Fires of Satan by E. C. Tubb

Author:E. C. Tubb [Tubb, E. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780575121973
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2012-11-30T07:00:00+00:00

She had arrived that morning together with Carl Waldemar and they were staying at a hotel nearby. Finding him had been simple as Carl explained.

‘I knew you were in Washington and had attended the Exposition. The rest was just a matter of phoning around.’ He lifted the glass in his hand. ‘To a happy meeting!’

Mechanically Spragg responded to the toast. It had been Carl’s idea, of course, to have sent Frieda to get him to share a dinner he didn’t want and then to join a party he could have done without. But the man meant well and couldn’t possible know of his chance meeting with Irene. If she called now he would be out but if she called he would know about it and could track her down.

‘You look glum, my friend,’ Waldemar said. ‘A little lonely here in the big city? Why, when there are so many nubile young girls eager to ease your tensions for the sake of a few dollars? Or, of course –’ His eyes moved to where Frieda stood at the far side of the room talking to a podgy man with a close-cropped hair style.

Spragg said, ‘Carl, I’m not here alone.’

‘You have a companion? That is good. Where is she?’

‘She’s staying with friends in New York.’ Spragg caught the ironic lift of the other’s eyebrows. ‘She left at noon.’

‘Do I know her?’

‘No. She’s my assistant.’

‘And so she attended the Exposition with you?’ Waldemar looked thoughtful. ‘Which means she knows what is going to happen if she has any brains at all. How did she take it?’

‘How did you?’

‘At first, badly. I felt numb, sick, unable to accept what I knew to be true. Then I got very drunk and, afterwards, things didn’t seem so bad. What is the use of worrying? Thor is coming. Not all the burning candles and fervent prayers in the world can stop it. Not even joy and laughter but they, at least, ease the time of waiting.’ Waldemar finished his drink. ‘Let me get you another, Mal, then come and talk to Harry.’

Harry Frazer was the podgy man with Frieda. Like her he was a mathematician. Unlike her he was a trifle drunk. A state he claimed to be the best for the clear working of his mind.

‘It’s a matter of the synapses,’ he explained after Spragg had been introduced. ‘You know how the impulses jump along the nerves. Alcohol slows them down a little. Now the same thing happens in the brain. The thoughts jump too damned fast and get all mixed up but after a few drinks they slow down and you can catch and corral the bastards and detach them to jump through hoops. Catch?’

‘I catch.’

‘Good. That makes you one of the fraternity. You with NASA?’

‘No.’

‘I am. Attached to them, that is. My real line is atomics. I’m an advisor to CALNED, you’ve heard of them? No? Constructional Application of Limited Nuclear Devices. We haven’t done much as yet but when we get the work just watch our smoke! A new Atlantic–Pacific canal cut through Mexico.

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