Frederik Pohl by Survival Kit

Author:Survival Kit
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-12-12T21:13:00+00:00

When the manager had gone - along with the assistant manager, the house detective and the ancient shrew-faced head housekeeper - Mooney extracted a promise from Harse and left him. He carefully hung a ‘Do Not Disturb’ card from the doorknob, crossed his fingers and took the elevator downstairs.

The fact seemed to be that Harse didn’t care about aboriginals. Mooney had arranged a system of taps on the door which, he thought, Harse would abide by, so that Mooney could get back in. Just the same, Mooney vowed to be extremely careful about how he opened that door. Whatever the pale blue light was, Mooney wanted no part of it directed at him.

The elevator operator greeted him respectfully - a part of the management’s policy of making amends, no doubt. Mooney returned the greeting with a barely civil nod. Sure, it had worked; he’d told the’ manager that he’d caught the chambermaid trying to steal something valuable that belonged to that celebrated proprietor of valuable secrets, Mr. Harse; the chambermaid had fled; how dared they employ a person like that?

And he had made very sure that the manager and the house dick and all the rest had plenty of opportunity to snoop apologetically in every closet and under the beds, just so there would be no suspicion in their minds that a dismembered chambermaid-torso was littering some dark corner of the room. What could they do but accept the story? The chambermaid wasn’t there to defend herself, and though they might wonder how she had got out of the hotel without being noticed, it was their problem to figure it out, not Mooney’s to explain it.

They had even been grateful when Mooney offered handsomely to refrain from notifying the police.

‘Lobby, sir,’ sang out the elevator operator, and Mooney stepped out, nodded to the manager, stared down the house detective and walked out into the street.

So far, so good.

Now that the necessities of clothes and food and a place to live were taken care of, Mooney had a chance to operate. It was a field in which he had always had a good deal of talent - the making of deals, the locating of contacts, the arranging of transactions that were better conducted in private.

And he had a good deal of business to transact. Harse had accepted without question his statement that they would have to raise more money.

Try heroin or. Platinum?’ he had suggested, and gone back to his viewer.

‘I will,’ Mooney assured him, and he did; he tried them both, and more besides.

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