Free The Cutting Room: A Time Travel Thriller by Edward W. Robertson Page A

but little time and zero contacts.
    It was after midnight. A shade less than three days before the Pods would displace us back to our native time and place. I decided to sleep on it. It might be the last rest I got before time ran out.
    I got up before the sun. First challenge was running Obo down. There was a chance he'd fled the city after passing Yount the spiked drugs. I headed to a coffee shop a couple miles away and made a call to his office through a public pad. I informed reception I was calling on behalf of some bigwig whose name I'd pulled from another firm. The name was big enough to provoke the assistant into informing me that while Mr. Tanzuki was in the building, he would not be available until early that afternoon. I told the guy I'd call back.
    It was just past 7 AM. Pretty early for a gangster to be in the office. On a hunch, I went to a net cafe down the block and called up Obo's house. A servant answered. I used the same name I used at G&A. The lady of the house was out of the country, but if I liked, I could be patched through to Mr. Tanzuki. I thanked him, disconnected, and went back to the hotel.
    Vette was entrenched in her tablet. She swung her feet off the table and rubbed her eyes. "Office is out of the question. It's got more security than most countries. Do we hit him in transit? Or at home?"
    "Home," I said. "Get us a car. I'll take care of the entry."
    Before I headed out, I did some spying. Most of Obo Tanzuki's life was screwed down tighter than a wingnut, but the daisu had neglected certain elements of his security. Like the GPS on his cars. Those were protected by the corporation that provided the service. My Primetime-enhanced software hammered through their walls in minutes. Most of Obo's vehicles were at his house in the hills, but one was parked underneath G&A HQ.
    With that lined up, I headed back to the electronics shop where I'd gotten my cameras. My clerk was there. She had most of what I needed nice and legal. After a bit of dancing—me trying not to be too obvious while she felt out whether I was a cop—she set me up with the not-so-nice-nor-legal stuff at a meet that night.
    Night became midnight; midnight became wee hours. All the while, Obo's car hadn't moved. I had a pretty good idea what that meant and I didn't like it. While Vette snored, I went to the bathroom and took one of the little green pills. As I waited for it to kick in, I trudged through the brisk and quiet streets to another cafe and used their pad to call up Obo.
    I gave the all-night receptionist a new name, just as prestigious. After a moment on hold, he connected me to Obo. I hung up.
    My head telescoped in on the answer. Obo was living at his office. At least while his wife was away. It was probably safer, especially if there was any blowback over Haltur's murder. According to GPS, his car hadn't moved in two days, yet he was in the G&A building. Vette and I were down to two days. With the man's wife out of the country for another week, it was likely we'd never see Obo Tanzuki in the flesh.
    Unless we went to him.
    On my way back to the hotel, headlights flared behind me. I had the urge to swerve further into the sidewalk and hug the buildings. I held course. A car swished through a monstrous curbside puddle. A wave of rainwater drenched me scalp to soles.
    I stopped in shock, but not from the water. A couple of pigeons dislodged from an eave and winged down the street. They're going to bank left , I thought. They did. On the walk back, I forgot about Obo and lived in the present, watching everything that moved—cars, people, nocturnal birds. Most times, I couldn't predict where they'd go, what they'd do. But sometimes it was different. More often with the people than the cars, and most of all with the birds.
    And then my mind spat out an answer to that, too.
    Back in the room, I shook Vette awake. She didn't look happy about it.
    "We have to get into his office," I said.
    "Oh really?" She pulled the sheets