[...] No look Hopper look I can’t always have him calling me like if they’re still mad about these here looms we’re selling off at South America see I just gave this son of this union leader up there Shorter I just gave him this Wonder beer distributorship for that whole territory and this Bunky I put him in charge of these rebates on all their returns see because if we have to keep them in business to keep this here whole tax loss carry . . . No see I just wanted to know with this big shipment of fiber they got in if we should just like dump it and take the write-off or like ship it to Hong Kong or someplace to make sweaters or something and import them back see if we did that would we still get to keep this whole tax loss carryforward from . . . what? No no wait just wait a second wait . . . The taps on the glass were repeated and the door clattered open a hand’s breadth,—gee I’m sorry Mrs Joubert just a second I . . .

[...] I mean there’s so much stuff . . . he got the half step ahead,—like did you ever think Mrs Joubert everything you see someplace there’s this millionaire for it?
—Is that all you think about!
—Sure I mean look back there . . . he’d blocked the door by way of opening it for her with his back against it, bringing the wind in,—like right now someplace there’s this water fountain millionaire and this locker millionaire and this here lightbulb one I mean like even the lightbulb there’s this glass millionaire and this one off where you screw the, oh wait wait a second . . . Down that bright empty corridor the telephone rang in the booth,—could you just wait up for me a second Mrs Joubert . . .? But she reached past him to push the door leaving him off balance there a foot in each direction where the wind brought in a wrapper from a Three Musketeers candy bar—see I just, just, okay wait a second I’m coming . . . and he ran up against her on the steps.

—Well who is he what’s he doing here and while you’re over there Virginia look in the box under that blue chaise longue, the file marked Health Package Mister Brisboy here will want a look at it for the cemetery tie-in that reminds me Brisboy you’ve got an apology coming, when the press boys called about your Wagner Funeral Homes chain joining up with the J R Corp Family of Companies here I was busy on these Indians and put Virginia there on the phone with some notes of mine where I’d abbreviated funeral fun, gave them the idea we’d picked up a string of massage parlors to work into this whole nursing home to cemetery package, really hit the fan if we don’t clear it up I thought we could put you onto them later for a statement got somebody working on it now Beamish I know she’s been with the Boss since he got started, the only reason I kept her on when he closed down the midtown office and sent her along I thought she had an inside look at operations maybe you can talk Mister Bast into using her at uptown headquarters I couldn’t, look at that beam she fills half the room when she stoops over in that print dress takes off her earring every time she answers the phone and then stops to put it back on see what I mean Beamish, I’ve got to get a gal in here who can see what it’s like Mister Brisboy trying to keep score with what is it now Virginia?

[...] he runs that assay on the water at Wonder Brewery comes across smaltite traces and has Nonny put in for a mineral depletion allowance tipped his hand to the FDA coming down hard on cobalt safety levels now Milliken jumps in to protect home industry only thing they had besides sheep and Indians till he suddenly gets the idea his state is one big cobalt nickel arsenic deposit looks over the stockpile scene and hauls the Undersecretary up before his committee on the contract he negotiated for Typhon to set up this smelting operation in Gandia and buy it back as surplus, supply U S cobalt stockpile requirements from it and sell the nickel and anything else they come up with on the side wherever Pythian Overseas has a market, that’s who your other party in this deal is Beamish I’ve worked with Moncrieff nobody to tangle assholes with . . .

—Moyst Colonel Moyst told you to get him on the phone don’t have to bother Bast on these questions you have about Eagle Beamish probably clear them up myself, the Boss is talking about handing the whole thing over to the town for a park and speedway write these leases off as a gift if you can get him a high enough appraisal on them get some help from Hopper over there on that, any more trouble from this Begg woman with her stockholder suit say he’s acting for the stockholders cutting costs move operations south if he has to to hang onto his tax umbrella Shorter’s union boys don’t like it tell them their jobs are waiting for them in Georgia, set up down there with cheap equipment for fast replacement under deductible maintenance expenses won’t have to wait around on this capital goods depreciation allowance think he just wants you to check out that end of it, you know what a stickler he is for the letter of . . .
—The law I do Mister Davidoff I do, however may I say this constant near frenzied emphasis on the letter of the law at the expense of, in fact too frequently in direct defiance of its spirit, is something I frankly find . . .

—Mmmmmm hmmmm hmmmm, hmm hmm delicious yes three thousand acres your J R person told Mother and imagine he’s concerned about unprofitable plots of course burying the welfare poor has always been a losing proposition simply noblesse oblige the agencies pay such a pittance but his proposal to make it pay by placing them six and eight deep to a plot when he was describing the entire package idea on the telephone as vertical integration Mother was simply aghast she thought he meant darkies and whites stacked in layers like a giant Dubos torta don’t you just crave one right now? We could slip over to . . .

