usual—three fried eggs and two cups of black coffee. I live on eggs and coffee. It’s cheap and nourishing, and I like it. I suppose I could afford caviar if I wanted it, but I’d rather let the money accumulate in the strongbox.
You see, a real businessman never worries about the money. He doesn’t care about spending it, and he doesn’t count up the pennies. The money’s just the chips in the poker pot, just something to keep score with. A real businessman is interested in running a straight business, and he gets his kicks out of the business itself. A real businessman is along the lines of an artist. And I am a businessman. I do a clean job. It’s the way I like to live.
I finished the meal and washed up the dishes. I didn’t feel much like reading, so I sat around thinking. I had come a long way from the days when I used to steal food and swindle hockshops for a couple of bucks at a time. I was established in business, and the competition was nothing to speak of. I could raise my prices sky-high, and I’d still have more work than I could handle. There’s a remarkable shortage of free-lance gunmen in town.
I sat around till 8:30 and then caught the subway to Times Square. I transferred to the Broadway IRT train there, and got off at 96th Street. It was a short walk to Riverside Drive.
The elevator was a self-service one, which cut down the chances of an identification. I rode to the top floor and rang the bell.
He answered it with a smile on his face. I walked in, and noticed that the television was on good and loud. He hadn’t realized that I used a silencer.
I closed the door, took the gun from my pocket, and shot him. The bullet caught him in the side of the head and he didn’t have time to be surprised. He fell like an ox.
She jumped up and came to me. She was wearing a skirt and sweater this time, and I could see every bit of that body. She was the kind of woman I could fall in love with, if I believed in love. But in my business I can’t afford to.
I leveled the gun again and squeezed the trigger. Her eyes opened in horror before the bullet hit her, but she didn’t have time to scream. I shot her in the head, and she died immediately.
It was a shame I had to kill her. But I had made an agreement, and I stick to my word even if my client is a corpse. Business is business.
NOR IRON BARS A CAGE
THE FIRST ALTHEAN SAID, “Well, the tower is completed.”
The second Althean smiled. “Good. It is all ready for the prisoner, then?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure he’ll be quite comfortable? He won’t languish and die in such a state?”
“No,” said the first Althean. “He’ll be all right. It’s taken a long time to build the tower, and I’ve had ample opportunity to study the creature. We’ve made his habitat as ideal for him as possible.”
“I suppose so.” The second Althean shuddered slightly. “I don’t know,” he said. “I suppose it’s nothing more than projection on my part, but the mere thought of a prison…” He broke off and shuddered again.
“I know,” said the other, sympathetically. “It’s something none of us have ever had to conceive of before. The whole notion of locking up a fellow being is an abominable one, I’ll admit. But for that matter, consider the creature itself!”
“It wouldn’t do for him to be loose.”
“Wouldn’t do! Why, it would be quite impossible. He actually murders. He killed three of our fellow beings before we were able to subdue him.”
The second Althean shuddered more violently than before, and it appeared for a moment as though he was about to become physically ill. “But why? What type of being is he, for goodness’ sake? Where does he come from? What’s he doing here?”
“Ah,” said the first, “now you’ve hit upon it. You see, there’s no way of knowing any of those answers. One morning he was discovered by a party of ten. They attempted to speak to him, and what do you think his rejoinder was?”
“He struck out at them, the way I heard it.”
“Precisely! Utterly unprovoked assault, with three of their number dead as a result. The first case of murder on record here in thirty generations. Incredible!”