His voice shifted into whine and set Eve’s teeth on edge. ‘I’ve got Homicide breathing down my neck, and Illegals snapping at my heels over some goddamn bag of powder. You got the prelim.’
‘I need the final.’
‘Well, I haven’t got it.’ His flappy lips pouted as he turned back and brought the enhanced view of the hair on screen. ‘I gotta finish DNA on this.’
Eve knew how to work him. She didn’t like it, but she knew. ‘I’ve got two box-seat tickets to the Yankee-Red Sox game tomorrow.’
His fingers moved slowly over the controls. ‘Box seats?’
‘Third-base side.’
Dickie tipped down his goggles to scan the room. Other techs were busy at their stations. ‘Maybe I could get you a little more.’ With one shove of his feet, he sent his chair sliding to the right until he faced another screen. Cautious, he engaged the keyboard and brought the file up manually. He tapped slowly, scanning the screen. ‘Here’s the problem, see? This element here.’
It was nothing but color and foreign symbols to Eve, but she grunted as the data scrolled. The unknown, she imagined, that even Roarke’s unit couldn’t identify. ‘That red thing?’
‘No, no, no, that’s a standard amphetamine. You find it in Zeus, in Buzz, in Smiley. Hell, you can get a mild derivative of that in any over-the-counter pep-up. This one.’ He tapped a finger against a green squiggle.
‘Okay, what is it?’
‘That’s the big question, Dallas. Never seen it before. The computer can’t identify. My best guess is it’s something from off planet.’
‘That ups the stakes, doesn’t it? Bringing an unknown from off planet can get you twenty years in maximum lockup. Can you tell what it does?’
‘I’m working on it. It appears to have some of the same properties as an antiaging drug, and with some of the same energizers. It beats hell out of free radicals. But there’s some nasty side effects when it’s mixed with the other chemicals found in the powder. You got most of it in the report. Enhanced sexual drive, which is not a bad thing, but that’s followed by violent mood swings. Increased physical strength hooked up to a lack of control. This shit really dances around in the old nervous system. You’re going to feel terrific for a while, practically invulnerable, you’ll want to fuck like a rabbit, but you won’t much care if your chosen mate is interested. When the crash comes, it’s going to be hard and fast and the only thing that’s going to level you out is another dose. Keep taking it, keep flying up and diving down, and the nervous system’s going to go nutso. Then you die.’
‘That’s pretty much what you’ve given me already.’
‘That’s because I’m stuck on Element X. It’s vegetation, I can tell you that. Similar to the sharpleaf valerian found in the Southwest. Indians used the leaves for healing. But valerian isn’t toxic, and this is.’
‘It’s poison?’
‘Taken alone and in sufficient dosage, it would be, yeah. So are a lot of herbs and plants used
in medicine.’
‘It’s a medicinal herb.’
‘I didn’t say that. It’s not yet identified.’ He puffed out his cheeks. ‘But it’s likely some off planet hybrid. That’s the best I’ve got right now. And you and Illegals hassling me isn’t going to make me find the answer quicker.’
‘This isn’t an Illegals case, it’s mine.’
‘Tell them that.’
‘I will. Now, Dickie, I need the toxicology on the Pandora homicide.’
‘That’s not my baby, Dallas. That was dumped on Suzie-Q, and it’s her twenty-four hours off.’
‘You’re chief tech, Dickie, and I need the report.’ She waited a beat. ‘There are two locker room passes that go along with those box seats.’
‘Yeah. Well, it never hurts to spot-check your team.’ He keyed in his code, then the file. ‘She secured it, good for her. Chief Tech Berenski, override security on File Pandora, ID 563922-H.’
VOICE PRINT VERIFIED.
‘Display toxicology.’
TOXICOLOGY TESTS STILL IN PROGRESS. PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON SCREEN.
‘She’d been drinking a lot,’ Dickie murmured. ‘Top French bubbly. Probably died happy. Looks like Dom, ’55. That’s good work for Suzie-Q. Added a little happy powder to it. Our dead girl liked to party. Looks like Zeus . . . No.’ His shoulders bowed in as they did when he was intrigued or irritated. ‘What the hell is this?’