Tek Vengeance

by William Shatner

  “Have you got bunting for brains, Hugo?”

  “Actually, China, it’s a chip augmented with—”

  “Look at the simulation of my damn head.” Her fingernails made pinging noises as she tapped the screen angrily.

  The smocked andy came to her side, rested a hand on her shoulder. “You aren’t getting much out of your relaxation therapy group, dear,” he said. “Your snide—”

  “Screw the group,” she said. “And how can any rational human being relax when they end up with the wrong damn snake tattooed on their own personal skull?”

  “Is this a rhetorical question, hon?”

  “Can you see the design on the screen, Hugo?” This time she tapped the vidscreen with her clenched fist. “It’s a sleek, sensual snake. Whereas the snake that’s been etched on my cabeza is dumpy and dippy looking.”

  “They’re identical, hon,” assured the android. “But, since you’re seeing it in reverse in—”

  “I should never have had the damn raven removed.”

  Hugo gave a small polite cough. “Didn’t I mention that very thing?”

  “Myself, I think it’s a great snake.” Gomez, gun in hand, had come easing into the small white room and was walking over to them.

  Jake followed, shutting the door. “I used to know a guy who had a single rose tattooed on his head. It was subtle.”

  “Compared to a snake, sure,” said Gomez. “Well, China, to business.”

  Jake approached her. “I’m looking for my son.”

  “So go look.”

  His voice was low and level. “I’ve run out of patience.”

  “That happened late yesterday,” said Gomez. “Sit someplace, Hugo.”

  “Are we in the midst of some kind of criminal investigation, Sheriff?”

  “Sit.”

  Jake took hold of the bald young woman’s arm. “Is Dan being held at the jungle?”

  “Yes, both of them are there. Now let go of me.”

  “Where? In the underground facility?”

  “Yes, in Section 4,” she answered. “Really now, Cardigan, I’m out of this mess. It’s purely a coincidence that I happen to be in the same vicinity.”

  “What’s Pickfair intend to do?”

  “Kill them—eventually. He’s a very nasty young man.”

  “We want to get into the underground complex.”

  “Well, don’t let me stand in the way.”

  “You have an electrokey.” He tightened his grip on her arm. “Give it to me.”

  “I’m sorry I ever hired you two buffoons. You’ve futzed up my life ever since.”

  “The key,” repeated Jake.

  “It’s in my jacket pocket. On the hook there.”

  Gomez frisked the hanging coat. “Aquí,” he said, smiling and holding it up.

  The walls had been blank for quite awhile.

  “I have a feeling,” said Molly, “that something else is getting ready to happen.”

  Dan said, “I might as well tell you something.”

  “Don’t sound so glum.”

  “It’s just that—well, you haven’t really been that much of a nuisance,” he told her. “As a matter of fact, I sort of like you.”

  “Sort of like me?” She laughed. “Here we are on the brink of oblivion and that’s the best you can come up with?”

  “How can you laugh? We really are going to—probably going to die.”

  “Well, I sort of like you, too,” Molly said. “I prefer to believe that we’re at the start of a great romance. Great romances have a tendency to last and endure.”

  “Not this one, dear,” said one of the walls.

  That same wall, smoothly and silently, slid aside.

  Roddy Pickfair, clad in a loosefitting white suit and with a silver lazgun held loosely in his right hand, was standing widelegged in the corridor outside. “I do hope you enjoyed the picture show, kids,” he said. “You knew Beth Kittridge, didn’t you, Danny?” he asked. “But, of course, you did. She was scheduled to be your second mom.”

  Molly took hold of Dan’s hand. “Don’t,” she whispered.

  “You’ve had, I’d venture to say, awfully bad luck in the mother area. Original one in jail, candidate for #2 shattered to—”

  “You son of a bitch,” said Dan quietly.

