Ambient 06 - Going, Going, Gone

the next Monday. As punishment, though, he showed up with his dopey sidekick; and while he’d left Hambone and Chuckles back in the swamp, Sartorius hitched a ride as well. I hadn’t wanted to let those louts in on anything I had to say but there was no getting out of it, and it wasn’t long before I understood why.
    »What is it, Walter?« Martin asked. From the moment he parked himself he sounded peevier than usual; he hadn’t given himself the usual close shave that morning, and a faint five’o’clock darkened his dome. Whole time he sat there he tapped out a semblance of a beat with his fingers against the top of the table – he’d lived too long in DC to have any sense of rhythm left.
    »Before I go any further with this you’ve got to fill me in on what the long-term goal is.«
    »With what?«
    »With Jim Kennedy. What’s the master plan?«
    Sartorius sipped his coke and tried on a variant sneer. His expression made me wonder if he’d slipped a blood sample of mine under the microscope and didn’t like what he saw crawling. Bennett looked unnervingly calm, as if he were already in on the joke. Martin was sweating, though it wasn’t hot. »Family reunion,« said the weasel. »Leave it at that, Walter.«
    »Why is this bothering you now?« Martin asked, his voice raw. Sounded like he’d been up three nights in a row preaching.
    »Always bothered me,« I said. »I’m just being more upfront about it.«
    »Treat it like all your assignments,« he said. »Drive in the nails and don’t worry about what you’re building.«
    »My brothers, mayhap you don’t get me. What I’m saying is, if you don’t tell me what I’m doing, I’m not going to do it.«
    Sartorius held his fork tightly, as if ready to spear out my eyes, but he didn’t budge an inch. Bennett cracked his knuckles. »What’s the matter, Walter? Turn over a rock and find your conscience?«
    »You can’t quit, halfway through the assignment,« said Martin.
    »Look, I was squeezed into this assignment, it didn’t fit me –«
    »You let yourself be squeezed.« He had nothing to add; I didn’t like the way he wasn’t looking at me when he spoke to me. That’s never a good sign. I couldn’t get why he acted like he was almost taking his cues from Benny. »Walter, you didn’t answer my question. Why is this starting to bother you now, when it’s never bothered you in the past?«
    »You know as well as I do this isn’t the usual gig,« I said. »Generally, I don’t have to see who the joke gets played on. Jim’s family may be straight out of Charles Addams but he himself isn’t hurting anybody –«
    »Not presently,« Bennett said. »Walter, time’s come to move on to step two. This is where your previous experience’ll come in handy. What you’ll be doing –«
    »You heard a word I said?«
    »Every word. Doesn’t matter. Walter, you’ll –«
    »No offence, Bennett, but how is it you’re slinging the do this do that around? Far as I know you’re just a tall root on the government tree.«
    »Acorns, oaks.«
    B-boy could toss off a real death’s head when the joke was on somebody else. I looked over to Martin, and the second I did I could tell that at some point, for some reason, somebody heavier’d sat down on the teeter-totter since the last time we hooked up. »Walter,« he said. »At Hamilton’s request, Bennett is now playing an active role in this operation.«
    »An active role, or the active role?«
    »You can’t quit, Walter,« Bennett said. The Germ fell into line as he suddenly drew himself into the vertical. »There’s no need to add anything. Martin, your boy seems to find it hard to handle change. So you tell him about step two. See if he listens.«
    »I haven’t left the room, you know,« I pointed out. Bennett didn’t say a word; the edges of his mouth – couldn’t really call them lips – pulled up over his teeth, as if the skin on his face was starting to shrink. »We’ll be outside. I can’t sit in this dive any longer.«
    Sartorius gave us both the old so-there stare and trundled off after his American cohort. »Only animals could,« he muttered, sending his remark in Bennett’s direction but making sure it richocheted off our heads first. The two of them strolled casually out the heavy wood door, almost arm-in-arm. Through the filthy window I saw that they stationed themselves on the 40 th Street curb outside, looking up at the expressway as it began its leap across the Hudson as if seeing