Heh, so, what’s up? I pointed my chin at David. He lay there, head propped on the table, bandaged thumbs dangling down at the end of his arms. Bohler walked over to him and put them up on the table. His arms seemed unnaturally long for his frame, but it was probably just the gauze. He didn’t move.
He’s in bad shape, said Sharky. It took a lot out of him.
Sharky was on the pale side too, gnawing his nails in the chink of his razor-sharp face.
Micka! Buddy, pseudodroog, you look awful!
The helmsman had aged. His glow was gone. He smiled wearily.
I’ll run through it one more time for Potok’s sake, least it’ll gimme a chance to get used to it.
First of all, the hitlers destroyed all our papers, apart from what we’ve got in the safe-deposit box at Early Bird Megabank … but they made off with all the cash, that means operations, salaries, bonuses, miscellaneous … a couple m., fine, that’s my fault …
Aw baloney, said Sharky.
Nonsense, said Bohler.
I shook my head.
All right, it’s not … but Early Bird was a front for Salman Brothers, an those guys went under, our rating from the computer samurai was quite unparalleled, you see. The bank flopped worldwide. Bad luck, maybe I should’ve looked into em more …
Did what cha could, pseudodroog, no one doubts it, said Sharky, the foreign minister.
Bog giveth, Bog taketh away, I accept it in peace, said Bohler.
Yes, I said. What’s up with David, has Hradil seen him?
Just wait, we’ll get to that, said Micka.
Where’re the girls? I asked.
They left for the Laosters’, they can wait till the Zone’s cleaned out, but …
The Laosters’re all gone?
No, Hunter’s around, that’s on the agenda, but wait … basically, Potok, we’re wiped out! Micka roared.
I didn’t realize, you know? An today I met … my sister …
You’ve got a sis? someone asked.
Yeah! Yeah, but apologies.
There’s money scattered around various banks, except that as you know most of it’s in receivables, the big invoices can wait, you know how it is, but we’re swimmin in little ones, yep, of course then there’s bonds an principals …
I didn’t understand a word, and Bohler was nodding but I could tell his mind was elsewhere. Sharky was probably the only one who had a clue.
… so it’ll take all the gold we have to keep the fabrics in motion, an not for long. So that 5 m.’s actually all there is, an that’s goin to the Zone, an Rudolf knows it, so we can take our pick. Bust, or jail, or both, or bust.
What jail? I perked up a little.
Goldie tricked us. Micka said gloomily. It was real simple. Bought off customs an probly also had a deal with Rudolf, I’m just guessin on that. Those gadgets weren’t clean.
Yeah, they never were, I said.
Micka raised his eyes to the sky. He doesn’t get it. You’re out of it. Nothin we did was totally clean, but the way that Goldie breached the contract it put us in breach too, there’s nothin we can do. That’s the way it is. The stuff didn’t come here in the gadgets from Thailand, we were watchin for that, it went from here over there!
The era is overtaking us, Bohler said thoughtfully.
That’s intense! I had to say something.
That Goldie’s a real scumbag, said Sharky.
In other words warpath, I said, but I felt fatigue.
No. First of all, he’s gone, Micka continued, disappeared as soon as he got us, an second, it already happened. We’re defenseless against him.
I was surprised but relieved.
But now comes the main thing, Micka said. We dissolved the contract.
No way, my throat constricted.
Micka went on: Me an Sharky made a move with that water mill you were working as the interpreter on with Lady Laos …
But I always said it was a power plant!
Same difference, said Micka, it’s an outstanding government liability … it sat in the Sudan for years, they had a war there, as I’m sure you know, an the new government refused to pay the debt … it was available for two … Micka got up. Go on, Sharky, I can’t, I don’t wanna.
Where’s the Fiery? I asked.
Right in front of you, someone answered.
We put everything we had into it, almost everything, said Sharky … funny thing was, the government backed out … there was no way to negotiate directly with the Sudan, it went through various middlemen, Mozambique, Argentina, the cash is laid away, that’s all right, it was IOUs, careful now, we didn’t lose a thing, only, Sharky sped up, it was an old bolshevik front an now the rockets’re in Libya.
Rockets? I didn’t get it.
Yeah, plus equipment. They were Russian, actually ours an the Soviets’, belonged to the Warsaw Pact but they were Czechoslovak, Czech after the split, I guess … no one knows.
So how’d they get there? Libya’s a long way.
Well, they just shipped it in off the books with the Organization’s velvet reputation as the guarantee, I mean not entirely, again it all went through somebody else, but we were the ones that cleared it an everyone else was hands off … almost everyone, couple a Swiss are in on it … An the Poles an the French … but that’s not for sure, added Micka. Tell him the rest, Sharky.
Some stayed in Libya an some’s … Sharky lowered his voice an said almost too softly to hear … in Iraq. An the Palestinians got some an, gentlemen and brothers, I’m going home. We’ve gone bust an it’s been nice, up to now, but I gotta be on my way.
It’s too fast for me, I said.
Everything’s fast, Bohler noted.
Where’ll you go, Cassock, I asked.
Out to the Gobs’, I guess. To the Rock.
I still don’t get it, I’m sorry, but you know that transnational byznys stuff never was my … we sold rockets to Libya … an some other places … an they can pin it on us?
Can now, said Micka. If they wanna.
How could we screw up like that?
It happens, said Sharky, these fronts stay underwater for years sometimes. There’s just one consolation for me in all this: that we got caught on an old anchor.
An the Zone, don’t forget, said Bohler.
Get it now? someone asked me.
Yeah. But I was lying. I might’ve got that we were broke, that we were wiped out byznys-wise, and that … we’d violated the contract and were a bad tribe, and I knew what we had to do now, and what I ought to do too, I shook my silver ornaments an stroked my hair … but what I didn’t get was we were splittin up, that Sharky was takin off, so was Bohler, an probly everyone else too … I still didn’t get that the tribe had fallen apart, that we’d be without protection … I looked around at the others, they were thinking the same. What’s up with David?
I went over to him and lifted his head, it was … a mask of a face, it frightened me, that gourd look, it was spooky …
Well, said Bohler, Hradil thinks that David … that he’s gone insane.
What? I recalled our recent encounter in the warehouse, the weird way David had rattled on, confusing me with Novák.
Today he’s just … I donno, said Micka, scratching his head, not talkin at all … Helena was with him the whole time, an she wanted to take him away, but we figured since there was a briefing …
… the custom oughta be preserved to the end, Bohler added.
Maybe he’ll get over it, I said, maybe he caught some pain in the neck or whatever from the hitlers …
Hradil … look, there’s just too much today, said Micka.
Hradil said to leave him alone, that it’s shock, temporary paralysis …
Damn it, tell him the truth, Sharky snapped, I mean we all know it.