“Preposterous!” “You know, MrsSwayne, to put it...
“Preposterous!”
“You know, MrsSwayne, to put it bluntly, that’s not a word you should useYou can’t carry it
off, any more than you’re convincing when you say something’s ‘offensive in the extreme
Neither expression is you, RachelYou’re imitating other people—probably rich, vacuous
customers a young hairdresser heard repeating such phrases years ago in Honolulu?”
“Oh, come on, that’s ridiculous, RachelDon’t even try the ‘How dare you’ bit, it doesn’t work
at allAre you, in your nasal twang, going to have my head chopped off by royal decree?”
“Lay off her!” shouted Flannagan, standing beside Mrs“You got the iron but you don’t
have to do this! She’s a good woman, a damn good woman, and she was shit on by all the crap
artists in this town
“How could she be? She was the general’s wife, the mistress of the manor, wasn’t she? Isn’t
she?”
“She was used—”
“I was laughed at, always laughed at, fake gucci MrDelta!” cried Rachel Swayne, gripping the arms of her
chair“When they weren’t leering or droolingHow’d you like to be the special piece of meat
passed out like a special dessert to very special people when the dinner and the drinks are over?”
“I don’t think I’d like it at all
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“I couldn’t! He made me do it!”
“Nobody can make anybody do anything like that
“Sure, they can, MrDelta,” said the general’s wife, leaning forward, her large breasts pressing
the sheer fabric of her blouse, her long hair partially obscuring her aging but still sensual softfeatured
face“Try an uneducated grammar school dropout from the coal basins in West Virginia
when the companies shut down the mines and nobody had no food—excuse me, any foodYou take
what you got and you run with it and that’s what I didI got laid from Aliquippa to Hawaii, but I
got there and I learned a balenciaga uk tradeThat’s where I met the Big Boy and I married him, but I didn’t have
no illusions from day one’Specially when he got back from ’Nam, y’know what I mean?”
“I’m not sure I do, Rachel
“You don’t have to explain nothin’ kiddo!” roared Flannagan
“No, I wanna, Eddie! I’m sick of the whole shit, okay?”
“You watch your tongue!”
“The point is, I don’t know nothin’, MrBut I can figure things, y’know what I mean?”
“Stop it, Rachel!” cried the dead general’s aide
“Fuck off, Eddie! You’re not too bright eitherDelta could be our way outBack to
the islands, right?”
“Absolutely right, Mrs
“You know what this place is—?”
“Shut up!” yelled Flannagan, awkwardly plodding forward, stopped by the sudden ear-shattering
explosion of Bourne’s gun, the bullet searing into the floor between the sergeant’s legsWhen she stopped, Jason continued: “What is this place, MrsSwayne?”
“Hold it,” the master sergeant again imitation rolex watch interrupted, but his objection was not shouted now; instead,
it was a plea, a strong man’s pleaHe looked at the general’s wife and then back at Jason“Listen,
Bourne or Delta or whoever you are, Rachel’s rightYou could be our way out—there’s nothing
left for us over here—so what have you got to offer?”
“For what?”
“Say we tell you what we know about this place and I tell you where you can start looking for
a lot moreHow can you help us? How can we get out of here and back to the Pac Islands without
being hassled, our names and faces all over the papers?”
“That’s a tall order, Sergeant
“Goddamn it, she didn’t kill him—we didn’t kill him, you said so yourself!”
“Agreed, and I couldn’t care less whether you did or not, whether you were responsible or not
I’ve got other priorities
“Like getting ‘caught up with some old comrades’ or whatever the hell it was?”
“That’s right, I’m owed
“I still can’t chanel jumbo figure you—”
“You don’t have to
“You were dead!” broke in the perplexed Flannagan, the words rushing out“Delta One from the
illegals was Bourne, and Bourne was dead and Langley proved it to us! But you’re not dead—”
“I was taken, Sergeant! That’s all you have to know—that and the fact that I’m working alone
I’ve got a few debts I can call in, but I’m strictly soloI need information and I need it quickly!”
Flannagan shook his head in bewildermentmaybe I can help you there,” he said
quietly, tentatively, “better than anyone else wouldI was given a special assignment, so I had to
learn things, things someone like me wouldn’t normally be told
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“That sounds like the opening notes of a con song, SergeantWhat was your special
assignment?”
“NursemaidTwo years ago Norman began to fall apartI controlled him, and if I couldn’t I was
given a number to call in New dior handbag