  “You’re wondering perhaps what’s going to happen next?” Pickfair, smiling, came into the room. “That’s important in good storytelling—make them ask what’s coming next.” He walked closer, keeping his gun trained on the young woman. “Allow me to give you some background, fill you in on some of the reasons for what’s been going on. For instance, as to the death of Beth Kittridge—By the way, would you like to see that footage again? I had some of my own cambots there, pretending to be with Newz, Inc.”

  “Dan, stay put.” Molly held on to his hand. “Don’t let him goad you into anything.”

  “I know why she was killed,” said Dan, strain showing in his voice. “She was close to perfecting an effective anti-Tek system. You must be connected with one of the Tek cartels and—”

  “That was one reason, yes.” He held up a finger. “Not my only one, however. Beth Kittridge was killed at that particular time and place and in that particular way because I knew it would hurt Jake Cardigan.”

  “Why do you want to hurt him?”

  “Miss Fine can probably guess,” he answered. “She’s been doing some very annoying rummaging into my background.”

  Molly said, “It must have something to do with your parents.”

  “With my father actually.”

  Dan was watching him. “Bennett Sands was your father,” he said. “I can see traces of that—hidden in that fat face.”

  “Officially Sands never had a son,” said Molly.

  “He and my mother weren’t exactly married, but he was my father nonetheless,” said Pickfair. “He didn’t treat me, admittedly, all that well at first. In later years we became friends, however, and he admired my business sense. I loved him—and Jake Cardigan killed him.”

  “My father didn’t kill him. Someone else entirely was responsible for—”

  “If Cardigan hadn’t gotten out of the Freezer and started investigating the—”

  “Sands was tied in with the Teklords,” Dan told him. “Sooner or later he was bound to get killed.”

  “But he was killed sooner—because of your father. What I’ve been after is revenge.”

  Molly asked, “What’s the next phase of your plan?”

  Pickfair strolled over to the lefthand wall. He gestured and it became again a vidscreen.

  This time, though, Jake was up there on the screen. Alone, carrying a stungun, he was making his way slowly and cautiously along a metal corridor.

  “Cardigan has been led to believe that he’s outfoxed me,” explained the studio head. “Actually, I’ve allowed him to get possession of an electrokey for this place. Just four minutes ago he entered this facility. In another two and a half I’ll meet him in that corridor—and kill him.”

  48

  SUSAN FERMER SLIPPED INTO the large landvan that served as her dressing room. It was parked, along with six others, at the edge of a clearing in the section of the Dickerson Jungle that was being used as a location for Jungle Commandos.

  She sank down onto her couch, tugged off her boots. “Trina?” she called.

  Her robot maid didn’t respond.

  “Damn, is that halfwit on the blink again?”

  “She’s pretty much defunct.” Gomez, smiling broadly, stepped out of the bathroom.

  Susan inhaled sharply and reached toward a pillow.

  “Gun’s not there anymore, chiquita,” the detective informed her.

  “You—you’re Gomez, aren’t you?”

  “Sí, none other.” He sat in a canvas chair, facing her. “I must say you look much better than you did the last time I saw you.”

  “What do you mean? We’ve never met.”

  “But we have, cara. Throu
gh the magic of video, I was able to see you on your deathbed.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Por favor, spare me the malarkey.” He continued to smile at her. “You undertook the part of Jean Marie Sparey. You played to a very limited audience, but it was undoubtedly lucrative all the same.”

  “Listen, Gomez, I didn’t know they were planning to kill anybody.”

  “Sure, and they coerced you to take a part in this epic, too.”

  “But that’s true. You don’t comprehend how vicious and dangerous Roddy Pickfair can be.”

  “I do, but I’ve got you down as being pretty vicious yourself.”

  She leaned forward, resting her palms on her knees. “What did you come here for?”

  “To round up the rest of the delightful folks who had anything to do with Beth Kittridge’s death,” he replied. “That includes Larry Knerr, China Vargas and you.”

  “Don’t you understand what I’ve been saying? I was simply hired to play a part.”

  “Tell it to the judge.”

