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your while. I never hit. Bad percentage. I m aware of that, which is why you re here under gentle persuasion. You must find and hit Curzon, Great Capo. Why me? I can put you onto twenty killers. To be sure, but none with your integrity. An essential part of the contract must be that it can never be traced to me. I can trust no jimp except you. Find and hit Edward Curzon, Great Capo. How did you snatch me on the Chalice job? I set it up. I also have ingenuity. Now be reconciled. You must find and hit Edward Curzon. Suppose I agree. I can always sell you out, the way that bitch sold me. No. Your word is your bond. That s why you re here. Think about Curzon, Great Capo. When you re ready to agree, we ll talk. Surely you must have run across the name during your brilliant career. The name or something like it. Search your mind, Great Capo. Think hard. Curzon? Or something like it? Curzon, Curzon, or something like it? The Capo thought hard. How many did he know in the Belly? There was Cur the Lion. Not worth hitting. A cheap jimpster who only worked a cold house. Larry the Lace Curtain. A society goniff who reported the comings and goings of the heeled for a rotten two percent. A shroff named Chan Kersey, who sold his chop to the counterfeit crowd. Curmin the Vermin, who ran a decoy swindle outside the legit gambling houses. Yellow Kid Kurze, who operated a big store in an abandoned bank building. Nowhe sounded likely, but the Kid was gentle and harmless. The woman came in, balancing a plate of food and that goddamn runcible spoon. There was a hard gale and she had to balance herself against the lurch of the goddamn schooner, clutching at whatever was handy. Nevertheless she was thrown and the plate went up out of her hand. She was quick on her feet and poised when it came down, still right-side-up. She caught it, smiled at Capo Rip, and even winked. Krijeeze! I yelled. The Sèvres! Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html She stared at me. I stared at her. Wait a M, I said. You re not my Nat. You can t be. I saw her die this morning. Who areyou? She threw herself on me and began to cry and shriek like the wolfman was fanging her. Words finally came out of the screams, Hilly! Hilly! Quick! He s found Edward Curzon. The Jew rushed down into the cabin, clutching at anything. He stepped on the plate and crunched it. Hi, Guig, he said. My foot is full of beans. What the hell is going on? Half hour ago I saw Natoma die in Charleston. Now here she is with me on this thing that rocks and Schooner, Hilly said. All sail; no machines. We re on Lake Mitchigan. And here you are and God knows who else and what else. Natoma, I love you as always forever, but give me a little breath space. I have to ask questions. Hilly, there s no Lake Mitchigan. It s gone the way of Erie. Not quite yet. There s a hundred-mile puddle left, and here we are in the middle where we can t be monitored. How the hell did you get me here so fast, Hilly? Yes, it was fast, the Jew conceded. It only took three months. Three You see, Mrs. Curzon? I warned you it would be total amnesia. Do you mean to tell me that I get off me, Nat. I ve got to get up. They unlock and I up, not feeling v. flippant. You d better tell me the whole story, I said. It couldn t be simpler, Guig. The linear explosion and what you thought was your wife s death knocked you into a massive epileptic seizure. I came out of it? Not into sanity; into epileptic delirium. Complete loss of memory. Complete loss of moral control. Complete loss of humanity. Dio! And then? You became Capo Rip. Who? The most vicious jimpster in the Underbelly. There s no point in trying to restore your memory of that. I wouldn t if I could. Best forgotten forever. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html In other words, I turned into another vicious Sequoya. Don t say that, Glig. I do say it. He tried to kill me. He nearly killed you. What saved you? You took too long, so I got off the linear to join you just before lift. The explosion knocked me unconscious. By the time they found me in the wreckage you were gone. And then? I recruited four feisty braves from the reservation and we found you in the Belly. Then I found Hilly in GM and told him everything I knew. He set this up. I gave Natoma a hard look. I m sorry. I m going to hit our brother. Please, Glig, no. Don t be Capo Rip anymore. I have to hit our brother. The Group won t stand for one of us killing another, Hilly said. No? If Guess d blown me up, plenty of them would have cheered. And if you kill Guess? More cheers. And what do you intend to do with the mystery renegade? Send him to a shrink? Protective custody? Therapeutic recycling? But Guig, you gave Sequoya perpetual life. Yes, by killing him once. Now I m going to take back the gift by killing him again. I m an Indian giver. I aimed a finger at Natoma. And I don t care if it destroys my marriage. Natoma turned to the Hebe in despair. Hilly. Help. I can t, love. He s generated the purpose I talked about on the Heath, and now he s too much for us to control. Don t you see it? Gottenu! I never thought he would turn so savage. He actually scares me. What did you shoot me with to bring me out of this? I asked. You re behind the times. We don t inject anymore; we use estrogens. What was it? Let s get something straight, Hillel said in level tones. You re feeling your new muscle now, but don t try to clout on me. It s none of your business what I used to bring you out of the delirium. The whole event has got to be forgotten. I can t control you, but by God you can t control me. Either we confer as equals or get the hell out of here. You can swim to shore. He was right. I gave him an apology bow. Gung. Have you located the Chief? Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Y. With your help. Mine? Imposs. I never got near him. Where is he? About a quarter of a mile below us. What! In the lake? Under the lake. Expound. The network tried to keep you out of Tchicago, and me out of GM. What connection could there be between the two? That gave me the third possibility I was hoping for. GM used to be a city named Detroit. There are hundreds and hundreds of miles of exhausted salt mines under Detroit, leading all the way to Tchicago. I was prowling one end and you were threatening to get to the other. Dr. Guess and his creatures must be somewhere in the middle. Possibly just underneath us. How could he get the capsule into the mine shafts? They re not shafts; they have the dimensions of boulevards. Why the demand for salt? They used an extraction process. Sodium for energy. Ah! And the Chief is probably tapping the original power lines for his damned capsule. Possibly. As equal to equal, Hilly, first things first. Y? Y. We have got to pinpoint Guess. I want a look at him and his freaks. Agreed. The hit comes later. Shut up, Nat. Any job needs careful casing. Now you sound like Capo Rip. Whether I remember him or not, a part of him must still be with me. I can see that. Do we work together or from opposite ends? I would say opposites. [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |
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