“Certainly.” Killian stood and offered his hand again.
Richards disregarded it again, and walked out.
Killian looked after him and with blank eyes. He was not smiling.
Minus 086 and COUNTING
The receptionist popped promptly out of her foxhole as Richards walked through and handed him an envelope. On the front:
Mr. Richards,
I suspect one of the things that you will not mention during our interview is the fact that you need money badly right now. Is it not true?
Despite rumors to the contrary, Games Authority does not give advances. You must not look upon yourself as a contestant with all the glitter that word entails. You are not a Free-Vee star but only a working joe who is being paid extremely well for undertaking a dangerous job.
However, Games Authority has no rule which forbids me from extending you a personal loan. Inside you will find ten percent of your advance salary-not in New Dollars, I should caution you, but in Games Certificates redeemable for dollars. Should you decide to send these certificates to your wife, as I suspect you will, she will find they have one advantage over New Dollars; a reputable doctor will accept them as legal tender, while a quack will not.
Sincerely,
Dan Killian
Richards opened the envelope and pulled out a thick book of coupons with the Games symbol on the vellum cover. Inside were forty-eight coupons with a face value of ten New Dollars each. Richards felt an absurd wave of gratitude toward Killian sweep him and crushed it. He had no doubt that Killian would attach four hundred and eighty dollars of his advance money, and besides that, four-eighty was a pretty goddam cheap price to pay for insurance on the big show, the continued happiness of the client, and Killian’s own big-money job.
“Shit,” he said.
The receptionist poked attentively out of her foxhole. “Did you say something, Mr.
337
Richards?”
“No. Which way to the elevators?
Minus 085 and COUNTING
The suite was sumptuous.
Wall-to-wall carpeting almost deep enough to breast stroke in covered the floors of all three rooms: living room, bedroom, and bath. The Free-Vee was turned off; blessed silence prevailed. There were flowers in the vases, and on the wall next to the door was a button discreetly marked SERVICE. The service would be fast, too, Richards thought cynically. There were two cops stationed outside his ninthfloor suite just to make sure he didn’t go wandering.
He pushed the service button, and the door opened. “Yes, Mr. Richards,” one of the cops said. Richards fancied he could see how sour that Mister tasted in his mouth. “The bourbon you asked for will be-”
“It’s not that,” Richards said. He showed the cop the book of coupons Killian had left for him. “I want you to take this somewhere.”
“Just write the name and address, Mr. Richards, and I’ll see that it’s delivered.”
Richards found the cobbler’s receipt and wrote his address and Sheila’s name on the back of it. He gave the tattered paper and the coupon book to the cop. He was turning away when a new thought struck Richards. “Hey! Just a second!”
The cop turned back, and Richards plucked the coupon book out of his hand. He opened it to the first coupon, and tore one tenth of it along the perforated line. Equivalent value: One New Dollar.
“Do you know a cop named Charlie Grady?”
“Charlie?” The cop looked at him warily. “Yeah, I know Charlie. He’s got fifth-floor duty. ”
“Give him this.” Richards handed him the coupon section. “Tell him the extra fifty cents is his usurer’s fee.”
The cop fumed away again, and Richards called him back once more.
“You’ll bring me written receipts from my wife and from Grady, won’t you?”
Disgust showed openly on the cop’s face. “Ain’t you the trusting soul?”
“Sure,” Richards said, smiling thinly. “You guys taught me that. South of the Canal you taught me all about it.”
“It’s gonna be fun,” the cop said, “watching them go after you. I’m gonna be glued to my Free-Vee with a beer in each hand.”
“Just bring me the receipts,” Richards said, and closed the door gently in the cop’s face.
The bourbon came twenty minutes later, and Richards told the surprised delivery man 338
that he would like a couple of thick novels sent up.
“Novels?”
“Books. You know. Read. Words. Movable press.” Richards pantomimed flipping pages.
“Yes, sir,” he said doubtfully. “Do you have a dinner order’?”
Christ, the shit was getting thick. He was drowning in it. Richards saw a sudden fantasy-cartoon: Man falls into outhouse hole and drowns in pink shit that smells like Chanel No. 5. The kicker: It still tastes like shit.
“Steak. Peas. Mashed potatoes. ” God, what was Sheila sitting down to? A protein pill and a cup of fake coffee? “Milk. Apple cobbler with cream. Got it?”
“Yes, sir. Would you like-”
“No. ” Richards said, suddenly distraught. “No. Get out. ” He had no appetite.
Absolutely none.
Minus 084 and COUNTING
With sour amusement Richards thought that the Games bellboy had taken him literally about the novels: He must have picked them out with a ruler as his only guide.
Anything over an inch and a half is okay. He had brought Richards three books he had never heard of: two golden oldies titled God Is an Englishman and Not as a Stranger and a huge tome written three years ago called The Pleasure of Serving. Richards peeked into that one first and wrinkled his nose. Poor boy makes good in General Atomics. Rises from engine wiper to gear tradesman. Takes night courses (on what? Richards wondered, Monopoly money?). Falls in love with beautiful girl (apparently syphilis hadn’t rotted her nose off yet) at a block orgy. Promoted to junior technico following dazzling aptitude scores. Three-year marriage contract follows, and-Richards threw the book across the room. God Is an Englishman was a little better.
He poured himself a bourbon on the rocks and settled into the story.
By the time the discreet knock came, he was three hundred pages in, and pretty well in the bag to boot. One of the bourbon bottles was empty. He went to the door holding the other in his hand. The cop was there. “Your receipts, Mr. Richards,” he said, and pulled the door closed.
Sheila had not written anything, but had sent one of Cathy’s baby pictures. He looked at it and felt the easy tears of drunkenness prick his eyes. He put it in his pocket and looked at the other receipt. Charlie Grady had written briefly on the back of a traffic ticket form:
Thanks, maggot. Get stuffed.
Charlie Grady
Richards snickered and let the paper flitter to the carpet. “Thanks, Charlie,” he said to the empty room. “I needed that.”
He looked at the picture of Cathy again, a tiny, red-faced infant of four days at the 339
time of the photo, screaming her head off, swimming in a white cradle dress that Sheila had made herself. He felt the tears lurking and made himself think of good old Charlie’s thank-you note. He wondered if he could kill the entire second bottle before he passed out, and decided to find out.
He almost made it.
Minus 083 and COUNTING
Richards spent Saturday living through a huge hangover. He was almost over it by Saturday evening, and ordered two more bottles of bourbon with supper. He got through both of them and woke up in the pale early light of Sunday morning seeing large caterpillars with flat, murderous eyes crawling slowly down the far bedroom wall. He decided then it would be against his best interests to wreck his reactions completely before Tuesday, and laid off the booze.
This hangover was slower dissipating. He threw up a good deal, and when there was nothing left to throw up, he had dry heaves. These tapered off around six o’clock Sunday evening, and he ordered soup for dinner. No bourbon. He asked for a dozen neo-rock discers to play on the suite’s sound system, and tired of them quickly.
He went to bed early. And slept poorly.
He spent most of Monday on the tiny glassed-in terrace that opened off the bedroom.
He was very high above the waterfront now, and the day was a series of sun and showers that was fairly pleasant. He read two novels, went to bed early again, and slept a little better. There was an unpleasant dream: Sheila was dead, and he was at her funeral.
Somebody had propped her up in her coffin and stuffed a grotesque corsage of New Dollars in her mouth. He tried to run to her and remove the obscenity; hands grabbed him from behind. He was being held by a dozen cops. One of them was Charlie Grady. He was grinning and saying: “This is what happens to losers, maggot. ” They were putting their pistols to his head when he woke up.