（外文电子版资料）Niven, Larry - Death by Ecstasy.doc

DEATH BY ECSTASY By Larry Niven FIRST CAME THE routine request for a Breach of Privacy permit. A police officer took down the details and forwarded the request to a clerk, who saw that the tape reached the appropriate civic judge. The judge was reluctant, for privacy is a precious thing in a world of eighteen billion; but in the end he could find no reason to refuse. On November 2nd, 2123, he granted the permit. The tenant’s rent was two weeks in arrears. If the manager of Monica Apartments had asked for eviction he would have been refused. But Owen Jennison just did not answer his doorbell or his room phone. Nobody could recall seeing him in many weeks. Apparently the manager wanted to know that he was all right. And so he was allowed to use his passkey, with an officer standing by. And so they found the tenant of 1809. And when they looked in his wallet, they called me. I was at my desk in ARM’s Headquarters, making useless notes and wishing it were lunchtime. At this stage the Loren case was all correlate-and-wait. It involved an organlegging gang, apparently run b~y a single man, yet big enough to cover half the North American west coast. We had considerable data on the gang—methods of operation, centers of activity, a few former customers, even a tentative handful of names —but nothing that would give us an excuse to act. So it was a matter of shoving what we had into the computer, watching the few suspected associates of the ganglord Loren, and waiting for a break. The months of waiting were ruining my sense of involvement. My phone buzzed. I put the pen down and said, “Gil Hamilton.” A small dark face regarded me with soft black eyes. “I am Detective-Inspector Julio Ordaz of the Los Angeles Police Department. Are you related to an Owen Jennison?” “Owen? No, we’re not related. Is he in trouble?” “You do know him, then.” “Sure I know him. Is he here, on Earth?” “It would seem so.” Ordaz had no accent, but the lack of colloquialisms in his speech