The Deaf Man’s source had worked with Florry on four break-ins over the past six months, and he’d told the Deaf Man that Florry knew everything there was to know about sound systems, that he worked well under pressure, and could also recite the names of all the hit songs and albums of every rock group there’d been for the past thirty years. The Deaf Man had been impressed—but he hadn’t realized then that Florry Paradise would still be wearing beads and a ponytail and a fringed deerskin vest while he reminisced about the good old days at Woodstock.
“I need an enormously sophisticated system,” he said.
“What are we talking about?” Florry asked. “Rap or real music?”
“Voice,” the Deaf Man said.
“You mean rap? This is for amplifying rap music?”
“No. It’s for amplifying a voice .”
“Well, that’s what rap is , am I right? Voices and drums, am I right? Like in the jungle.”
“Yes, but this won’t be rap. This will be a recorded voice . I’d need you to make the recording….”
“On tape? Or do we burn an EPROM?”
“I don’t know what that is,” the Deaf Man admitted. Nor did he know how you burned one.
“It’s an electronic chip. We’d digitally store the voice on it.”
“Well, whatever you think best.”
“But this won’t be rap, huh?”
The Deaf Man was ready to strangle him.
“Because this is a rap concert, am I right?” Florry said. “The one coming up in the park?”
“Rap and rock.”
“How big is that lawn?”
“A bit over ten acres.”
“They’ll be using stuff’ll blow away everything in sight. Woodstock, they didn’t even have any delay towers. You weren’t there, you really missed something. I got laid eight times in two days, did I tell you? The sound system there was primitive compared to what we got today. The stuff they’ll be using in the park’ll carry sound all over those ten acres and then some. You want this voice to go out over the speakers, is that it?”
“I want to drown out anything else that’s going on at the time. When we start the tape, or the chip, or whatever…”
“Will this be a delayed start, or what?”
“Yes, that’s what I’d like. I don’t want to be anywhere near the lawn when the tape starts.”
“That’s easy enough, I can rig that for you. You know…well, it depends, of course.”
“What were you about to say?”
“If you really want to do this right, let’s just knock out their signal and substitute yours for it.”
“That would be perfect.”
“But this would have to be after all their equipment is in place, you understand.”
“Yes.”
“They’ll probably be placing the stage, two, three days before the event. Do their equipment check the day before. What kind of fuzz will I have to worry about?”
“There shouldn’t be any additional police presence in the days preceding the concert. There’ll be a larger presence on the day itself…”
“Naturally.”
“…but the only thing we’ll have to worry about then is getting the tape started on cue….”
“That’ll be automatic.”
“Good.”
“So how many cops while I’m in there messing around?”
“I have no idea. My guess is you’ll have to worry more about private security guards. But I don’t think anyone will bother you. It’s been my experience that if a workman simply goes about his business, no one will bother him.”
“Mine, too. But these various groups, their own people might like challenge me, you know? Who’re you, man? What’re you doing here, man?”
“Tell them you’re with the parks department, setting up some noise-monitoring equipment for the parks commissioner. Tell them anything you like, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble, truly.”
“Just so they don’t go running to the cops, hey, there’s this honkie settin up shit here, he don’t belong to none of our groups.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Cause then, all of a sudden, I got fuzz wanting to know who I am and what I’m doing and I’m standin there with like my finger up my ass.”
“Would you like me to arrange some false identification for you?”
“A laminate would be terrific.”
“What’s a laminate?”
“Like a card covered with plastic, you wear it around your neck at these events, nobody bothers you.”
“Where would I get such a thing?”
“The promoter’s usually in charge of handing them out, they’re valuable as gold. Anybody asts you anything, you flash the laminate, they say Pass, friend, I go about my work. That’s if anybody asts me anything. Otherwise, I mind my own business, like you said, I don’t look for no trouble, I don’t get none.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“A laminate should be easy.”
“Maybe,” the Deaf Man said. He wasn’t at all sure it would be that easy. “Is there anything else you’ll need?”
“Yeah,” Florry said. “Money. We haven’t discussed money yet.”
“For wiring the job, fifty thousand.”
“That sounds low. In fact, that sounds very low, all the risks.”
“I don’t see any risks. If I can get the laminate for you…”
“Even with the laminate, I still see there could be risks. I’m in there working into these other guys’ shit, I can see risks.”
“You understand that the fifty is just for the wiring. On the day of the concert…”
“It’s still low for the wiring. Cause frankly, that’s the most exposure, when I’m out there placing the stuff. The day of the concert, I’m with you and the others, we’re like mutual protection. But when I’m placing the stuff and there’re cops wandering around looking over the progress of the work and whatnot, this is when there’s exposure, and exposure is risk. So I don’t know how much you had in mind for the day of the concert…”
“I had thirty in mind.”
He really had fifty in mind.
“Thirty’s fine for what has to be done that day,” Florry said, “if it’s as simple as you say it’s gonna be, but for the rigging beforehand I’d need at least another eighty.”
“Sixty is as high as I can go,” the Deaf Man said.
“Seventy-five’s my bottom line.”
“Let’s compromise at seventy and we’ve got a deal.”
“Seventy for the rigging plus thirty for later on.”
“A hundred altogether, yes.”
“Okay, we’ve got a deal at a hundred.”
Which was what the Deaf Man had planned to pay all along.
“When do you want to burn the EPROM?”
“The sooner the better.”
“Then let’s get it out of the way tomorrow sometime, okay? Can you stop by the shop like around eleven?”
“Eleven sounds fine.”
“Bring me ten K in cash,” Florry said, “the rest payable right after the gig. I should actually charge you more up front, cause that’s where the biggest risk is, when I’m in there fuckin up their work. But I’m being a good guy cause I think I’m gonna enjoy the challenge.”
“Thanks,” the Deaf Man said.
Dryly.
AT SIX P.M. on that rainy evening of March twenty-fifth, Sylvester Cummings, otherwise and preferably known as Silver Cummings, met the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.