Before the police could be suspicious I had the suit off the bug and
tried it on, taking my time. Almost everything was ready now, I had
about an hour to kill before the ship left. I spent the time wisely by
going to an automatic cleaner and having all my new clothes cleaned and
pressed. Nothing interests a customs man more than a suitcase full of
unworn clothes.
Customs was a snap and when the ship was about half full I boarded her
and took a seat near the hostess. I flirted with her until she walked
away, having classified me in the category of MALE, BRASH, ANNOYING.
An old girl who had the seat next to mine also had me filed in the
same drawer and was looking out of the window with obvious ice on her
shoulder. I dozed off happily since there is one thing better than not
being noticed and that is being noticed and filed into a category. Your
description gets mixed up with every other guy in the file and that is
the end of it.
When I woke up we were almost to planet X, I half dozed in the chair
until we touched down, then smoked a cigar while my bag cleared
customs. My locked brief case of money raised no suspicions since I had
foresightedly forged papers six months ago with my occupation listed
as _bank messenger_. Interplanet credit was almost nonexistent in
this system, so the customs men were used to seeing a lot of cash go
back and forth.
Almost by habit I confused the trail a little more and ended up in
the large manufacturing city of Brouggh over one thousand kilometers
from the point where I had landed. Using an entirely new set of
identification papers I registered at a quiet hotel in the suburbs.
Usually after a big job like this I rest up for a month or two; this
was one time though I didn't feel like a rest. While I was making small
purchases around town to rebuild the personality of James diGriz, I
was also keeping my eyes open for new business opportunities. The very
first day I was out I saw what looked like a natural--and each day it
looked better and better.
One of the main reasons I have stayed out of the arms of the law for as
long as I have, is that I have never repeated myself. I have dreamed
up some of the sweetest little rackets, run them off once, then stayed
away from them forever after. About the only thing they had in common
was the fact that they all made money. About the only thing I hadn't
hit to date was out and out armed robbery. It was time for a change and
it looked like that was it.
While I was rebuilding the paunchy personality of Slippery Jim I was
making plans for the operation. Just about the time the fingerprint
gloves were ready the entire business was planned. It was simple like
all good operations should be, the less details there are, the less
things there are that can go wrong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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