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holographic projections.
Jill shuddered as she hurried along an imitation gravel path.
"I almost ended up being buried down here someplace myself."
Moving up to trot along beside her, Gomez asked, "Is that what they
were threatening you wnn.
"I'm not actually certain, Sid," she answered. "Buzz--the only guard,
by the way, I ever had any conversations with--implied they had
specific orders not to kill me. I'm not sure, though, that I believe
him."
"Who gave thoseoroers." ?"
"That I couldn't find out."
Jake passed a six-foot-high angel whose wings gently flapped.
The path forked just beyond that grave and he took the left-hand
turn.
Following, Gomez asked his former wife, "You ever hear them mention
Johnny Trocadero?"
"Trocadero heads up the San Diego Tek cartel, doesn' the " "That's the
very hombre, yes. Apparently he's eager to expand his holdings,"
amplified Gomez. "He's likely the pendejo who ordered your-Oops."
The sniffer gadget in his pocket had begun to make a faint chirping
sound.
"Momeatito, Jake," he called to his partner, slowing his pace and then
stopping next to a simulated black marble tomb.
Jake came back to join him. "Trouble?"
Gomez, head tilted slightly forward, was listening to the
ear bug from the gadget. "Es ver dad he replied glumly. "Seems we
now have a small parade on our tail."
"How many?"
"This thing is picking up emanations from five humans, two an dies
and---caramba. A full half-dozen robot tracking dogs."
"Trocadero's crew must've found out Jill's gone from the warehouse."
Frowning, Gomez said, "If these are local goons, Jake, they're all of
them toting British-made weaponry."
"How far behind are they?"
He checked with the sniffer. "Little less than three cemeteries back
and catching up fast."
Jake pointed southward. "We know of two other ways to get clear of the
NecroPlex," he said. "I'll take one, you and Jill use the other.
That'll split up our posse and maybe give us an advantage."
"Bueno. "
"Get her to the agency," said Jake. "I'll meet you there soon as I
can." Pivoting on his heel, he started away.
is cemetery that they were racing through looked hundreds of years
old. The small, low tombstones seemed weathered and leaned at odd
angles. At its center stood an old church, made of wood and painted
white.
Gomez and Jill were running hard now, zigzagging between the tumbledown
gravestones.
When they passed the front steps of the little New England-style
church, Jill suddenly stopped, gasping. "Got to rest, Sid," she told
him, one hand moving slowly up and down. "Catch my breath, only a
minute, please."
"A minute, but nada m&. We don't want this to be our final resting
place." He paused near her, looking back the way they'd come. Then he
tugged out the sniffer gadget and checked it. "C'mon, cara, the
pursuit group did split up when Jake took the less traveled road. But
we still have three humans, an andy and four robot hounds on our heels
and they're closing the gap."
"Let's go then." Her face was flushed, speckled with perspiration.
Her dark hair was tangled. "Damn it, I thought we'd gotten away
clear."
"We will, but it's going to take a bit more effort." He took her arm
and urged her into motion.
They ran. Out of this latest cemetery, then along a metal-walled
tunnel,
then up a slanting ramp that led them to a long imitation marble
corridor that was rich with shelves holding hundreds of gilded burial
urns.
"I bet if you spent enough time down here," speculated Gomez as they
ran, "you'd end up thinking morbid thoughts."
After they entered yet another long metallic tunnel, Jill said,
"I hear an odd noise behind us."
"&; that's the patter of metal feet," he said. "At least one of those
damned robot tracking dogs is catching up."
"Sounds like more than one."
Gomez kicked up his pace, sprinting ahead.
He ran around a bend in the tunnel. After running for nearly a minute,
he looked back and found that Jill wasn't there anymore.
"Dios," he muttered as he stopped and went back.
She was on her hands and knees on the ribbed flooring.
Breathing shallowly, shaking her head slowly from side to side.
"I stumbled, Sid. Nothing major."
He looked beyond her and then yanked his stun gun frozn its shoulder
holster. "Roll over against the wall, Jill."
Coming through the shadows, not more than a hundred yards from them,
was a large robot hound. It was a gunmetal color and its plazeyes
glowed a fierce red. The mechanical creature's jaw was filled,
crowded, with sharp-edged silvery metal teeth.
The metal paws made hollow clattering sounds as, galloping, it narrowed
the distance between them. A tiny silver knob protruding from its
skull was giving out a continual reedy beeping.
Gomez knelt, knees wide, and swung up his gun. "Stay hunkered," he
told the woman.
The robot hound left the floor of the tunnel and launched itself into
the air, aiming straight for the fallen Jill.
The beam from Gomez' stunner took it in the chest.
The metallic dog gave a tinny yelp, quivered, dropped to the floor. It
got up, though, and starting heading for Jill again.
"Hey, perro, this is supposed to stop you in your damned tracks." Gomez
fired the stun gun once more.
The dog was nearly to Jill, teeth starting to snap. The second beam
caused it to swerve, slam into the wall as it lost its balance.
Leaping up, Gomez ran over and shot a third time, standing right above
the slowed mechanism.
The hound's teeth made a final try to bite at Jill before it
collapsed.
"That's a very strong little madre," observed Gomez as he helped her to
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