His visiphone didn't, but several days later, his door did. Opening it,
he saw an old man clad in filthy rags standing in the hall. The old
man took one look at him, lost what little color he had, and turned and
began to run. Drake seized his arm. "Forget about the way I look," he
said. "One hundred of my credits makes a Rockefellow the same as anyone
else's, and I'll pay cash if you've got the information I want."
Some of the old man's color came back. "I've got it, Mister--don't you
worry about that." Reaching into the inside pocket of his filthy coat,
he withdrew what at first appeared to be a large map folded many times
over. He unfolded it with clumsy fingers, shook it out, and held it up
for Drake to see. It was a stereo-poster of a girl, life-size and in
color--the same girl who had had her picture taken on a hill on Azure--
Only this time she wasn't wearing a red dress. She was wearing a
_cache-sexe_, and except for a pair of slippers, that was all she was
wearing.
Drake could not move.
There was a legend at the bottom of the poster. It read:
_Mary Legs, now stripping at King Tutankhamen's_
* * * * *
Abruptly Drake came out of his state of shock. He tore the poster out
of the old man's hands. "Where did you get it?" he demanded.
"I stole it. Ripped it off the King's billboard when nobody was
looking. Carried it with me ever since."
"Did you ever see her ... perform?"
"You bet I did! You never saw anything like it. She'd--"
"How long ago?"
"Two-three years. Big years. She's the one you want, ain't she? I knew
it the minute I saw the picture on 3V. Sure, the name's different, I
says to myself, but it's the same girl. You should have seen her dance,
Mister. As I say, she'd--"
"Where's King Tutankhamen's place?" Drake asked.
"In Storeyville. As I say, she'd--"
"Shut up," Drake said.
He counted out fifty credits and placed them in the old man's hand. The
old man was regarding him intently. "You're the Jet-propelled Dutchman,
ain't you."
"What if I am?"
"You don't look like a Dutchman. Are you?"
"No," Drake said, and re-entered the room and slammed the door.
* * * * *
The anti-grav trains of Worldwellost were as rundown as the towns and
cities they connected. Drake rode all night and all the next morning.
He didn't sleep a wink throughout the whole trip, and when he got off
the train at the Storeyville station he looked even more like a ghost
than he had when he had got on.
His appearance provoked the usual quota of starts and stares. Ignoring
them, he made his way to the main thoroughfare. Tall and gaunt and
grim, he looked up and down the two rows of grimy façades, finally
spotted the neoned name he wanted, and started out. A knot of 'teen
thieves formed behind him as he progressed down the street. "The
Jet-propelled Dutchman," they cried jeeringly. "Look, the Jet-propelled
Dutchman!"
He turned and glowered at them, and they ran away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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