"Hello George, how's everything going?" Bryce asked. Those words were
his trade mark, the passwords that identified him to everyone as the
Voice who gave Tips. Among the monster organization which had grown
from the proven reliability of those tips, the voice was known as
"Hello George." Hello George's tips were always good, so they had come
to be followed as blindly as tips from God, even when they were not
understood. Certainty was one thing men in the fencing and drug
smuggling business most sorely lacked.
They communicated only by phone. They transmitted their wares by
leaving them in public lockers and mailing the key. They never saw
each other's faces or heard each other's names, but even the use of a
key could be a trap that would bring a circle of narcotics agents of
INC around the unfortunate who attempted to open the locker.
Far away over the bulge of the Earth between, a man sat in a phone
booth waiting for his tip. "Pretty well. No complaints. How's with
you, any news?"
"I think you'd better cut connections with Union Transport. They're
getting pretty sloppy. I think they might spill something."
"Wadja say?" asked the man at the other end cautiously, "I didn't get
you."
"Better stop using UT for shipping," Bryce repeated, wording his
sentence carefully. "They aren't careful enough anymore. You don't
want them to break an inc case wide open, do you?" INC was the
International Narcotics Control agency of the F. N. But the
conversation would have sounded like an innocent discussion of
shipping difficulties to any chance listener on the telephone lines.
The flat tones were plaintive and aggrieved. "But we're expecting a
load of stuff Friday. Our buyers are expecting it." Stuff was drug,
and expecting was a mild word for the need of drug addicts! "And we've
got a lotta loads of miscellaneous items to go out." The contact was a
small man in the organization but he evidently knew just how "hot"
fenced goods could be. "That can't wait!"
He had planned this. "Maybe they are all right for shipments this
week. I'll chew them out to be careful, check up and call back Friday.
Meanwhile break with them."
"Tell them a few things from me, the--" the distant voice added a
surprising string of derogatory adjectives. "Friday when?"
"Friday about--about six." The double "about" confirmed the signal for
a telephone appointment that was general for all contact numbers.
"Friday about six, Okay." There was a faint click that meant he had
hung up and the phone in the safe was open for more dialings on his
toy dial.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account