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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] got Stinkfoot's kid brother. Besides " file:///F|/rah/Frederik%20Pohl/Pohl,%20Frederik%20&%20Kornbluth%20-%20Gladiato r-at-Law%20v1.0.txt (38 of 106) [2/4/03 10:02:59 PM] file:///F|/rah/Frederik%20Pohl/Pohl,%20Frederik%20&%20Kornbluth%20-%20Gladiato r-at-Law%20v1.0.txt "Shut your mouth about Stinkfoot's kid brother," Lana blazed. "You stay here; 111 talk to you when I get back." The boy cowered away. Lana called to the kids, "Bwuther wab-bits, inspection harms!" Jagged glass edges flashed. Norvell swallowed at what they implied. "Good kids," Shep cried, and handed Lana the fifty dollars. "Wa-wa-wa-wa-wabbit twacks!" She hooted mournfully, and the kids were gone, vanished back into the shrouding rain. Norvell swallowed his questions, trudging after Shep through the floods. He had learned that much, at least. The Resident Commissioner lived hi an ordinary house, to Norvell's surprise. He had expected the man who was responsible for the allowances of thousands of people to be living in a G.M.L.; certainly Ms rank entitled him to one. There were only twenty commissioners scattered through Belly Rave. Then Norvell saw the Resident Commissioner. He was a dreary old hack; he told Norvell dimly, "Carry your cards at all times. Be sure and impress that on your wife and the little girl. There's all kinds of work to getting duplicate cards, and you might go hungry for a week before they come through if you lose these. As head of the family you get a triple ration, and there's a separate one for the wife. Is the little girl a heavy eater?" Norvell guessed so. He nodded vaguely. "Well, we'll give her an adult ration then. Lord knows there's no shortage of food. Let's see, we'll make your hours of reporting on Wednesdays, between three and five. It's important to keep to your right hours, otherwise there's likely to be a big rush here sometimes, and nobody at all others. Is all that pretty clear? You'll find that it's mostly better to travel in groups when you come down for your allowance. Shep can tell you about that It it prevents trouble. We don't want any trouble here." He tried to look stern. And pathetically added, "Please don't make trouble in my district. There are nineteen others, aren't there?" He consulted a checklist, whispering to himself. "Oh. Your ration cards entitle you and the whole family to bleacher seats at all bouts and Field Days." Norvell's heart was torn by the words. The rest was a blur. "Free transportation, of course hope you'll avail yourself no use to stay home and brood little blood clears the air door always open " Outside in the rain Norvell asked Shep: "Is that all he does?" Shep looked at him. "Is there something else to do?" He swung around. "Let's get some firewood." Chapter Twelve As A DISAPPEARING ACT, it was a beaut. Mundin tried everything. No Norma Lavin. Gone.-After Ryan's phone call, the track was lost. Mundin went first to the police, of course, and when he told them Norma Lavin was a Belly Raver they tried not to laugh right in his face. "Look, mister," a kindly missing-persons sergeant explained. "People are one thing. Belly Ravers are something else. Are these people on the tax rolls? Do they have punch-card codes? Do they have employment-contract identification tattoos? No. No, they don't. So what can we do? We can find missing persons, sure, but this gal ain't a person. She's a Belly Raver." The sergeant shrugged philosophically. "Maybe she just took a notion to wander off. Maybe she's got her toes turned up Page 40 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html file:///F|/rah/Frederik%20Pohl/Pohl,%20Frederik%20&%20Kornbluth%20-%20Gladiato r-at-Law%20v1.0.txt (39 of 106) [2/4/03 10:02:59 PM] file:///F|/rah/Frederik%20Pohl/Pohl,%20Frederik%20&%20Kornbluth%20-%20Gladiato r-at-Law%20v1.0.txt in a vacant lot. Maybe not. We just wouldn't know, see?" But he kindly took Charles Mundin's name, just in case. However Mundin bought a gun and started his own inquiries in Belly Rave. Lots of people had seen Norma and her ancient Cadillac the day of the disappearance. But not afterward. And that was that It took a week, during which Mundin found himself making regular trips to the Lavin Ryan home loaded down with groceries. He also found that Ryan was tapping him for cash to feed his habit. Don Lavin was sinking into a kind of catatonia without his sister. Ryan, sometimes coldly confident with a bellyful of yen pox, other times devoured by the weeping shakes, begged Mundin to try something, anything. Mundin tried a doctor. The doctor made one visit during which Don Lavin, sparked by some flickering pride, rallied wonderfully and conversed good-humoredly with the doctor. The doctor left, with an indignant glare at Mundin, and Don lapsed back into his twilight gloom. "All right, Ryan," Mundin said bitterly, "now what?" ^ Ryan shook the last pill out of the tin, swallowed it, and told Mundin now what. And Mundin found himself calling on William Choate IV. Poor Willie's office was a little smaller than a landing field. He sprinted the length of it to embrace good old Charles. "Gosh," he burbled, "I'm so glad you could come and see me! They just put me in here, after old Sterling died. It used to be his office, see? So when he died, they put " "I see," Mundin said gently. "They put you in here." "Yep. Say, Charles, how about some lunch?" "Maybe. Willie, I need a little help." Willie said reproachfully, "Now, Charles, it isn't about a job, is it? Gee, that'd be an awful spot to put me in." Well, Mundin thought, they had succeeded in beating one thing into his head, though not two. "No," he said. "I just want a little advice. I'd like to know when and where the annual stockholder's meeting of G.M.L. Homes comes off." Willie said happily, "/ don't know. Don't they have to publish it somewhere? In a newspaper?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |