Free Wild Cards [02] Aces High by George R.R. Martin Page A

The autopsy rooms are down there, too. They have a hundred and twenty-eight storage compartments, with a walk-in refrigerator with shelves for kids' bodies. When somebody has to view a body for ID purposes, they put it on a special elevator which lifts it to a glass-enclosed chamber in a waiting room on the first floor."
    "So you've been there?"
    "No, I read Milton Helpern's memoirs."
    "You've got what I'd call a real liberal education," Croyd said. "I should probably read more myself."
    "You can buy a lot of books for fifty grand." Croyd smiled.
    "So, we've got a deal?"
    "Let me think about it a little longer-over breakfastwhile I figure out just how my talent works. I'll come by your stand when I'm done. When would I pick up the ten grand?"
    "I can get it by this afternoon."
    "Okay. I'll see you in a hour or so."
    Jube nodded, raised his massive bulk, slid out of the booth.
    "Watch your cholesterol," he said.
    Blue cracks had appeared in the sky's gray shell, and sunlight found its way through to the street. The sound of trickling water came steadily now from somewhere to the rear of the newsstand. Jube would normally have thought it a pleasant background to the traffic noises and other sounds of the city, save that a small moral dilemma had drifted in on leathery wings and destroyed the morning. He did not realize he had made a decision in the matter until he looked up and saw Croyd looking at him, smiling.
    "No problem," said Croyd. "It'll be a piece of cake." Jube sighed.
    "There's something I've got to tell you first," he said. "Problems?"
    "Nothing that bears directly on the terms of the job," Jube explained. "But you may have a problem you didn't know you had."
    "Like what?" Croyd said, frowning. "That pterodactyl we saw earlier . . . ?F "Yeah?.,
    "Kid Dinosaur was headed here. I found him waiting when I got back. He was looking for you."
    "I hope you didn't tell him where to find me."
    "No, I wouldn't do that. But you know how he keeps tabs on aces and high-powered jokers . . . ?"
    "Yeah. Why couldn't he be into baseball players or war criminals?"
    "He saw one he wanted you to know about. He said that Devil John Darlingfoot got out of the hospital a month or so ago and dropped out of sight. But he's back now. He'd seen him near the Cloisters earlier. Says he's heading for Midtown."
    "Well, well. So what?"
    "So he thinks he's looking for you. Wants a rematch. The Kid thinks he's still mad over what you did to him the day the two of you trashed Rockefeller Plaza."
    "So let him keep looking. I'm not a short, heavyset, darkhaired guy anymore. I'll go get the stiff now-before someone buys him a short bier."
    "Don't you want the money?"
    "You already gave it to me."
    "When?"
    "What's your first memory of my coming back here?"
    "I looked up about a minute ago and saw you standing there smiling. You said there was no problem. You called it 'a piece of cake.'"
    "Good. Then, it's working."
    "You'd better explain."
    "That's the place where I wanted you to start remembering. I'd been here for about a minute before that, and I talked you into giving me the money and forgetting about it."
    Croyd withdrew an envelope from an inner pocket, opened it, and displayed cash.
    "Good Lord, Croyd! What else did you do during that minute?"
    "Your virtue's intact, if that's what you mean."
    "You didn't ask me any questions-about . . . ?" Croyd shook his head.
    "I told you I didn't care who wants the body or why. I really don't like to burden myself with other peoples concerns. I've enough problems of my own."
    Jube sighed.
    "Okay. Go do it, boy." Croyd winked.
    "Not to worry, Walrus. Consider it done."
    Croyd walked until he came to a supermarket, went in and purchased a small package of large plastic trash bags. He folded one and fitted it into his inside jacket pocket. He left the rest in a waste bin. Then he walked to the next major intersection and hailed a cab.
    He rehearsed his strategy as he rode across town. He would enter the place