Heller said, "I'm talking about the Grabbe-Manhattan Bank!"
"Well, so am I," said Izzy. "You see, I could tell Grabbe-Manhattan that the corporation would continue to hold its gambling license. They thought they were at risk because the license was going to be revoked."
"Is that all?" said Heller.
"Not quite," said Izzy. "As the criminal charges they could have brought against Piegare no longer applied to the corporation-since it had been sold-I told them that if they didn't extend the loans, I would file bankruptcy and they'd lose everything. That's why I couldn't get here sooner. They have to have a bank directors' meeting on all matters that involve a billion dollars' worth of loans or more, and it took them until 10:00 A. M. trying to locate Rockecenter. But he and Bury are in China arranging peace and new oil monopolies and they had to go on without him. I'm sure he'll raise the roof when he gets back and finds out, but we got an extension on all corporation mortgages."
The Countess Krak opened the door and beckoned.
Izzy pushed Heller forward and cowered back. "You go," he said. "I'm too scared to face that howling mob!"
Heller walked out on the stage. Mamie Boomp was standing very tall and commanding. I suddenly understood her wearing a tattered workman's jacket. Sly psychology: it made her one of them. She had the audience dead silent. (Bleep) her performer's control of the house: not a single jeer greeted Heller, only silent, grim faces. It spoiled the moment for me. No tomatoes!
Mamie Boomp, in a resonant voice, shouted, "May I introduce to you the principal stockholder of this corporation: This sterling, this remarkable naval officer, brought to you at great expense, who has come sailing up in his shore boat just to talk to you today. I give you, now, the star of stars, the friend of presidents, the one, the only, the real JEROME TERRANCE WISTER!"
Tom-Tom, sitting at the traps, had begun a drum roll. It was crescendoing up.
Mamie, voice covered by the roll, said in Heller's ear, "Just say 'Yes. I approve.' And bow. That's all. Nothing else!"
With a mighty cymbal crash, the drum roll ended.
Heller, probably shattered by the cymbal crash and stunned unthinking by the vast and silent crowd, in a loud voice said, "Yes! I approve!"
He bowed.
The hall exploded!
PANDEMONIUM!
Hats and caps went sailing into the air.
Yells burst from the thousands of throats!
Then, like a pack of hurtling animals, they came over the backs of chairs and up and onto the stage in a screaming mob.
They seized Heller. They lifted him high on their shoulders. They walked him all around the stage and then down the steps and all around the convention hall.
And all the time they were screaming, "Hail the Chief!"
Abruptly the auditorium lights came on!
What must have been a stage electrician sprang up to a balcony platform and got a spotlight going. He threw it onto Heller and turned it blue and red and yellow and white. Then he must have heard a signal from Mamie for he swivelled it over onto her on the stage. She was holding her hands up to command attention. They lifted Heller up over the footlights and turned their faces to Mamie.
In a voice that would have made a Greek orator roll in his grave with envy, Mamie roared out, "Now, ladeeees and gentlemen, you proud employees of the newly named Lucky Bonanza Casino Corporation! Get the paddles chunking, the yachts flying! Get the Boardwalk swept and the dice and wheels rolling in the dough. Tote that barge and lift that roll! In short, as your president and general manager, I advise you to get back to work! What do you say?"
The crowd cheered! It rushed out of the auditorium, on its way.
Heller looked around at the deserted hall. He looked at Mamie and Tom-Tom and the Countess. He asked them, wonderingly, "What did I approve?"
The others had their minds on different things. Nobody answered.
Heller asked, "How did the lights come on?"
Tom-Tom stopped tightening a drumhead and looked at Heller timidly. He said, "I couldn't go to the utility company offices myself. I know as treasurer I should handle them, but I wouldn't know if I was paying the right bank notes out, so I sent the band leader. The lights, phone, water and furnaces should all be on shortly, as he keeps good time."
Heller looked around. "But they can't start gambling in the casinos or even make change in the stores. There isn't any cash."
The Countess Krak was at his elbow. "I didn't tell you, dear, as you seemed so busy. But I put three sacks of that money in a ventilator shaft. It's about a million and a half, they guess. I gave it to Mamie so she could get your corporation going."
Mamie said, "And it is really appreciated, honey. It's enough to pay utilities, get money in the cashier's cages and fill up the slot machines so we can start pulling in some dough."
Heller asked them, "What did I approve?"
But he was being pushed out of the auditorium by Mamie. They got to the lobby.
It was jammed with newly arriving people! MOBS! There were four long lines at the desk where clerks were swiftly checking them in.
Heller looked out a side window. The parking lot was jammed with newly arrived cars. And more were strung out down the road, honking their way forward inch by inch. He said to Mamie, "Why are all those people coming in?"
She said, as she pushed him up some steps, "I guess it's to see the scene of the battle. It's all over national TV. Burning tanks, exploding landing craft, shot-down planes. The wrecks are all out there, real and authentic, too! The PR people did a great job on press-agenting your taking Atlantic City by storm. They even used some film clips of the Normandy D-day landing in World War II. It's been on every network since midmorning. But Atlantic City press agents have always been tops."
I snorted. Atlantic City press agents be (bleeped). That was Madison!
The Countess Krak said, "Was there a battle, dear? I was in the laundry room and corridors. I did hear shooting. But I didn't know you'd been down on the beach."
They had reached the former office of capo Gobbo Piegare. Mamie inspected the place; she picked a beautifully sculpted black hand off the desk and dropped it in the wastebasket and dusted off her fingers. She then removed Heller's coat and sat down in the elegant, yellow desk chair. From it she had a view of the Boardwalk, which was getting noisier.
She tossed the jacket to Heller. "You sure are clever, sailor. Having a stand-in doing autographs for you. It can be pretty tiring, as stars like me know only too well. But listen, sailor: when you choose a double, pick one that looks more like you. I can't abide buckteeth."
"Double?" said Heller. "Where is the double?"
Oh, my Gods. I certainly smelled Madison here in his relentless search for front page.
"Why," said Mamie, "he's out there now on the Boardwalk, autographing like mad. Clever idea. Wears one out posing for TV crews. But the double is handling it well."
The Countess said, "So you don't have to go out, dear."
Heller peeked through the window down at the
Boardwalk. It was SWARMING with public and vendors and reporters and cameramen. The double, Madison's phony "Whiz Kid"-glasses, big jaw, buckteeth and all-was standing on a wrecked army-surplus tank while some effects man rekindled the flames within it.
"I sure won't," said Heller, flinching. He turned back into the room. "Will somebody please, please tell me what I approved?"
Mamie sat up in the sumptuous desk chair. "Well, you see, none of the staff has been paid for ages. And they know the corporation can't pay them and it's winter and there are no jobs open." She looked at him questioningly as if to say, did he really want to know?