《Firewater 》作者：- William Tenn【EPUB】

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Firewater William Tenn The hairiest dirtiest and oldest of the three visitors from Arizona scratched his backagainst the plastic of the webfoam chair. quotInsinuations are lavender nearlyquot he re-marked byway of opening the conversation. His two companions—the thin young man with dripping eyes and the woman whose good looks weremarred chiefly by incredibly decayed teeth—giggled and re-laxed. The thin young man said quotGabble gabble honkquot under his breath and the other two nodded emphatically. GretaSeidenheim looked up from the tiny stenographic machine resting on a pair of the most excitingknees her employer had been able to find in Greater New York. She swiveled her blonde beauty athim. quotThat too Mr. Hebsterquot The president of Hebster Securities Inc. waited until the memory of her voice ceased totickle his ears he had much clear thinking to do. Then he nodded and said resonantly quotThattoo Miss Seidenheim. Close phonetic approximations of the gabble-honk and remember to indicatewhen it sounds like a question and when like an exclamation.quot He rubbed his recently manicured fingernails across the desk drawer containing his fully loadedParabellum. Check. The communication buttons with which he could summon any quantity of HebsterSecurities personnel up to the nine hun-dred working at present in the Hebster Building laysome eight inches from the other hand. Check. And there were the doors here the doors therebehind which his uni-formed bodyguard stood poised to burst in at a signal which would blazebefore them the moment his right foot came off the tiny spring set in the floor. And check.Algernon Hebster could talk business—even with Primeys. Courteously he nodded at each one of his visitors from Arizona he smiled rue-fully at whatthe dirty shapeless masses they wore on their feet were doing to the al-most calf-deep rug thathad been woven specially for his private office. He had greeted them when Miss Seidenheim hadescorted them in. They had laughed in his face. quotSuppose we rattle off some introductions. You know me. Im Hebster Algernon Hebster—youasked for me specifically at the desk in the lobby. If its important to the conversation mysecretarys name is Greta Seidenheim. And you sirquot He had addressed the old fellow but the thin young man leaned forward in his seat and held outa taut almost transparent hand. quotNamesquot he inquired. quotNames are round if not revealed.Consider names. How many names Consider names recon-sider namesquot The woman leaned forward too and the smell from her diseased mouth reached Hebster even acrossthe enormous space of his office. quotRabble