There was a confused pause. Corrigan smiled at the thought of the drastic axing and reassembly of a whole section of the system’s pointer tree that those few simple words would have caused.
“Why do you want a number there?” the voice demanded, sounding belligerent. Oh, yes, Corrigan thought to himself, it all seemed so obvious now.
“What the hell does it matter why I want it?” he retorted. “Would you please just do your job.”
Another pause, then a different voice, a woman’s, with a believable brogue: “Directory, which town, please?”
“Dun Laoghaire.”
“Yes. And who would you be wanting there?”
“There’s a grocer’s shop on the corner of Clarinda Park and Upper George’s Street, called Ansell’s, that stays open late. What’s their number?” It would be approaching ten P.M. in Ireland—five hours ahead of Pittsburgh time.
A long pause. “Ah, I don’t seem to have them listed anywhere. Are you sure it’s still there? It might have changed.”
“How about the New Delhi? It’s an Indian restaurant along the street.”
“No. I don’t have that either.”
Corrigan grinned. The system was throwing every obstacle at him that it could come up with. “Then tell me the number of the Kingston Hotel at the bottom of Adelaide Street.”
“A hotel is it, you said?” The system was trapped. Corrigan could sense it, there in the voice.
“Yes, the Kingston, on Adelaide Street. If that’s gone too, give me the number of the police station around the corner.”
He got the number, and after parting with a fistful of coins was through. “Is this the Kingston?” he inquired.
“Yes, it is,” a young woman’s voice replied.
“And are you at the reception desk there?”
“I am. Who’s this?”
“Just somebody who would appreciate it if you could help settle a small bet we’re having here. I wonder, would you mind stepping across the hall for a moment and looking out the front door to your right, and then describe to me what you can see?”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t be doing that.”
“Why not?”
“It’s, er . . . not company policy.”
Corrigan had to stifle a laugh. His eyes were watering. “Then tell me what the large picture is above the main bar in the lounge.”
“That was taken away, I’m afraid.”
“I’d like to have seen them do it. It’s painted on the ceiling.”
A sudden shrill tone announced a disconnection. “There seems to be a technical fault,” Corrigan was informed when he checked with the operator.
Still smiling, he went back to the bar with his drink. In a niche among the shelves of bottles, standing between a darts trophy and jar of ticket stubs, there was a figurine that he hadn’t noticed before. It was of an Irish leprechaun, complete with hat and pipe. “So, you’re still haunting me, eh, Mick?” he grunted as he sat down on the stool. It was uncannily like the one he had in his hallway at home.
Chapter Seventeen
The hills behind the Bay to the east looked invitingly sunbaked after the chill and wet of winter in Pennsylvania. Below, as the plane descended on its final approach into San Francisco International Airport, fingers of houses and marinas creeping outward along the water’s edge formed complex, convoluted patterns like frost on a windowpane.
Corrigan, looking casual in an open-neck shirt, light windbreaker, dove-gray jeans, and sneakers, slipped a hand over Evelyn’s and leaned closer. He had been more relaxed than she had ever known him, telling stories and cracking bad jokes all through the flight. “You know, Eric was right,” he said. “We’ve been cooped up inside CLC for too long, worrying about its politics. It’s not worth it. This is the kind of thing we should be making more time for. There might be something to be said for those old books of his after all. People need to get their values straight.”
She smiled and treated him to a look of mock superciliousness. “Why go back two thousand years to find that out? I’ve been telling you the same thing for ages.”
“Have you? I never noticed.”
“My point exactly.”
“Then you’re right too. Let the world be advised that Joseph M. Corrigan is switching to a lower-wattage lifestyle. The high-power stuff, I’ll leave to the Pinders and the Tyrons. And the blood pressure that goes with it.”