— Yes…? no this is a hospital room who…
— Who Milliken? Have to do some damn arm twisting, had his law firm out there retained by this Alsaka outfit of theirs didn’t he? Still sore the way they blew the corner off his state didn’t lose any damn constituents did he? few sheep and Indians no damn reason to get so… who that damn bunch camped out down below there? Whole treaty abrogated Bureau of Land Management’s got every damn right to lease it out for ninety-ni… still wards of the damn government aren’t they? Damn lawsuit even if they won it BIA still their guardian’s got to give them permission to spend every damn nickel don’t it? Meet their damn legal responsibilities litigation keep them busy the next ten years BIA break-in, stolen car transported across state lines did in a salesman out there even got his fine boy in the hospital heard one of them assaulted a federal marshal with a damn hair dryer, add on their court costs in this suit with these bankrupt cement companies over their original treaty reservation won’t have a pot left to… Any that wants to stay there fine stay there and work, heard they’re starting to pull out lowgrade coal plenty of damn work for everybody why I want this damn… no got Beaton up here on it now like something a damn monkey put to… know the figures are incomplete damn it that’s the what…? Never heard of it hold on, Beaton?
— I never have no, just a minute…
— Beaton! Wants the assets of J R Shipping Corp some query on a six percent subsidy, who the devil’s that.
— A Mister just a minute I said! yes sir it’s right here with, most of the parent company employees seem to have been on the payroll but the only asset I’ve uncovered is a here it is yes, a vessel under construction designated hull number three five nine seven now lying in damaged condition in the vicinity of Mile sixteen point six Galveston River approximately four mi…
— Broos? Beaton still digging up the figures on it sounds like the kind of stunt they tried to pull at the last minute there loading their Ray-X payroll with everybody in this damn fool family of companies right down to the scrubwomen build up their overhead on these cost-plus contracts looked like they had half the damn country working on them, they… Know that damn it so’s the damn bank, can’t expect us to keep nursing it can you? Thought maybe Typhon could take it on Beaton tells me we’d run straight into antitrust only other damn thing’s DOD, already tied up in these cost overruns and… Well by God whose damn fault’s that! DOD’s projects aren’t they? DOD contracts aren’t they? So damn tied up in it cost overruns all the rest let them take over the whole shooting match can’t expect the stockholders to… no reason the damn Army can’t do it under the War Powers Act is there? buy up all the Ray-X preferred like the damn Navy did this Long Island defense plant here two or three years ago? No dividend nonvoting nonconvertible company redeems it in five years from after-tax prof… well why the devil’d you think I told you to hold up this damn vote, arms procurement budget this size you can damn well squeeze in this many million nobody look at it twice…
— Excuse me could we put up the phone now? The patient…
— Water somebody get me some water…
— Damn it Beaton come back here with that! Broos… Didn’t hear you no, who… can’t take time to open that damn can of worms now just had Monty on the phone here nuisance over this tv channel point is who’s the damn applicants, stunt that peachy little wop just pulled probably expects to run for president stays out of jail we can stick him in a judgeship out here in… to call who? By God no wouldn’t ask a dog to appoint him, just get him the damn nomination tenth judicial district march right up and elect him been voting the straight ticket out there since McKin… know that damn it but he’s tied up with this Flo-Jan outfit that’s applying for this damn tv channel out there isn’t he? Him and this Whitefoot whatever his fool name is pull his damn bank out of the hole find him a berth on the FCC don’t know enough to keep his damn fool mouth… Well by God don’t talk to me about interference somebody has to hold things together that’s why damn it! Most of the damn trouble in the world’s made by damn fools with nothing to do have to give them something to do to keep them off the damn streets and I’m by God sick and tired of hearing them bite the damn hand that feeds them hear me? Only damn reason they think something’s worth doing’s they get paid to do it, make a nickel and they march around show off their damn cars ranch splits backyard pools outboard boats kids eating peanut butter take credit like they was the ones invented their success by their own damn selves don’t see me in a damn backyard pool do you? don’t see me taking vacations do you? Somebody don’t spend every damn minute working to hold the whole damn thing together for them they’ll be squatting in tents on the White House lawn make Coxey’s Army look like a damn Sunday school picnic by God Broos don’t talk to me about interference! Politicians can’t make up your damn minds take your winnings with one hand got the other one out shaking every fool hand you can grab still want to be liked well by God I made that choice eighty years ago never been here damn it give me that!
— Now now let’s act our age let go of the…
— Here nurse give me the, hello? Senator? Yes sir he’s going up in just a minute, he’s… to call you later sir I’m sure he will, goodbye…
— Some, water…!
— Go up when I’m damn ready! Beaton? What’s that other call.
— That was Mister Leva again sir, he…
— Get that damn payment stopped?
— No sir it was too late Mister Crawley had already nego…
— Drop in the damn bucket won’t do Crawley any good will it? Find out where he got the title to that damn music in the first place?
— No sir he said he’d commissioned it but…
— Could you get your briefcase out of the way sir? We’re…
— Watch my damn foot there! What the devil’d this Leva want.
— He’s furious because the new management has told Erebus to fire him sir, he insists this Mister Grynszpan assured him he…
— Thirty damn million not enough to waste on one picture goes out spends another sixty thousand on music for it I’m the one fired him damn it, thought we’d put this Grynszpan in there he bought them the damn outfit didn’t he? Deals he worked out sound like he might have a crackerjack mind help untangle the whole damn thing told you to get me the story on him didn’t I?
— Yes sir in fact there’s been speculation he may have been the éminence grise behind the company’s meteoric expansion, he seems to have led quite a varied career. According to yesterday’s paper he developed the Grynszpan theory of common foci and was engaged in a major work on mechanization and the arts, he apparently worked his way through Harvard selling encyclopedias and has left them a vast sum in securities and real estate although when the will was probated both the IRS and the Edison Comp…
— Will was what? mean he’s dead damn it?
— He’s reported to have died suddenly in Yucatan of leuk…
— Dead what damn good is he! damn it Beaton what’s…
— Joe just get the foot of the bed there and…
— Water…?
— By God damn it Beaton? Where the devil are you, want you to get that damn stockholder letter out while I’m up there Beaton hear me? Want you to look into the ownership on the shirttail family outfit in that damn patent suit have it ready when I come down hear me? Get that damn JMI stock out where we can get at it hear me? Court decision goes the wrong way whoever’s sitting on that JMI stock still give this shirttail outfit one hell of a fight on appeal, too damn much at stake here for any slipups you get that JMI out where we’ve got our damn hands on it hear me Beaton? Where the devil…