Short Stories by Donald E Westlake
Author:Donald E Westlake [Westlake, Donald E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
PAID IN FULL
âOld bills,â I said. âI insist on that, they must be old bills.â
âOf course,â he murmured, smiling at me in that secretive way he affected. His face always looked hooded to me, remaining me of those blackout shields on automobile headlights in the war. With that face, with that smile, with that insinuating honeyed voice, no word he said could possibly sound sincere or truthful. But surely no one can lie all the time.
Most of what I knew of him I doubted. His name for instance, which heâd murmured was Sylvan Kelso, and which sounded too unlikely to be either the truth or a falsehood. His claimed feelings of friendliness for me, which I understood at once was artificial; Iâve had such buddies before, among insurance salesmen and candidates for minor political office. And the nation for which he claimed to be operating: Bulgaria! That couldnât possibly be true.
The only truth of which I was sure was that he wished to buy from me what I was perfectly willing to sell. Willing, that is, if all my conditions were satisfactorily met, which is why we were meeting for the third time here in this dim bar in Arlington, not far from Chain Bridge.
âAnd small denomination,â I said to him now, as we sat crouched toward one another in the rear booth. âNothing bigger than a twenty.â
âAhh,â he said, âthat will make a bulky package.â
âNot very,â I said. âTwo packages, anyway. Half before, half after.â
âYour distrust, Mr. Stilmont,â he assured me in oiled tones, âis quite unnecessary.
âIâve got to protect myself,â I told him.
âOf course you must. Certainly.â
âI donât know you. I donât know what youâre liable to pull.â
He spread doughy hands. âNot a thing, Mr. Stilmont,â he said, âI do assure you. After all, why should I do anything to offend you? This is merely our first transaction.â
âOur only transaction,â I said, somewhat bitterly. âYou know as well as I do thereâs only the one valuable file I have access to. Once the deal is done, Iâm sold out.â
âTemporarily, Mr. Stilmont. But surely in the future, as you climb the ladder of success in government employment, additional occasions will arise when we can be ofâ¦profitable service to one another.â
I was about to tell him the answer to that one was also no, but at the last second refrained. If Kelso really did think I might be useful again in the future, so much the better; it would make him less likely to double-cross me or make trouble for me.
But whether he knew the truth about me or not, I surely knew the truth about myself. I had climbed the ladder of success in government employment as far as the Civil Service system could carry me. I hovered at the edge of the executive level now, and here I would hover until retirement. In order to attain the upper ranks in government service, it is necessary to have either one of two things: superlative ability or political influence. I had neither.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Sita - Warrior of Mithila (Book 2 of the Ram Chandra Series) by Amish(53758)
The Crystal Crypt by Dick Philip K(36390)
Cat's cradle by Kurt Vonnegut(14722)
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han(14438)
Ready Player One by Cline Ernest(13930)
The Last by Hanna Jameson(9775)
Year One by Nora Roberts(9274)
Persepolis Rising by James S. A. Corey(8923)
The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro(8350)
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro(8265)
Red Rising by Pierce Brown(8219)
Dark Space: The Second Trilogy (Books 4-6) (Dark Space Trilogies Book 2) by Jasper T. Scott(7885)
The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood(7416)
The Circle by Dave Eggers(6816)
Frank Herbert's Dune Saga Collection: Books 1 - 6 by Frank Herbert(6671)
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood(6455)
Legacy by Ellery Kane(6371)
Pandemic (The Extinction Files Book 1) by A.G. Riddle(6157)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty(5791)
