"Wen Spencer - Ukiah 1 - Alien Taste" - читать интересную книгу автора (Spencer Wen)

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Alien Taste

by Wen Spencer



ROC
First Printing, July 2001
To Don Kosak, the original Max Bennett. Cover me—I'm going in.
 CHAPTER ONE


Monday, June 15, 2004
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania


It was going to storm soon. Ukiah Oregon could smell the rain on the wind. He felt the tension on
his skin as he leaned out the Cherokee's passenger window. He saw it on the far horizon over the
skyscrapers of Pittsburgh.
He leaned back in the window, brushing his long black hair out of his dark eyes. His partner, Max
Bennett, was filling the cab as usual with noisy confusion. Max alternately shouted at his wireless phone,
the stalled traffic, and the net pages giving him traffic updates. Over it all, the KQV news station droned on
with the news of the day.
"Kraynak. Detective. Yes, I'll wait. Veterans' Bridge confusion."
"If Kraynak wants us for tracking, we're running out of time."
Max Bennett snorted at the comment, his attention divided between muscling the Cherokee into a
hole in traffic and the sudden return of the Pittsburgh Police operator. "What did you say? Are you sure
you're saying those names correctly? It's K-R-A-Y-N-A-K, Kraynak. Yes, I'm certain that's with a K." He
tapped the Cherokee's screen to consult an Internet page. "Would his badge number help? I could give you
his Social Security too. I can even get his wife's maiden name. Yes, I'll hold. I told Kraynak it was going to
take us an hour to get into Oakland, but he sounded so wired that I don't think he listened."
After a moment, Ukiah realized that Max was talking to him. "And he didn't say why he wanted
us?"
Back when Ukiah started to work with Max, they were usually chased away from police crime
scenes, like mink chased from the wolves' kill. Even as their reputation for solving the difficult
missing-person cases grew, they were never contacted directly by the police. Occasionally they would learn
that the officers on the case recommended them to the desperate families. This was the first time the police
had called them, even if the police involved was one of Max's Gulf War buddies.
Max shook his head. "He didn't go into details. He just said that he had a job for us and not to
worry about getting paid, that he'd cleared it with his captain." His eyebrows jumped as the operator came
back on the phone. "I know he's not in his office, that's why I'm talking to you. I need to be patched to his
radio. Damn, why can't the man join the modern age and get a wireless phone?"
Ukiah leaned back out the window, pushing Max's confusion into the background to be examined
later. His attention had been captured by a cat in the white Saab ahead of them. The Saab had New York
plates, a Duquesne University window decal, and was packed full of boxes and plants. A Manx cat, looking