"All right," the realtor said, consciously omitting the "Sir" as if to
reassert his own individuality.
Parr glanced at him. "I'll send you sufficient money to cover the fee."
Without waiting for an answer, he started up the stairway.
The upper two floors were in much the same condition as the first. From
the third there was a narrow flight of steps slanting to the roof. Parr
eyed it with disapproval.
"Narrow," he said.
"There's seldom any reason to go up there ... sir."
* * * * *
Parr went up. At the top of the flight, he forced back the door and
clambered into the shed which opened onto the roof. Parr dusted his
knees. He stepped outside, and the gravelly finish grated under his
shoes. The air smelled of warmed-over tar.
He tugged restlessly at his chin. It was a good, substantial roof. As
the listening post had reported. Good enough for pick-up and delivery.
He permitted himself a glimmer of satisfaction.
He heard movement behind him. Instinctively he whirled around,
his hand dipping toward his right coat pocket, the memory of the
Oholo--the vision of a composite Oholo face surprisingly like an Earth
face--flashed across his mind. The realtor's head bobbed into view, and
Parr relaxed his tense muscles.
"How is it up to here?"
Parr rumbled an annoyed and indistinct answer and turned once more to
the roof. When the realtor stood at his side, Parr said, "I want that
shed thing ripped off and a chute installed, next to the stairs. Have
it done tomorrow."
"I'm ..." the realtor began. But he looked at Parr's face and licked
his lips nervously. "Yes, sir;" he said after a moment. "Anything I can
do. Glad to oblige."
"That's what I thought," Parr said, and Lucas shifted uneasily.
Parr turned to the stairs. Going down he could see dust motes flicker
in the fading light at the dirty west windows.
Outside he watched the realtor lock the doors.
"Keep the keys," Parr said. "Send them to me at the Saint Paul Thursday
morning. At eight o'clock."
The realtor said, "... Yes, sir."
* * * * *
At six o'clock Parr was in his hotel, undressed, making preliminary
arrangements by telephone to hire a fleet of trucks. He had already
placed an advertisement for shipping clerks and common laborers in
_The Times_: interviews Thursday from ten to four at the Flower Street
warehouse.
After finishing with the truckers, he phoned four furniture companies
before he found one open. He ordered it to deliver a desk and two dozen
folding chairs to the Flower Street warehouse Thursday morning at
nine-thirty.
All the while the Oholo was in the back of his mind, now sharp with
sudden memory, now dull with continued awareness.
He checked the schedule the Ship had given him.
He took the comset, flicked it on. "Parr. I'm scheduling. I'll need a
packet of money along with the dummy bundle. Can you deliver them both
to the warehouse tomorrow night?"
"We can."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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