"Death threat from the dago?" Regan was amused. "I have it on your own
testimony that the Syndic is merely morale and people and credit--not a
formidable organization. Yes, there was a mike in here. One reason for
your discomfort. You'll be gratified to learn that I thought most of
your conversation decidedly dull. However, the lady will be of no use to
us dead and we're now in the Seaway entering Lake Michigan. I suppose it
can't do any harm to move you two. Pick her up, will you? I'll let you
lead the way--and I'll remind you that I may not, as the lady said, be a
four-goal polo player but I am a high expert with the handgun. Get
moving."
Charles did not think he could pick his own feet up, but the thought of
pleading weakness to Regan was unbearable. He could try. Staggering, he
got Lee Falcaro over his shoulder and through the door. Regan
courteously stood aside and murmured: "Straight ahead and up the ramp.
I'm giving you my own cabin. We'll be docking soon enough; I'll make
out."
Charles dropped her onto a sybaritic bed in a small but
lavishly-appointed cabin. Regan whistled up a deckhand and a ship's
officer of some sort, who arrived with a medicine chest. "Do what you
can for her, mister," he told the officer. And to the deckhand: "Just
watch them. They aren't to touch anything. If they give you trouble,
you're free to punch them around a bit." He left, whistling.
The officer fussed unhappily over the medicine chest and stalled by
sponging off Lee Falcaro's face and throat. The deckhand watched
impassively. He was a six-footer, and he hadn't spent days inhaling
casing-head fumes. The trip-hammer pounding behind Charles's eyes seemed
to be worsening with the fresher air. He collapsed into a seat and
croaked, with shut eyes: "While you're trying to figure out the
vomiting, can I have a handful of aspirins?"
"Eh? Nothing was said about you. You were in Number Three with her? I
suppose it'll be all right. Here." He poured a dozen tablets into
Charles' hand. "Get him some water, you." The deckhand brought a glass
of water from the adjoining lavatory and Charles washed down some of the
tablets. The officer was reading a booklet, worry written on his face.
"Do you know any medicine?" he finally asked.
The hard-outlined, kidney-shaped ache was beginning to diffuse through
Charles' head, more general now and less excruciating. He felt
deliciously sleepy, but roused himself to answer: "Some athletic trainer
stuff. I don't know--morphine? Curare?"
The officer ruffled through the booklet. "Nothing about vomiting," he
said. "But it says curare for muscular cramp and I guess that's what's
going on. A lipoid suspension to release it slowly into the bloodstream
and give the irritation time to subside. Anyway, I can't kill her if I
watch the dose...."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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