“What?” Lora burst out in horror.
“Happens all the time,” Danty said. passing his unhurt hand wearily over his face. “Shit, what you expect? We got three hundred sixty million people now, and no way out.”
There was silence among them. During it, they heard Magda’s voice.
“But how the hell did you get this number? It’s unlisted, and I never gave it to Avice!”
“Oh ” Danty said softly. “Not Molly. One of her patients-I mean clients. Mustn’t say `patient.’ You have to have a licence if you have patients.”
Magda again: “Yes! Yes, all right! Thanks for calling. But don’t use this number again. and above all don’t pass it on to anyone else, is that clear? I don’t want to have it changed againl”
And she came back, scowling.
“The Clarke woman?” Danty asked.
“Right in one.” She helped herself to more vodka and resumed her seat. “Husband’s been called back unexpectedly, so she won’t dare come here tomorrow. Christ, can you call that sort of thing a marriage? That’s what mine was like you know, why it broke up. I wasn’t allowed to do anything I thought of by myself, or I’d get kicked in the ass for my temerity.” She threw her liquor down her throat as though it would drown the memory.
“Dantyl” Lora said suddenly, jumping out of her chair and going to sit at his side. “Are you okay now? Feeling all right?”
“No.” Danty said. “I’m feeling lousy-what the hell do you expect, with a crack on the head and a knife-cut?” And relented reaching up to tousle her hair affectionately. “Don’t let it get you down, though. I’ve had worse things happen to me, and lived through them . . . . Say, Mag’1”
“Yes?”
“Could we like feed these people? Day’s wearing on, and all I had was brunch.”
“Well-”
“Hold it!” Sheklov interrupted. “I have a better idea. Why don’t we all eat dinner together? My expense. Lora, would you drive us somewhere? Like maybe out of town?”
“Oh, gread” Lora said. “Sure, wonderful! Danty?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say no, if we can find somewhere that doesn’t mind a mixed party,” Danty said after a pause. “What about you, Mag’?”
“I guess so,” she said. “Have to change clothes first, though, if we’re going any place-uh-respectable.”
“So will I,” Danty said, getting up. “But I sure wouldn’t refuse a square meal. Thanks, Don. We won’t be a moment.”
He caught Magda by the arm and escorted her through the curtain, out of sight.
The moment they were alone fn the sleeping alcove, she rounded on him. Very softly, but very ferociously, because this must not carry to the others, she said. “What the shit possessed you to walk into that much trouble?” She tapped his cut arm.
“Had to,” was the curt reply. “Just had to. Know what happened this afternoon? Turpin was called out from home to go somewhere very fast in an EG veetol. And I can guess where.”
“That reserved area?” Magda said, her eyes fixed on his drawn face.
“Where else? And for some reason it was more important for me to know that than for me to steer clear of where Josh and Shark and Potatohead might find me.”
There was an awful, dead pause.
“Remember what I said about getting scared?” Danty said at last. “What-what-what could be more important than my keeping alive? And I mean thatl They were going to cut me into little pieces, and no one would have tried to helpl It was just luck that there was a pig somewhere
around who wasn’t fond of them right now. I got the notion that Shark and Potatohead were like having a blow on the beach, and the pig moved them on. So when he saw them again . . .” A vague gesture. “That was all that saved me. I rode the hover line back here, bleeding all over the car, and you know, nobody even offered me a seat?”
“That’s America,” Magda said.
“Yes.” Danty turned away and pulled open the small built-in closet where his clothes were stored. “And you know something? 1 want out.”
“Where to? Africa? Look what happened to the people who went there in the black exodus!”