said casually, “Better not, stranger. Belly wounds.” And Mun-din stopped, suddenly thoughtful.
There was no sign so far of Don Lavin, which was not odd. Easy enough to lose yourself in that crowd, even if you didn’t try. And Don, under the compulsion implanted hi him, would be trying. They looked, as thoroughly as they could; but it was no use. They gathered together when time grew short and looked at each other searchingly, but no one had seen Don. “The Wabbits,” Nome said hopefully. ‘They’ll spot him from the stands and signal us. Then——”
Then it might be too late. The whole thing depended on getting to him at once, which meant being Li the same event; and they couldn’t be sure of that. It had been a job keeping even the Wabbits in the stands; Lana had held out for signing up for the Kiddie Kut-Ups number, until Norvell had threatened to leave her out entirely, on the grounds that that was one number they could be sure Don wouldn’t be in.
Mundin looked up, startled. Norvell was saying coldly, “Get the hell away, damn it! I thought you learned your lesson after I bent the pipe over your head.”
A big, shaggy man was backing away from the little gamecock. “No, no,” he said pleadingly. “Shep had it coming, he shouldn’t have been fooling around with——Never mind. Shep’s sorry. Damn, damn inpounding debt worry; I got to pay you back. I want to help.”
Mundin caught Norvell’s eye. “Where’d he come from?”
Norvell said blackly, “That Lana. She brought him along. He used to be a kind of bodyguard till I—fired him. My wife’s idea.”
Mundin said, “We can use another man.”
Norvell shrugged. All he said was, “Watch yourself.”
The big man fawned on Norvell gratefully, and Mundin looked on wonderingly.
Someone on the rostrum said, “May I have your attention, please? Will you all God-damn-it shut your yaps, please? You stumblebums in the corner there, that means you too. Shut up, you bastards! Thanks, all.” He was a distraught young man who ran his fingers through his hair. Norvell muttered to Mundin:
“Willkie. He’ll have a nervous breakdown by tonight. Every year. But——” wistfully “—but he’s a good M.C.”
Willkie snapped, “You know this is the big one, the show of the year, ladies and gentlemen. Double fees and survivor’s insurance for this one. And in return, ladies and gentlemen, we expect you all to do your damnedest for the Stadium.”
He measured the crowd. “Now, let’s get on with the cast-big. First, a comedy number. We need some old gentlemen and ladies—nothing violent; padded clubs hi a battle-royal to the finish. The last surviving lady gets five hundred dollars; the surviving gentlemen gets one thousand. Let’s s.ee some hands there! No, not you, buster—you can’t be a day past sixty.”
“Take it,” Bligh urged Ryan. “Go with them and keep your eyes open for Don.”
Ryan got the nod, and tottered away with the other old ladies and gentlemen.
“Now, are there two good men who fancy themselves as knife-fighters? Scandinavian style? It’ll be ntJced, so don’t waste my time if you have a potbelly.” Scandinavian style was fastened together by a belt with two feet of slack. “One thousand? Anybody at one thousand? All right, damn it, I’ll make it twelve fifty, and if there isn’t a rising ovation we drop the number, you yellow skunks!” Perhaps a dozen pros hopped up, grinning. “Fine response! Let’s make it six matches simultaneous. Take ’em away, boys!”
The casting went on. Spillane’s Inferno; Lions and Tigers and Bears; High-Pressure Chug-a-Lug. Lana shot Mundin a despairing glance. No Don Lavin—but the crowd was thin-ing. “We must have missed him,” croaked Hubble.
“Roller Derby!” Willkie called. “Spiked elbows, no armor. Five hundred a point to contestants. Twenty flat to audience, a hundred if a contestant lands on you and draws blood.”
Norvell gathered the eyes of Mundin, Norma, and Hubble. Shep trailed along as they rose, were accepted for “audience” and were hustled out of the briefing room, still vainly peering about for Don.
And then, of course, they saw him—only after the glass door closed irrevocably behind them. He was rising—with glazed eyes—for High Wire with Piranha. Price, ten thousand dollars. And he was the only volunteer, even at that price.