Page 40 - Three Adventures

Deflator Mouse

Oscar was tired. Oscar was hungry. Oscar was thwarted. “Oh,
never mind; it can wait. Tell me: how long have you been keeping
this building locked up and under surveillance?”
“You mean at night?”
“Yes, yes. At night. All night, I take it?”
“Yes, sir. When my shift’s over at midnight, I’m relieved by
another man. Captain’s orders. How long? Since last Tuesday, I
think.”
“Hmm.” Beveledge turned away, leaving the guard to weigh the
implications of his educated grunt. Not worth hanging around, he
judged; nobody gets in or out, lights are off, grounds patrolled.
Maybe get a German shepherd or a Dobermann to accompany that
old guard; wouldn’t take a Black Belt to overpower him, snatch the
keys, and penetrate the structure. Better talk to Lampson about it;
show him I’ve got an eye on his bailiwick, just like he’s got two or
three on mine. The director’s Jaguar XKE loomed out of the gloom,
black and sinister. He squeezed the auto-alarm remote control on his
key-ring, and felt comforted by the squawk his vehicle emitted in
disarming itself. Here, at last, inside the tastefully-appointed interior
of his car, he relaxed. Gripping the steering wheel with considerably
more force than was necessary to navigate the untrafficked streets of
Litmus Industries, he headed for the main gate and home.

* * * * *

Ken dodged a skateboarder as he jogged along the Venice
boardwalk. On week-ends the beachfront became a carnival of teen-
age excess and middle-age success; wandering musicians, comedians,
and masseurs merged with vendors of frivolous attire and joke-store
memorabilia; descendants both of Beatniks and land developers, the
sellers and buyers of lifestyle kept each other amused and outraged
from dawn to dusk along this stretch of Pacific coastline. To the
south, pleasure-craft plied the polluted effluents of the affluent
Marina. To the north, surfers and film stars vied for a foothold on
tiny subdivided parcels of artificial beach. To the east, doctors’ wives
opened boutiques off the alleys of a festering black ghetto. But here,
on the boardwalk, freedom and equality struck an easy balance;
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