In Death 03 - Immortal in Death

Yes." He kissed her forehead. "Turn yourself off."
    "In a minute." She fought back the edges of sleep. "I only had a couple minutes to contact Mavis. She wants to stay where she is for a couple days. She isn't going in to the Blue Squirrel either. She called in and found out Leonardo's been by there a half a dozen times looking for her."
    "The course of true love."
    "Mmm. I'm going to try to take an hour personal time tomorrow and swing by to see her, but I may not make it until the day after."
    "She'll be all right. I can go by, if you like."
    "Thanks, but she wouldn't talk to you about it. I'll take care of it as soon as I figure out what Boomer was up to. I know damn well he couldn't read that disc."
    "Of course not," Roarke soothed, hoping to lull her to sleep.
    "Not that he wasn't good with figures. Money figures. But scientific formulas -- " She bolted straight up, nearly bashing Roarke's nose with her head. "Your unit'll do it."
    "It will?"
    "I got the runaround from the lab. They're backed up, this is low priority. No priority," she added, scrambling back out of bed. "I need an edge. You've got scientific analysis abilities on your unlicensed unit, right?"
    "Of course." He sighed and rose. "Now, I suppose?"
    "We can access the data from my office unit." Grabbing his hand, she tugged him toward the faux panel that concealed the elevator. "It won't take us long."
    She filled him in on the basics as they traveled up. By the time he'd coded them in to the private room, she was wide awake and revved.
    The equipment was elaborate, unlicensed, and of course, illegal. Like Roarke, she used the handplate for access, then moved behind the U-shaped console.
    "You can pull the data faster than I can," she told him. "It's under Code Two, Yellow, Johannsen. My access number's -- "
    "Please." If he was going to play cop at three A. M., he wasn't going to be insulted. Roarke sat at the controls and manipulated a few dials manually. "Into Cop Central," he said and smiled when she frowned.
    "So much for security."
    "Anything else you'd like before I focus on your unit?"
    "No." She said it firmly, moving behind him. Manipulating a keyboard with one hand, Roarke drew one of hers over his shoulder, to his lips, to nibble on her knuckles. "Show-off."
    "It would hardly be any fun if you just plugged me in with your code. In your unit," he murmured, and switched to auto. "File Code Two, Yellow, Johannsen." Across the room one of the wall screens flashed.
    Waiting
    "Evidence number 34-J, view and copy," Eve requested. When the formula scrolled on, Eve shook her head. "See that? It might as well be ancient hieroglyphics."
    "Chemical formula," Roarke mused.
    "How do you know?"
    "I manufacture a few -- legal ones. This is some sort of analgesic, but not entirely. Hallucinogenic properties..." He clucked his tongue, shook his head. "I've never seen anything quite like it. Not a standard. Computer, analyze and identify."
    "You say it's a drug," Eve began and the computer went to work.
    "Most certainly."
    "That fits with my theory. But what was Boomer doing with the formula, and why would someone kill him for it?"
    "That would depend on how marketable it is, I'd think. How profitable." He frowned up at the screen as the analysis began to form. The molecular reproduction circled on the screen in colorful dots and spirals. "Okay, you have an organic stimulant, a standard chemical hallucinogenic, both in fairly low and nearly legal amounts. Ah, there's the properties for THR-50."
    "Street name Zeus. Nasty stuff."
    "Hmm. Still, it's low wattage. But that's an interesting mix. There's mint, to make it more palatable. I'd say it could also be manufactured, with some alterations, in liquid form. Blend it with Brinock -- that's a sexual stimulant and enhancer. In the right measures, it can be used to cure impotency."
    "I know what it is. We had a guy who OD'd on it. Killed himself after what appeared to be the world's record in masturbation. Jumped out of a window in sexual frustration. His dick was swollen like a pork sausage, about the same color, and still hard as iron."
    "Thank you for sharing that. What's this?" Puzzled, Roarke went back to the keyboard. The computer merely continued to flash the same message.
    Substance unknown. Probable cell regenerator. Unable to identify.
    "How is that possible?" he mused. "I have an automatic update on this. There's nothing out there it can't identify."
    "An unknown substance. Well, well. That might be