“Not for some time now, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“So were we. I don’t know why she quit. We did everything we could to try and persuade her she had a great future with Magdalena. What was peculiar was that she was serious about not modeling anymore. We thought she’d been given a better offer by one of our competitors, but evidently that wasn’t the case.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Quite sure, Mr. Frazier. Ours is a tight little gossipy world, you see. As soon as anyone changes agencies, it’s common knowledge throughout the business. No, Ms. Tambor did not go to another agency, not here, not overseas, or I would know of it. She really did quit the business.” Candlewaif smiled icily. “Found herself some sugar daddy or someone to take care of her. I suppose that’s an easier career, for some.”
Eric bridled at the woman’s implications but said nothing. It might be true. He remembered Polikartos’s words.
“Just a minute,” she murmured, searching through her files. She found what she was hunting for and popped it into her projector.
The tiny instrument whirred to life and the room automatically darkened. Exquisite faces and bodies filled the screen on the wall, blurred by high speed. Gradually they slowed and poses became visible, life-size and tridimensional.
Eric’s fingers tensed on his chair. It was her. There was never a doubt in his mind, not from the first diffused, artsy exposure. It was her.
“Yes, I remember her,” Candlewaif was murmuring. “Very quiet girl, almost a child in some ways, quite mature in others. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted and how to go about getting it. When she got what she wanted out of Magdalena, she demanded and received her release.
“I’m not kidding when I say that we did everything we could to try and keep her with us, Mr. Frazier. We made her offers very, very few beginning models ever see, ever even dream about. She was as indifferent to the money as she was to the profession. A strange lady. She did have something. Your people certainly targeted on it, as did ours. You can see it in her holos.”
You can see it on the street, in a moving car, Eric thought excitedly.
“All great models have something distinctive about them,” the woman went on. “Tambor wasn’t refined, but the uniqueness was there. As I said, she could have been one of the best.”
There was a soft snap. The image on the wall vanished as the projector died.
“I wouldn’t argue with your assessment,” Eric finally said.
“I wish I could interest you in some of our other models. There’s a young lady from West Africa, Sara Noba, who is quite striking and possesses much the same bone structure … though she’s not the same girl, of course. We have other well-known models who—”
“Nothing against any of your other people,” Eric said quickly, “but before we reconsider I’d like to make a try at persuading this Lisa Tambor to work for us. Selvern is one of the largest corporations in North America. Perhaps with the promise of that kind of exposure …”
“Tambor was interested in exposure even less than money,” Candlewaif told him.
“We can offer her a great deal. Wouldn’t it be worth your while if I could persuade her? It might induce her to return to the fold.”
“Of course we’d like that. Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do for you, Mr. Frazier. I can’t give you Lisa Tambor’s address. We take our models’ privacy very seriously here. As I’m sure you know from your own work, the world is full of oddballs and the unbalanced. I’m not including you, naturally, but this is a policy I’m not in a position to change. The most attractive and visible men and women become targets for the most unbelievable abuse.” He started to comment but she wasn’t finished yet.
“If you were the chairman of the board of Selvern, or Sony, or GE, or AG Renault, I still could not give you Lisa Tambor’s address. I can contact her myself and explain any proposition you wish to make to her, but in all fairness I must tell you I think we’d both be wasting our time. I doubt there’s anything you could offer her that we haven’t already.”
“You might at least tell her of Selvern’s interest,” Eric said lamely. It would be dangerous to insist any further. “If she expresses an interest we can go into details. I’ll be in Nueva York for another couple of days.” This was said to follow form. Clearly Lisa Tambor had given up modeling permanently. But they had to go through the motions.
“Fine. If she expresses a desire to pursue the matter further we could set up a meeting. How can I contact you?”
“You can’t. I’m moving around quite a bit while I’m here. Friends one day, relatives the next. You know. How about if I get back to you around, say, Tuesday next?”
“Very well. I should have an answer for you then. I advise you to contact your people out west and tell them of this conversation, though. Then maybe we can sit down and do some real business.” She rose and leaned over the desk to shake his hand. As she did so he was startled to see something else in her eyes. Her handshake was not at all businesslike.
“And if you’re not busy tonight, John, perhaps you’d like to have dinner with me? I know a Fine Peruvian restaurant uptown that serves a mean huachinango asado.”
“I’m sorry,” he said hastily, “I’m already committed.”
“I’ understand.” Her disappointment was plain. “Perhaps sometime next week. Meanwhile I’ll see if I can make contact with Ms. Tambor for you.”
“That’s all we can ask for. And I promise, if you don’t have any luck with her, Selvern will take another look at your list.”
“Fair enough. I hope you enjoy your visit to Nueva York, Mr. Frazier.”
“Thank you. I intend to.”
His mind worked furiously as the robocab took him back to his hotel. He had plenty of time to think because the vehicle took an intentionally roundabout route.
It was obvious that he wasn’t going to get Lisa Tambor’s home address out of Candlewaif or anyone else at the agency. He could try bribing a nonexecutive. The receptionist, for example, might have access to the necessary Files. She might also be an honest employee who valued her job with such a prestigious concern. That would bring police in and he could hardly risk that. Not while carrying a false identity and an altered credit card.
During his visit he’d looked for security measures. He didn’t see any but didn’t doubt they existed. Nor did he doubt that he could solve them, as he’d solved Polikartos’s. It wasn’t like he was planning to break into Winston’s or Konstantin’s.
The most difficult part was slipping past the human guards stationed in the tower lobby. It was just before midnight when he strolled into the building and headed for the elevators. The guard eyed him obliquely, turned away when his console showed that the visitor had, as expected, punched the button for the third floor. There was a late-night Szechuan restaurant on the third floor.
The elevator’s front doors would open directly into the restaurant. Eric had no intention of confronting a smiling maitre d’. He stopped the elevator between the second and third floors while he worked rapidly with the elevator’s programming. It resumed its rise a moment later and did indeed stop at the third floor. But it was the back door that opened, not the front, admitting him to the long service hallway.
Security would show that the elevator had made its proper way to the third floor. It would not show which doors opened upon arrival. Soon it was on its way down again, taking late-night diners to the lobby level or underground parking.
Eric turned and walked up the empty, dimly lit corridor. There were no surveillance cameras here. A short walk brought him to a fire stairway, and he started the long climb toward the seventieth floor. He couldn’t use the elevators. There was a chance the service lifts were monitored as closely as those intended for use by the public.
There was no surveillance camera in the seventieth floor corridor either. Apparently the building’s tenants had confidence in their ground-floor security and individual warning devices. Few intruders, however, had Eric’s electronic expertise. The frosted doors of the agency didn’t fool him for a minute, though the system, which might well have been manufactured by one of Selvern’s many subsidiaries, was elegant and subtle. The beautiful glass doors functioned as a pair of enormous, flat fiberoptic systems. A steady signal ran through both doors from roof to floor. Any unauthorized parting would trigger the alarm.
He had no intention of forcing the portal. It took him a few minutes to locate the keybox hidden in the doorframe on the lower left-hand side. With his pocketful of miniaturized, specialized equipment he had no trouble bypassing the key circuitry.
