Orbit Science Fiction: The Complete Fiction by Various

Author:Various [Various]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2021-06-01T21:00:00+00:00

“Benjamin! Benjamin Farlan!” The voice came from a great distance. “Wake up! Wake up, you drunk, or you’re fired!”

Fired?

Ben Farlan opened one eye, groaned, and closed it again.

“You heard me. Wake up!”

He felt a stinging slap across his face.

“Hey,” Ben protested. “Cut that out.” He opened both eyes, took in the rounded, scowling face above him and blinked.

“Hello, boss,” Ben said. “What happened?” He attempted to sit up from where he had been sprawled flat on his back.

Hugh H. Johnston glared down at his laboratory manager. “Stinking drunk not three hours after you leave work,” he accused. “No wonder efficiency is falling off at the lab. No wonder it’s all we can do to make a decent profit.”

Ben Farlan allowed himself just the proper amount of indignation in view of his accuser’s august position as head of the Johnston Research Laboratories. “I’m not drunk, H.H.,” he said with precisely that amount of indignation. “Where are they?”

“Where are who? And what’s wrong with you if you’re not drunk? What’re you doing there on the floor?”

Ben Farlan got to his feet, staggered to the coffee table, and poured himself a quick one. He got it down without strain.

“Those three bruisers. I—I think they meant to kill me.”

H.H. looked his disbelief. “You mean you’ve had a holdup?”

Ben Farlan sank into his chair.” He looked around the room vaguely. He bent over and picked up a strange, blue-colored five-cent piece. “They were here, all righty he muttered. With a palsied hand he passed the coin to his employer. “Take a look at that, H.H.”

H.H. looked at it, first with quick irritation, then wide-eyed, then with slow care.

He said, “It’s plastic. You’re not allowed to copy U.S. currency exactly, this way. Even if it is plastic, it’s against the law. It’s counterfeiting.”

“Blue plastic,” Ben said. The brandy had proved an excellent antidote to whatever the strangers had done To him. He poured another one. “Blue plastic. It used to be my lampshade.”

H.H. sat down on the couch, took another quick look at the plastic coin, and pursed his plump lips. “Offhand I’d still say you were drunk, but this coin intrigues me. Let’s start from the beginning. I came over here to talk about the labor shortage with you. The door was ajar, so I came in. You were flat on your back on the floor. Now, what happened?”

Ben told him.

His employer let him tell it. All of it. Then he heaved his bulk to his feet. “I should’ve known better than to give that job to a pipsqueak like you, no matter how hard it is to get men. You’re fired!” He headed for the door.

“Wait a minute, H.H.,” Ben said frantically. “Just one thing before you go. Please.”

H.H. swung around on his heel, his triple-chins quivering his indignation. “Well.

“Would—would you mind looking in the closet? Kind of push my clothes to one side and see if there is anything there in the closet.”

His ex-boss puffed his cheeks out in indignation. But then he clicked his teeth and snapped, “Certainly, you confounded lush.

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