“Whatdaya think Swatter?” Shu sez, turnin’ his attention to me. “You ever see women like this before?”
“Oh, they’re not bad!” I sez, cranin’ my neck to scan the crowd.
It has occurred to me that Tananda will probably be in disguise when she arrives, and it will therefore be difficult for me to recognize her unless she gives me some kind of signal.
“Not bad? Listen to this, guys! All this beautiful woman-flesh, and all Swatter can say is They’re not bad’!”
“Really, Swatter,” Junebug sez. “You just don’t see beautiful women like this in the army!”
This earns him a dangerous scowl from Spyder, but he misses it completely as he is feelin’ his drinks more than a little at this point.
“Nice crowd for a fight. Know what I mean, cuz?” Nunzio murmurs in my ear low enough so no one else can hear.
“I dunno,” I sez, scannin’ the crowd again. “I don’t see a single one of these white collar types that even Bee couldn’t take without half tryin’.”
“That’s what I mean,” Nunzio grins, and helps himself to another swallow from his drink.
As you can maybe tell from his behavior, the hesitations I have been experiencin’ about settin’ up one of our buddies has not bothered my cousin in the least. If anything, he seems to be lookin’ forward to a bit of trouble.
“Watch my chair,” I sez, standing up. “I’m goin’ to the bar for a refill.”
Like I said, the place is mobbed, and in typical tightfisted Deveel type fashion, Frumple has not incurred the added overhead of puttin’ on extra help, so if youse wants to get a drink sometime before the next Ice Age, it is necessitated that youse belly up to the bar to get your refill directly from the bartender. If youse is wonderin’ why someone as greedy as Frumple is willin’ to miss the extra income generated by a higher turnover of drinks, let me restore your faith by explainin’ that he makes it up both by waterin’ the hootch and by increasin’ his unit revenue … which is to say he raises his prices as the crowds get bigger.