Chapter 12After my conversation with Stephanie Isat at my desk for a long time, considering the possibilities. Ididn’t like any of the scenarios. They all were a black roadcurving into a scarred land of mines and bombs and mutants. I bitoffthe end of a cigar, spit it out and stuck the cigar in my mouth. Iflicked a match and touched the flame to the tobacco, then blew outsome smoke. It was a shame one of the three assailants didn’t stayalive. Damn inconvenient of them to die. Stephanie could have priedout information from them. We needed to know who sent them. Ididn’thave high confidence in the Jarnger police. I doubted they coulddiscover who the mastermind behind the attack was. And even if theydid, the Jarnger authorities could be bought off. We were, ineffect,buying them off. At times a
