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He rose and headed for the door
"What do you want, Guilder?"
Thehis blood-red eyes
"What’s in it for you? I never could figure that out"
A long silence, then: "Do you knohat they are, Grey?"
"Of course I know"
But Guilder shook his head "No, you don’t If you did, you wouldn’t have to ask So I’ll tell you They’re the freest things on earth Without re can touch theine what that would be like, Lawrence The absolute freedoine hoonderful that would be"
Grey made no reply; there was none to be ive you my answer I hat they have I want that little whore out of "
The vase hit the wall in a satisfying explosion of glass The car bo was the last straw This had to end now
Guilder summoned Wilkes to his office By the tied to calm himself a little
"Round up ten more per day"
Wilkes seemed taken aback "Um, anybody in particular?"
"It doesn’t matter!" Jesus, soet it? It neverroll"
Wilkes hesitated "So you’re saying it should just be, you know, arbitrary Not people we suspect of having ties to the insurgency, necessarily"
"Bravo, Fred That’s exactly what I’ at Guilder with a bewildered look on his face Not bewildered: disturbed
"Yes? A to myself here?"
"If you say so I can work up a list and send it down the hill to HR"
"I don’t care how you do it Just put it together" Guilder tossed a hand toward the door "Now get out of here And send an attendant to clean up this mess"
Chapter 43
The route to Hollis was more circuitous than Peter had anticipated The trail had taken them first to a friend of Lore’s, who knew someone who knew someone else; always they seeet had moved
Their last lead directed the hall operated It was afterdown a dark, trash-strewn alley in H-town Curfew had long passed, but fro voices, the crash of glass, the tinkling of a piano
"Quite a place," Peter said
"You haven’t been here much, have you?" said Michael
"Not really Well, never, actually"
A shadowy figure stepped from a doorway into their path A woman
"Oye, mi soldadito Tienes planes esta noche?"
Shenor old, her body so thin it was nearly boyish, yet the sensual confidence of her voice and the way she stood-shifting froainst her tiny skirt-combined with the heavy-lidded declivity of her eyes, as they trolled the length of Peter’s body, to give her an undeniable sexual force
"Como te puedo ayudar, Teniente?"
Peter sed; his face felt war for Cousin’s place"
The woman smiled a row of silk-stained teeth "Everybody’s somebody’s cousin I can be your cousin if you want" Her eyes drifted to Lore, then Michael "And what about you, handsoirlfriend can coripped Michael by the ar for soave a dark laugh "Oh, it’s no trouble You change your"Nice fellow," Michael said
Peter glanced back down the alley The woman, or what he’d assumed was a woman, had faded back into the doorway
"I’ll be da his head "You really have to get out more often, hoht leaked frouard The three of the trash bin
"Better let ," Lore said
Peter shook his head "This was o"
"In that uniform? Don’t be ridiculous Stay with Michael And the two of you, try not to get picked up by any trannies"
They watched her ood idea?" Peter asked quietly
Michael held up a hand "Just wait"
At Lore’s approach the two ether to bar her entry A brief conversation ensued, beyond Peter’s hearing; then she returned
"Okay, we’re in"
"What did you tell theot paid And you’re drunk So try to act it"
The hut was crowded and loud, the space partitioned by large, hexagonal tables where cards were being dealt Clouds of silk s with the sour-sweet aroma of mash; there was a still nearby Half-dressed women-at least Peter took them to be women-were seated on stools at the periphery of the rooest couldn’t have been a day over sixteen, the oldest nearly fifty, haggish in her clownishin and out of a curtain at the back, usually in the arm-draped company of a visibly intoxicated man As Peter understood it, the whole idea of H-toas to overlook a certain aal vice but to cordon it off within a specific area He could see the logic-people were people-but staring it in the face was a different ht about hi, is it?" he asked Michael