  “Is Cardigan here with you?”

  “Why?”

  “Just tell me if he went into the underground rooms hunting for his son.”

  Gomez frowned. “That was what he intended to—”

  “You have to catch him and stop him, Gomez,” she urged. “Roddy’s set a trap for him.”

  Roddy Pickfair chuckled. “I’ll be leaving you, kids, to keep my appointment with Cardigan,” he told them. “This wallscreen will keep running so that you can follow the whole thing.”

  On the screen the figure of Jake was moving slowly along an underground corridor.

  “In a way, I’ll be sorry to kill him finally,” admitted the pudgy young man. “This has provided me with a good deal of fun and amusement these past—”

  “You can’t!” shouted Dan. “I’m not going to let you kill my father.” He broke away from Molly’s grip.

  The wall suddenly went blank. The lights in the room and in the hallway died. Darkness closed in and absolute silence.

  “What’s going on, you idiots?” cried Pickfair. “Switch to the emergency power system.”

  Then he made a pained grunting sound and something metallic hit the floor.

  Light blossomed next to him.

  “Dad!” said Dan, laughing.

  Jake, grinning over at him, set the newly lit electriclantern beside the crouched figure of Pickfair. “You okay? Both of you?”

  “We’re fine—but what are you doing in that Brazil Wars uniform?” Dan went hurrying over to him. “We were watching you on the screen and you were dressed differently.”

  “Get up, Roddy,” suggested Jake.

  The studio head remained crouched, rubbing at his wrist. “You used a decoy.”

  “Yep, that was an android performer named Jacko Fuller—made up to look like me,” admitted Jake. “Gomez rented him. It’s the first time he’s worked in over a year.”

  “But you used China’s electrokey to get into the facility. And we’ve been monitoring your progress ever since.”

  “I figured you would, which is why I sent in Jacko.”

  “Then how did you get—”

  “Your security system isn’t all that tricky. After I’d studied the plans for this place, I worked out a way to get in.”

  “And you’re the one who turned off all the power?”

  Jake nodded. “Get up and we’ll get going—I have a lot of people to turn over to the law.”

  Very slowly, Pickfair rose to his feet.

  Backing, Jake picked up the lazgun he’d knocked from the young man’s hand.

  Pickfair smiled faintly. “Go ahead and use that,” he invited. “If you don’t know already, your son can tell you. I’m the one who masterminded everything that’s happened to you.”

  Jake hefted the gun on his palm. “A day or so ago I was burning up with this,” he said quietly. “Hell, even an hour ago I was thinking about killing you once I found you.” He stuck the gun into his belt.

  “But now?”

  Jake shook his head. “Now I don’t feel a damn thing.”

  A week later it rained all across Greater LA. A chill heavy rain that went on and on.

  Jake, alone, was walking along the midday beach near his home. His shoulders were hunched, his hands were thrust deep in his trouser pockets.

  From the opposite direction a pretty young actress came running enthusiastically along the rainswept sand. “You’re getting soaked,” she commented as she jogged by him.

  He didn’t respond and kept walking.

  A half a mile or so later, he halted and stood looking out at the choppy grey ocean.

  “I’m touched,” said someone behind him.

  Jake turned. “Hi, Sid.”

  “Even a coldhearted, hardboiled old operative such as me couldn’t help but be moved by how forlorn you’re looking, amigo. “

  “I’m not after pity.”

  “Oh, so?”

  “Did you want anything specific?”

  “You haven’t returned the chief’s calls at all. You haven’t returned mine for two days.”

  “I feel like being pretty much to myself.”

  “Dan’s with you, isn’t he?”

  “Sure, but he understands.”

  “He has to pretend to, the poor kid’s stuck with you for a padre,” said Gomez. “The Cosmos Agency has a new case for us. It’s an odd one and it apparently doesn’t involve Tek at all. Why don’t you come into the office with me this afternoon?”

  He asked his friend, “You think I’m overdoing the mourning?”

