Page 140 - Just Deserts

Telepax

toward the salesman and his guests, walking at a good clip. “A very
disciplined lot.”
Skinner waited until the group, about thirty strong, had assembled
n front of him. “Now, Chief, I want you to pick out four or five
people and rub a bit of this powder on them. Don’t worry—you’re
out of your jurisdiction and we’ll destroy the rest of it immediately.”
Drubble selected his subjects more or less at random, managing
not to miss a couple of young women. He handed the bag back to
Skinner, who passed it off quickly to an assistant.
“Excellent. While you’re up, Chief, choose another half dozen or
so who will get good and angry on cue. Doesn’t matter which ones:
Telepax will find them. Just keep in mind which ones they are.”
When the chief had completed this task, Skinner dismissed the
group and they began walking at a brisk pace back to their original
position. “Now, if you’ll just step over to the Telepax control unit,
gentlemen, we’ll get the ball rolling.”
He led Drubble and Ness to a cart upon which sat a squat console
and computer monitor. “Ordinarily this equipment would be located
in an inconspicuous van behind the scenes, and its operator would be
in touch with the forward personnel via walkie-talkie.” One of the
technicians was bending over the unit; Skinner tapped him on the
shoulder.
“Ready, Bob? Good. See how easy it to program; doesn’t take a
computer genius. Not if I can do it—ha-ha! Just use the keyboard or
a light pen to pull down this targeting selection menu. There: you see
that we can choose either a single illegal narcotic or a whole variety.
That’s all there is to it. Now let’s shoot ‘em down.”
Skinner turned to another assistant. “Let’s give Chief Drubble the
honors.” The man brought over another cart; this one held a pile of
gear including a headset and a bazooka-like tube. Skinner put the
headset on the chief and showed him how to hold the weapon.
“There you go. Now, the beauty of this is that you don’t actually
have to show yourself with the ordnance; it can be set up and left to
operate by itself. All it needs is to be on an approximate line of sight
with the target. If you’re in pursuit, however, then its portability is
quite useful. Hardly weighs anything at all, does it?”

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