“Come on, Ruth,” he said tiredly, “not now, huh?”

“Just reminding you.” She instructed her own secretary to make the connection.

“What have we got on this guy Lasenby?”

“Twenty-one years with the company,” she said, reading off the screen. “Family man. No evidence of misconduct, no history of bribe-taking. Seems pretty straight.” She touched a couple of keys, activating a code and releasing a lock within the system. Information appeared on the screen that wasn’t contained in the general personnel files.

“Here we go.” She shifted in her chair. “Suspected homosexual activity. At least two incidents. One dating back to his college days.”

“That’ll be enough,” said Huddy, sounding satisfied. “Hopefully we won’t have to use that.”

“Hopefully,” she agreed. “Still, it’s always nice when you need something from somebody to be able to carry a knife in the hand you’re not shaking his with.”

“Yeah. Lasenby will help us pick Pickett up before he gets into Phoenix. I don’t want to have to fool with him there. It’s not our territory and we don’t know the ground.”

“Not only that,” she said, “but I don’t know anyone in Phoenix. This information on Pickett comes through my California source. He’s out of that range now. We might be able to work something with his Arizona contacts, but I wouldn’t want to have to depend on that. Besides, I don’t know if I’d try working this source any further.” She thought of the disappointed lieutenant. “From here on we’re going to have to track Pickett with our own resources.”

“That’s no problem. We’ll have him in custody in a few hours. There’s only the one interstate running from Blythe through to Phoenix.”

“I’ve been checking the maps,” she told him. “If he’s on his way to Texas he doesn’t have to go through Phoenix. The interstate’s not quite finished all the way into the city. There’s a cutoff that runs down through the town of Gila Bend and swings across to Tucson where it links up with Ten again. He’s an old man in an old car, and it’s hot out there. Bet you he doesn’t go through Phoenix.”

“Where’s the best place to cut him off before he hits the turn-off?”

“According to the map, the junction for Gila Bend is at a town called Buckeye.”

“I didn’t know you were such a geography buff, sweetness,” he told her.

“Just during the last few minutes.”

“Right. I’ll put out the word to this Lasenby and his people to look for Pickett’s car at Buckeye. Surely he hasn’t gotten that far yet.”

Somerset shook her head, smiled prettily. “The Blythe sighting was at”—she checked another glowing screen—“ten thirty. Assuming he maintains the same rate of speed from Blythe to Buckeye he won’t arrive there for an hour or so yet. That should be plenty of time for this Lasenby to organize things.”

“I just wish Pickett wasn’t quite so frail. I’m getting tired of handling him with kid gloves.”

“Don’t let it get you all worked up, Benjy. Keep your real objectives out where you can see them. You’re going to need this old man’s cooperation.”

“No,” he said, “I want this old man’s cooperation. According to Navis I don’t necessarily need it.” He sat there quietly, thinking.

“Something else, Benjamin?”

“There are a lot of dirt roads, back country roads, farm tracks in that part of Arizona. We can’t be sure we haven’t missed him, or that Lasenby’s people won’t. I think we need to prepare for that possibility.”

“Benjy, you’re always overcompensating.”

“I know. That’s how I’ve managed to get where I am. Life’s like a spacecraft, sweetness. You have to have backup systems ready to take over for your backup systems.” He was looking hard at her.

“Come on, Benjamin, say it.”

“He’s heading for Texas, right? There’s just an outside chance he might make it. His car might break down and he’d get on a bus, or a plane, and we’d lose track of him completely. We have to consider that possibility.”

“I’m not sure I like the way you said ‘we.’ What have you got in mind?”

“CCM has a major installation down south of Houston. It’s very close to the niece’s home in Port Lavaca. I think it would be a good idea if you made arrangements to run an inspection and check out of the computer facilities down there.”

“Oh no, Benjamin. Not South Texas.”

“It’s late summer, almost autumn,” he told her. “The weather won’t be too bad.”

“No. I’ll just melt, that’s all. Unless the occasional hurricane blows me away.”

“Please, sweetness. I have to be here to monitor things at this end. If this Pickett should show up at his relative’s place, if we should miss him somehow, we need to know immediately so we can take steps. I know it’s highly unlikely that he’ll slip past our people at Phoenix, but we have to be ready for any eventuality.”

“Alright,” she said, sighing and giving in. “If you think it’s that important, Benjy.”

“I do,” he said vigorously.

She knew how he could be once an idea fixed itself in his mind. “Maybe it would do me good to get away from the office for a while. I’ll be closer to the Bahamas, anyway.”

“If you need justification from my section,” he began.

She shook her head. “I have enough independence and discretion in my own. I won’t be missed here for a couple of days, especially since I’ll be gone on company business. I can always find something to check at any installation. Houston won’t be any different.” She shook a warning finger at him. “But as soon as they pick him up, you let me know.”

“I’ll contact you at your hotel, first thing,” he promised her.

“If there is a hotel near Port Lavaca.”

“That’s coast country. There’s probably motels and resorts all over the place. As for setting a watch on the niece’s family, we have plenty of people in Houston who can handle that. All you’ll have to do is give directions, guzzle seafood and wait for word from me.”

“I’d enjoy it more if it was New York,” she muttered.

He rose. “It won’t be for long, sweetness. I know you’ll handle it just right. I’ve got a lot of confidence in you.”

“Maybe even as much as I have in you, Benjy?” She pushed back her chair and made her way around the desk and into his waiting arms. “We’d better have confidence in each other, because if anybody in the company gets wind of what we’re up to and there’s trouble, we’re going to need all the confidence both of us can muster.”

“Now don’t you worry, sweetness.” He kissed her gently. “This is all going to work out fine. Pickett’s just delayed matters a day or so, that’s all. But this is important to me. It could be damned important to us.”

“I know,” she murmured. “I know how important it is to you or I wouldn’t be involving myself in it.” His hands were moving. She leaned back, smiled at him. “Hang on and let me lock the door.” He let her slip reluctantly out of his grasp. She wasn’t free of it for long.

“AD6 42F.” Royrader leaned back in the pickup and glanced at his companions. It was crowded with the three men in the front of the cab. The one in the middle, Archer, pulled a piece of paper from his left shirt pocket and stared at it.

“That’s it, alright. Sixty-one Galaxie, blue and white. We’ve got our man.” Royrader stared at the car, sandwiched in among the others in the dusty parking lot. “Hell, that wasn’t hard. What do you suppose the company wants with him, anyway?”

The driver gave a noncommittal shrug. “Ain’t none of our business.” Corked and potent, a ready hypodermic rested in his breast pocket. In its way it was no more lethal than the sheet of paper resting on Archer’s lap.

“What do we do now, Ed?” Archer carefully refolded the paper and replaced it in his pocket. “It’s lunchtime.” He nodded toward the restaurant. “Place’ll be full of hands in from the cotton fields. We can’t just walk in and drag him out whether he’s conscious or not.”

“I’ve got an idea.” The driver pulled the big pickup as close to the Galaxie as he could manage, blocking the driver’s door. The three of them exited the truck. They had to wait a moment while an elderly couple came out of the restaurant and entered their own car. As soon as they’d pulled out of the lot Royrader used a key to make a nice long gouge in the passenger side of the old car.