Michael Crichton - Binary

Graves sighed. That was refreshing. He had an enormous sense of relief. What was that joke? It felt so good when he stopped.

`Let's see,' Burnett said. `I'll have to get an authorization. I can do that with the Undersecretary; I don't have to bother the boss. Then we have to get it to you. You don't have access to a photoprinter?'

`No.'

`Well, let's see… I don't know what sort of facilities are available in San Diego. Look. There's one sure bet. The police department. They have a printer for sure. I can transmit the file contents to you over that. But it'll take time to do the whole thing.'

`I don't want the whole thing. I just want the psychological test scores.'

`You do?'

'That's right,' Graves said.

`Well,' Burnett said, `I can have that for you right away. They'll transmit in fifteen or twenty minutes. Okay?'

`Okay,' Graves said. `And thanks.'

`For Christ's sake, don't mention it,' Burnett said.

Graves hung up.

Downstairs in the car, Lewis said, `You look like you've gargled with Drano.'

`I have,' Graves said. He got into the car. `We're going to the police station.'

Lewis pulled out into traffic. `Anything interesting happening upstairs?'

`They've found that Wright is preoccupied with weather today.'

`Weather?'

`Yes.'

`I don't get it,' Lewis said.

`Neither do I,' Graves said.

`You're very quiet,' Lewis said, as they drove to the police headquarters.

Graves nodded. `I was thinking of an old story. It's back in the soft-data section of Wright's file. You know about the Murdock killing?'

Lewis shook his head.

`It happened in New York five years ago. Wright was married to a girl named Sarah Layne, and when it broke up, she started seeing a man named Murdock. A Texas oil man. Big spender, big ladies' man.'

Lewis nodded.

`Well, Murdock got an anonymous tip that he would be killed. Got it about seven in the morning. He believed it, so he called his chauffeur and had him go over the car carefully. The chauffeur found a bomb, and notified Murdock. Murdock went down to the garage to see the bomb and had his chauffeur remove it. The chauffeur carried it away. And Murdock, who was an oilman and interested in explosives, leaned into the engine compartment to examine how the bomb had been wired in. And thirty seconds after the first bomb was removed, a second one exploded. Murdock was killed instantly.'

`Nice.'

'Wright was questioned but never charged. There was nothing to point to him. That's the story. But whoever did it knew a lot about Murdock.'

`You think that's the way Wright operates?'

`I know it is.'

Lewis was silent for a moment. `Why are we going

to the police station?' -

`To find out how much Wright knows about me,' Graves said.

The spinning drum produced the transmitted image with almost painful slowness. It made a loud, distracting, clanking sound. Nevertheless, when the first sheet came off the drum Graves grabbed it up eagerly and read with intense concentration -ignoring the clanking, the room, the cops all around, Lewis, everything.

The first sheet was printed out in block letters, as Wright's file had been:

`Where's the next page?' Graves said impatiently.

`Coming off now,' Lewis said, and pulled it from the machine. He handed it to Graves.

`Is there another sheet?' Graves asked. `It's coming, it's coming,' Lewis said. He smiled `You're really devouring this, aren't you?' `I think it's important.'