MINUS 097 AND COUNTING

A hard, callused hand slapped his shoulder at the head of the hall beyond the desks. “Card, buddy.”

Richards showed it. The cop relaxed, his face subtle and Chinese with disap­pointment.

“You like turning them back, don’t you?” Richards asked. “It really gives you a charge, doesn’t it?”

“You want to go downtown, maggot?”

Richards walked past him, and the cop made no move.

He stopped halfway to the bank of elevators and looked back. “Hey. Cop.”

The cop looked at him truculently.

“Got a family? It could be you next week.”

“Move on!” the cop shouted furiously.

With a smile, Richards moved on.

There was a line of perhaps twenty applicants waiting at the elevators. Richards showed one of the cops on duty his card and the cop looked at him closely. “You a hardass, sonny?”

“Hard enough,” Richards said, and smiled.

The cop gave him back his card. “They’ll kick it soft again. How smart do you talk with holes in your head, sonny?”

“Just about as smart as you talk without that gun on your leg and your pants down around your ankles,” Richards said, still smiling. “Want to try it?”

For a moment he thought the cop was going to swing at him. “They’ll fix you,” the cop said. “You’ll do some walking on your knees before you’re done.”

The cop swaggered over to three new arrivals and demanded to see their cards.

The man ahead of Richards turned around. He had a nervous, unhappy face and curly hair that came down in a widow’s peak. “Say, you don’t want to antagonize them, fella. They’ve got a grapevine.”

“Is that so?” Richards asked, looking at him mildly.

The man turned away.

Abruptly the elevator doors snapped open. A black cop with a huge gut stood protecting the bank of push buttons. Another cop sat on a small stool reading a 3­D pervert mag in a small bulletproof cubicle the size of a telephone booth at the rear of the large car. A sawed‑off shotgun rested between his knees. Shells were lined up beside him within easy reach.

“Step to the rear!” the fat cop cried with bored importance. “Step to the rear! Step to the rear!”

They crowded in to a depth where a deep breath was impossible. Sad flesh walled Richards on every side. They went up to the second floor. The doors snapped open. Richards, who stood a head taller than anyone else in the car, saw a huge waiting room with many chairs dominated by a huge Free‑Vee. A cigarette dispenser stood in one corner.

“Step out! Step out! Show I.D. cards to your left!”

They stepped out, holding out their I.D. cards to the impersonal lens of a cam­era. Three cops stood close by. For some reason, a buzzer went off at the sight of some dozen cards, and the holders were jerked out of line and hustled away.

Richards showed his card and was waved on. He went to the cigarette machine, got a package of Blams and sat down as far from the Free‑Vee as possible. He lit up a smoke and exhaled, coughing. He hadn’t had a cigarette in almost six months.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 723