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gotten away clear?"
"It bothered me when you found my workshop, dear," he told her. "This is to
make sure nothing like that happens again."
Trocadero said, "You have my word that nothing is going to"
"I also have my gadget, Johnny," he said. "Oh, and by the way. I want a
bonus for this job up here."
"Why the hell for?" asked Yedra.
"Because somebody was tailing me--I don't know if it's somebody who's working
for you or some kind of cop," Quadrill told her. "Pudgy guy, around fifty,
with a couple of chins."
"You're the only one we sent up to the Movie Palace, Austin," she assured him.
"This gentleman arrived shortly after I did," said Quadrill, smiling another
small, narrow smile. "But I didn't have any trouble eluding him. It meant
extra work though, hence extra money."
"Forget about your damn money," said Trocadero. "I don't want Yedra to suffer
any more pain from--"
"Lay off, Johnny," she told him. "You win, Austin."
Quadrill held up a small silvery control panel. "Just a little reminder," he
said, and touched one of the keys.
"Oh, Jesus!" The young woman bent over, her head nearly hitting the table.
"Start getting my noney ready." Quadrill's image left the phone screen
The big blonde woman in the dark blue uniform asked Gomez, "Well, which one?"
He shifted slightly in the rail car seat beside her. "The wide brimmed hat,"
he said with very little enthusiasm.
"Instead of this cap with the tassel?"
"If you prefer that one," he said, some impatience in his voice, "then go
ahead and wear it."
"What I'd appreciate knowing, Mr. Gomez, is your preference." She removed
the cap with the tassel and replaced it with the wide-brimmed hat.
"My preference, Segorita Kording, is that we get rolling through the innards
of the satellite, muy pronto."
The small rail car was sitting on the narrow left-hand track at the mouth of
one of the many long dim-lit tunnels that crisscrossed the interior of the
orbiting Movie Palace.
"Since you're bribing me an impressive amount to do this--and I do appreciate
Wolfe Bosco's recommending me for the job I want to make sure there's nothing
about my appearance and attire that rubs you the wrong way."
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"Okay, wear the cap."
"It's simply that all of us who work in Interior Maintenance have the option
of wearing either the cap or the hat. Which is why I--"
"Okay, wear the hat."
Nodding, Maybelle Kording tugged down on the brim of the hat, rubbed her
gloved hands together and started the closed little car. "I've got all the
two-way windows blanked so nobody can see inside," she told the detective.
"If you stay scrunched low in your seat, we'll be okay."
The car rolled a hundred yards and then Maybelle stopped it. She slid her
left hand out through a narrow flap in her side window, pressed her palm
against a glowing panel on the wall. The wall voxbox said, "Cleared,
proceed."
Shortly, Gomez inquired, "You're certain that Natalie Dent is being held in a
room off Tunnel 30?"
"I confirmed that right after Wolfe Bosco contacted me," she answered.
"You'll be able to get me inside there?"
"Not a prob len Mr. Gomez," assured Maybelle with a positive nod.
"Hold on a sec."
The rail car stopped again, she pressed her palm against another
identification panel. "Cleared, proceed."
"All the highest-ranking Interior Maintenance people can get into any of the
rooms down here."
"I have to get in and out," he reminded.
"Well, I wouldn't have accepted the bribe, Mr. Gomez, if I wasn't sure
I could deliver," she said.
She stopped again, held out her hand.
"Cleared, proceed."
Maybelle said, "Have you known Wolfe Bosco long?" "Many a year, s."
"The poor man doesn't seem to enjoy his current job."
"I'm not enjoying my current job all that much," admitted Gomez, sinking lower
in his seat.
floor as he went striding across the big room, accompanied by Lana
Chen and la mon lodriguez.
Far below in the huge oval holostage area the towers and pedramps of
Manhattan's Times Square section showed. Snaking through the center of the
simulated section of the metropolis was a narrow see-through plastiglass
tunnel, filled at the moment by more than two hundred tourists moving slowly,
single-file, and gawking.
Flying in low between the towering buildings came a half-dozen silvery saucer
craft. Crackling crimson beams came shooting from their underbellies. They
sliced through the bodies of the civilians who seemed to be running along the
ramps seeking shelter. Chunks of the buildings were bitten away, too, and
went falling and tumbling.
"Hokum." Marriner stopped, hands on hips, and frowned downward.
"It's one of our most popular attractions." Ftodriguez was a glossy, handsome
man with considerable dark wavy hair.
"Just watch this bit now." Marriner pointed with his boot toe at a saucer
that was landing in the street. A silvery side door flapped
open and a squat greenish creature with a huge top-heavy head and four arms
came hopping clear, brandishing several odd-looking lazrifles.
"God-awful," observed Marriner.
"It's supposed," explained Rodriguez, "to be a Martian invader."
"I know what it's supposed to be, Ramon. But it's trite, much too close to
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