[...] Mister Piscator don’t go into it please, I’m working on something up here and . . . yes I . . . All right look all five studios what’s the book val . . . what just in carrying charges . . .? All right look take on the whole thing get rid of that two and a half million cash outlay in carrying charges by dumping these four smaller studios well under book value, say you sell them off at two million one bring your tax credits up around forty million just hang onto the big studio rate this Leva’s going you’ll be . . . problem getting hold of their stockholders list quote the book value at a hundred and sixty-eight a share real God damned point’s how active it is, stockholders probably watching these losses sitting on their look I don’t know the whole story shouldn’t be trying to . . . can’t no I told you I’m working on something I . . . help Mister Bast out yes but he didn’t say anything about a . . . Didn’t mention that either no he . . . no look I . . . didn’t tell me about that either damn it look Mister Piscator trying to help out but I’ve got something here I’m working on that’s . . . I don’t know when I’ll finish it no! Now will you . . . you’re welcome yes good . . . I will yes goodbye.

[...] Go right on making his Christ awful pictures build up your tax loss pos . . . you’re welcome yes good . . . Crawley no nobody named Crawley’s called goodbye, I . . . Look I’d like to help out on it but . . . No, I . . . no . . . I don’t know no, now . . . No listen I . . . listen I just told you I don’t know a God damned thing about these loans voting trust rumor or anything else Mister Piscator, something God damned important here I’m working on and . . . what? All right yes I’ll take a message for Mister Bast if it’s brief, what . . . yes a shipment of sweaters ready to be flown back from Hong Kong, what . . . What, it’s overloaded . . .? If the pilot’s ready to fly it anyhow what’s the difference if the plane is over . . . oh. The price the insurance company’s named for the premium would wipe out your profit I’ll tell him when I . . . no I . . . no I told you I . . . and the what . . .? No I don’t know when he . . . No now wait listen, listen. Save us a lot of trouble here look, there must be a girl around the Hong Kong factory there who’d like a free ride to New York, give her a handful of quarters how much are the sweaters worth at retail . . . Fine just insure her for a quarter of a million write in the company as beneficiary if it goes down you’re . . . fine yes you’re . . . you’re welcome yes good . . . yes goodbye! Christ, give him an inch he wants what the hell did I come in here looking for, dictionary . . .

The door shuddered.—Got a delivery . . .
—Like who’s stopping you . . .
It sagged in—look I been here before I’m trying to deliver a truckload of where are you anyways . . .
—Where does it look like . . . she batted the rise of suds from a shoulder,—I mean what are you staring at, deliver your delivery . . .
—Thousand gross plastic flowers down there look, how you expect me to get a thousand gross plastic flowers in here you . . .
—Man like who said I expect you to do anything? Like I mean that’s your problem, I mean you’re supposed to be this big delivering man do it how they told you in delivering man school, okay . . .? The shirt wad came up wet abruptly jostling pebbled pinks from the suds—I mean look man at least can you quit standing there pulling your pork and like answer the telephone? No I mean look it’s like right up there behind you . . .

—No but holy shit Bast I mean that’s what you do! Like I mean these here Indians is it my fault they think corn is this here god they don’t even have electricity? is it my fault if I didn’t get these here leases off them and leave them stay there somebody else is going to screw them out of the whole thing? Is it my fault if I do something first which if I don’t do it somebody else is going to do it anyway? I mean how come everybody’s always getting mad at me! Like we get Milliken to help fix up these laws to start selling this marijuana to help out these here Ritz stockholders so Beamish gets pissed off and goes and quits just because I did it first like these ads in these here textbooks and all, I mean he gets pissed off at that just because I do if first so then he gets pissed off where I do just like everybody like where we’re franchising out this here health plan, I mean where these nursing homes and funerals and all they have to buy everything off us where we get to charge them what we want and squeeze them out anytime we want is it my fault that’s what franchising is! I mean Beamish even gets pissed off where we paint this Triangle water tower like this here giant roll of toilet paper then he respectfully submits why don’t we recycle this here whole encyclopedia I mean is it my fault if we’ve got this like third of a million dollars sunk in it when some wiseass finds out these writers they’ve just been making up entries only nobody knows which ones? I mean then where one of them even says what do you expect for this half cent a word what am I suppose to do, recycle it and throw all these here printers and binders and salesmen out of work so they all get pissed off like at Eagle? I mean like we close the mills so they’re all pissed off about this here vacation time they been saving up like it’s my fault they didn’t take their dumb vacations so they’re going to strike and sue us and all so this here Billy Shorter, I mean just to shut up his union we go and give his stupid kid this Wonder beer distributorship which he screws it up so bad we have to buy it back off him for like fifty thousand dollars I mean what do you expect me to do! Hey . . .? My ankle I can’t hardly, hey? Bast . . .? he pushed shoulder deep from weeds to gather his armload close stepping high over the rutted mud,—I couldn’t see you hey wait a second . . . he paused against a pole of rust signaling the opening with an indecipherable sign—I mean did you even hear what I was just telling you?