Forsyte's RetreatMarks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney)
Science
Forsyte's Retreat
Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney)
Hotels -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"Experience? Jail?" Sextus asked innocent-eyed. He asked that she tell
him about it. Exasperated, she went over the details. When she finished
he patted her hand and pointed to the sleeping pills. "You should see
your doctor."
"But my doctor _prescribed_ those pills," she whimpered, looking down
shyly at the hand which Sextus held gingerly. "They never made me
dream--before."
He bent and kissed the revolting hand. "You are much too lovely a lady
to have escaped from such a predicament as you describe without
suffering--shall we say, a more romantic--fate?"
Miss Hafner blushed at the thought and wavered between outrage and
ecstasy for a dangerous moment. With time-tested genius, Sextus withdrew
quietly and left her to her thoughts.
He _must_ get in touch with Dr. Bradford, atom business or not. This
place could blow sky-high any minute.
He slipped the key into his own door and entered his suite. He took two
brisk strides into his bedroom, tripped over a lady's overnight case and
sprawled into his unmade bed. Even as he landed he realized it had an
occupant, a gorgeous, strangely familiar blonde creature, touselled and
asleep hugging her pillow with a creamy arm. A crash from the bathroom
brought his head bouncing off the silken coverlet even as the girl
awakened with a scream and tangled them both with the bed clothes.
Gary Gable charged from the bathroom, face dripping and a tuft of lather
under each ear. "What in the Goddam hell--" He leaped for Sextus with
his internationally famous shoulders knotted into bunches of muscular
menace.
"I'm the hotel manager," Sextus blurted loudly. For once his
self-assurance wavered under fire. Even to himself his words explained
nothing.
Meanwhile, Gable tripped over one of Sextus' heavy suitcases and joined
the pair in bed. Another male voice issued from the bathroom, and as
they all thrashed about, Sextus became aware that a second female had
somehow appeared between Gable and his brand new bride. They came up
together, face to face, the beautiful, sleepy blonde and the very
wide-awake, queenly brunette. Now a pot-bellied little man in shorts and
undershirt emerged from the bathroom, his mouth a gaping hole in a fully
lathered face.
Sextus wriggled free, made for the door and off down the hall. To his
horror, the automatic signal light on the vector "H" elevator was
flickering and fading. The whole H-vector must be collapsing. He dashed
for the stairwell and then reconsidered. He moved to the end of the hall
which overlooked the low roof of the adjacent building. He tried the
window and remembered that it was sealed. Back in the alcove he seized
one of the sand jars and headed back for the window. A growing tide of
commotion swelled from behind almost every door now. Grunts, screams and
wrestling sounds came over the transoms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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