Eventually the cab came. It swerved to the curb when I waved at it, the door sliding open as it stopped. Looked as if it worked the same way as the autocabs I remembered. The door stayed open while it checked the thumbprint to verify that I was the one who had called, then slammed shut. It was thick steel. The view through the windows was dim and distorted; probably thick bulletproof plastic. Not quite the same as I remembered.
I had to leaf through a grimy book to find the code for the address of the bar in Hyattsville where I was supposed to meet the dealer. I punched it out and sat back to watch the city go by.
This part of town was mostly residentiaclass="underline" grayed-brick warrens built around the middle of the last century competing for space with more modem modular setups and, occasionally, individual houses behind tall brick or concrete walls with jagged broken glass and barbed wire at the top. A few people seemed to be going somewhere, walking very quickly down the sidewalks, hands on weapons. Most of the people I saw were either sitting in doorways, smoking, or loitering around shopfronts in groups of no fewer than six. Everything was dirty and cluttered. The gutters were clotted with garbage, and shoals of waste paper drifted with the wind of the light traffic.
It was understandable, though; street-sweeping was probably a very high-risk profession.
The cab pulled up in front of Tom Jerry’s Bar and Grill and let me out after I paid 430x. I stepped to the sidewalk with my hand on the shotgun-pistol, but there was nobody around. I hustled into the bar.
It was surprisingly clean on the inside, dimly lit and furnished in fake leather and fake pine. I went to the bar and got some fake bourbon and, presumably, real water for 120K. The water cost 20K. A waitress came over with a tray.
“Pop one, brother-boy?” The tray had a rack of old-fashioned hypodermic needles.
“Not today, thanks.” If I was going to “pop one,” I’d use an aerosol. The needles looked unsanitary and painful.
She set the dope down on the bar and eased onto the stool next to me. She sat with her chin cupped in her palm and stared at her reflection in the mirror behind the bar. “God. Tuesdays.”
I mumbled something.
“You wanna go in back fer a quickie?”
I looked at her with what I hoped was a neutral expression. She was wearing only a short skirt of some gossamer material, and it plunged in a shallow V in the front, exposing her hipbones and a few bleached pubic hairs. I wondered what could possibly keep it up. She wasn’t bad looking, could have been anywhere from her late twenties to her early forties. No telling what they could do with cosmetic surgery and makeup nowadays, though. Maybe she was older than my mother.
“Thanks anyhow.”
“Not today?”
“That’s right.”
“I can get you a nice boy, if—”
“No. No thanks.” What a world.
She pouted into the mirror, an expression that was probably older than Homo sapiens. “You don’t like me.”
“I like you fine. That’s just not what I came here for.”
“Well … different funs for different ones.” She shrugged. “Hey, Jerry. Get me a short beer.”
He brought it.
“Oh, damn, my purse is locked up. Mister, can you spare forty calories?” I had enough ration tickets to take care of a whole banquet. Tore off a fifty and gave it to the bartender.
“Jesus.” She stared. “How’d you get a full book at the end of the month?”
I told her in as few words, as possible who I was and how I managed to have so many calories. There had been two months’ worth of books waiting in my mail, and I hadn’t even used up the ones the Force had given me. She offered to buy a book from me for ten grand, but I didn’t want to get involved in more than one illegal enterprise at a time.
Two men came in, one unarmed and the other with both a pistol and a riot gun. The bodyguard sat by the door and the other came over to me.
“Mr. Mandella?”
“That’s right.”
“Shall we take a booth?” He didn’t offer his name.
He had a cup of coffee, and I sipped a mug of beer. “I don’t keep any written records, but I have an excellent memory. Tell me what sort of a job you’re interested in, what your qualifications are, what salary you’ll accept, and so on.”
I told him I’d prefer to wait for a job where I could use my physics, teaching or research, even engineering. I wouldn’t need a job for two or three months, since I planned to travel and spend money for a while. Wanted at least 20,000K monthly, but how much I’d accept would depend on the nature of the job.
He didn’t say a word until I’d finished. “Righty-oh. Now, I’m afraid … you’d have a hard time, getting a job in physics. Teaching is out; I can’t supply jobs where the person is constantly exposed to the public. Research, well, your degree is almost a quarter of a century old. You’d have to go back to school, maybe five or six years.”
“Might do that,” I said.
“The one really marketable feature you have is your combat experience. I could probably place you in a supervisory job at a bodyguard agency for even more than twenty grand. You could make almost that much, being a bodyguard yourself”
“Thanks, but I wouldn’t want to take chances for somebody else’s hide.”
“Righty-oh. Can’t say I blame you.” He finished his coffee in a long slurp. “Well, I’ve got to run, got a thousand things to do. I’ll keep you in mind and talk to some people.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a few months.”
“Righty-oh. Don’t need to make an appointment. I come in here every day at eleven for coffee. Just show up.”
I finished my beer and called a cab to take me home. I wanted to walk around the city, but Mother was right. I’d get a bodyguard first.
9
I came home and the phone was blinking pale blue. Didn’t know what to do so I punched “Operator.”
A pretty young girl’s head materialized in the cube. “Jefferson operator,” she said. “May I help you?”
“Yes … what does it mean when the cube is blinking blue?”
“Huh?”
“What does it mean when the phone—”
“Are you serious?” I was getting a little tired of this kind of thing.
“It’s a long story. Honest, I don’t know.”
“When it blinks blue you’re supposed to call the operator.”
“Okay, here I am.”
“No, not me, the real operator. Punch nine. Then punch zero. ”
I did that and an old harridan appeared. “Ob-a-ray-duh.”
“This is William Mandella at 301-52-574-3975. I was supposed to call you.”
“Juzza segun.” She reached outside the field of view and typed something. “You godda call from 605-19-556-2027.”
I scribbled it down on the pad by the phone. “Where’s that?”
“Juzza segun. South Dakota.”
“Thanks.” I didn’t know anybody in South Dakota.
A pleasant-looking old woman answered the phone. “Yes?”
“I had a call from this number … uh … I’m—”
“Oh. Sergeant Mandella! Just a second.”
I watched the diagonal bar of the holding Pattern for a second, then fifty or so more. Then a head came into focus.
Marygay. “William. I had a heck of a time finding you.”
“Darling, me too. What are you doing in South Dakota?”
“My parents live here, in a little commune. That’s why it took me so long to get to the phone.” She held up two grimy hands. “Digging potatoes.”
“But when I checked … the records said — the records in Tucson said your parents were both dead.”
“No, they’re just dropouts — you know about dropouts? New name, new life. I got the word through a cousin.”