Boyling Corner Choir to a Singfest in Potsdam before the reunification. Also a list of KNOWN ASSOCIATES which included both Butcher and Beryl Boddington, neither of whom would be flattered by the description.
But there were also details of his financial standing (if a perilous teetering between survival and insolvency deserved such a highfalutin phrase) which disturbed him, and an analysis of his medical condition which made him resolve to go on a diet.
He turned away to find Eddie watching him.
'Where'd all this come from?' he demanded.
The boy shrugged, a touch smugly.
'It's all out there to pick up if you know where to look,' he said vaguely.
Try a bit of technical flattery, thought Joe.
'You must have had to hack into half a dozen systems at least,' he said.
'No. Just the one.'
This was really disturbing. It was bad enough to think that there were all these agencies all over the place who recorded the bits about you that were relevant to their needs and functions. But for someone to think it worthwhile to collect together all these bits was downright sinister.
'So which one was that?' he asked.
The boy shrugged again and did not speak.
Joe changed tack.
'You realize this is against the law,' he said sternly. 'You could be fined, jailed even. Have your gear confiscated.'
He wasn't sure about this last, but thought it might be a good lever.
Ill The boy said, 'So what're you going to do? Fetch the fuzz?'
'Maybe,' said Joe.
'Off you go then. Only this stuff won't be around by the time you get back.'
I'll take it with me then,' said Joe, offering to tear the print-outs off the wall.
That case, how're you going to prove you got it here?' said Eddie. 'From what I read between the lines, you're not the kind of PI the police are going to take the word of, are you?'
'So maybe I'll just ring the cops from here and invite them round,' said Joe, becoming irritated by this smartass kid.
'Don't think Zak would like that,' said the boy.
Not just smartass, but smart. Joe knew, and did not resent, that smart folk could run rings round him. Only choice was to scare them or lull them and as he didn't have the torso or the temperament for being scary, he'd better start lulling.