  “By about two or three days at least.”

  “Okay, I’ll change and we’ll go see what Bascom has to offer.”

  “Eventually,” said his partner as they started back along the beach, “you can get over most things.”

  “Most things,” said Jake.

  A Biography of William Shatner

  William Shatner (b. 1931) is a celebrated Canadian actor, author, and film director known for his irreverent charm and his star turn as Captain Kirk on the first Star Trek television series, as well as many other roles.

  Shatner was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. He majored in economics at McGill University and upon graduating took a job as the business manager at Montreal’s Mountain Playhouse, where he also pursued classical Shakespearean training. In 1954, Shatner began performing at Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival, appearing in Henry V, Oedipus Rex, and Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great—the play in which he would make his Broadway debut in 1956, as the understudy for Christopher Plummer.

  After his first film appearance, in MGM’s The Brothers Karamazov (1958), and roles in the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, Shatner was cast in NBC’s Star Trek, playing the courageous, unpredictable Captain James T. Kirk. Though cancelled in 1969 after three seasons, Star Trek became a cult hit in syndication, leading to an animated series and a number of spin-off television series and movies. Shatner starred in seven Star Trek films beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.

  Shatner went on to star as a veteran police sergeant in T. J. Hooker (1982–86) and as aging trial lawyer Denny Crane in Boston Legal (2004–08). He has also remained in the public eye with frequent television guest appearances.

  Shatner has published a number of novels, most notably TekWar (1989), a science-fiction thriller that inspired eight sequels as well as video games and a television series. His autobiography, Up Till Now, was published in 2008. He has also released three musical albums, including the infamous The Transformed Man (1968), which introduced Shatner’s unique spoken-word style, and the critically lauded Seeking Major Tom (2011).

  In 2012, Shatner returned to Broadway after a fifty-year absence, in Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It, a one-man show based on his life and work. After a three-week run in New York City, he took the show on the road, touring around the country
. When he isn’t working, Shatner and his wife, Elizabeth, divide their time between Southern California and Kentucky.

  After graduating from McGill University in 1952, William Shatner began participating in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada. This headshot dates from his early days with the festival. (Photo Courtesy of William Shatner.)

  Star Trek, the iconic science-fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise and its crew, led by Captain James T. Kirk, played by Shatner. The series first aired between 1966 and 1969. Shatner’s voice-over before each episode explained the starship’s mission: “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” This photo shows the crew from the original Star Trek. (Photo courtesy of Photofest, Inc.)

  Shatner’s debut musical album, The Transformed Man, was released in 1968 while he was still starring in Star Trek. The concept album combined famous pieces of poetry with pop lyrics; for instance, Shatner read Bob Dylan’s lyrics alongside Shakespeare’s verses. (Photo courtesy of Universal Music Enterprises.)

  To help the Gorilla Foundation raise awareness for their endangered species campaign, Shatner met Koko, the gorilla who became the foundation’s ambassador, in 1988. Koko can understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language and more than 2,000 English words. Shatner was awed by the strength of this imposing and powerful animal and considered meeting her a truly amazing experience. (Photo courtesy of William Shatner.)

  Shatner recorded his second musical album, Has Been, in 2004. Produced and arranged by Ben Folds, the album featured Shatner’s prose-poems as well as guest appearances from Aimee Mann, Nick Hornby, Lemon Jelly, and Joe Jackson. In 2007, choreographer Margo Sappington used the album for a ballet called Common People. Shatner filmed documentary footage of their collaboration and released a film called William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Shout! Factory, LLC.)

  In 2004, Shatner joined the final season of the legal drama The Practice and won an Emmy for his role as law firm partner Denny Crane. In a 2004 spin-off, Boston Legal, Shatner continued to play Crane, winning a Golden Globe and another Emmy in 2005. He was nominated for several more Emmys before the show ended in 2008. This photo shows the crew of Boston Legal. (Photo courtesy of Photofest, Inc.)