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Morning computations done, Maggot rose from the table and went to a small bar-type refrigerator in a corner of the room. He extracted six bottles of pills, opened them, and began to count them out on a clean saucer he took from a closet.
Six vitamin Es, eight Cs, two multi-vitamins, four capsules of B-12, an assortment of tablets of wheat germ and rose hips, and high protein pills.
He capped the bottles tightly and replaced them in the refrigerator. Then he peeled off his gloves, so he wouldn't get lint on any of the tablets and began to pop them down, one after another, without water, the ultimate mark of skill for a pill popper.
He was five-feet-eleven, weighed 155, and he credited his pills with giving him a resting pulse rate of fifty-eight. He neither smoked nor drank; he had never used a drug; and he went to the Episcopal Church every Sunday, a feat made simpler by the fact that without his Maggot makeup and fright wig, and without lamb chops hanging from his chest, no one was likely to recognize this tall thin WASP as the singer that Time magazine had labeled «a cesspool of decadence.»
Maggot walked toward the front of the suite, where the three Dead Meat Lice shared rooms and were probably playing cards, when the door bell rang once, timidly.
He looked around for a servant, saw none, and because he could not stand ringing doorbells or telephones, he picked up his white gloves, put them back on and opened the door.
A lissome, red-haired girl stood there. She looked at him dreamily and spoke softly.
«You're Maggot, aren't you?»
«Yes, but don't touch,» said Cadwallader, who believed in the truth above all.
«I don't want to touch,» said Vickie Stoner. «Let's ball,» she said, and fell, slumping onto the floor. Cadwallader who barely had a chance to recoil and get out of her way lest her falling body touch him, began to shout for the Lice to come and take care of her.
«Help. Strange woman. Help. Come quick.» Maggot yelled the same words again, then turned and ran to the refrigerator to get calcium tablets, which he had been assured would be good for his nerves.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The land rover had been driven through the night, all the gas in the spare ten-gallon drum in the back had been used, and now when the vehicle crested a hill and the morning sun knifed into the eyes of the driver, he realized how tired he was.
Gu
It had taken a while for Lhasa to interest him in the project, but now Gu
He and Lhasa were the last of the Nilssons. There would be no more. No one to carry on the family name, or its sour tradition, but what better way for it to end than in a final act of assassination that would be a tribute to life, to humanity, to healing?
The end justified the means, at least in this case, just as the end had justified the means twelve years before, when he had operated on Lhasa for appendicitis and while the younger brother was out, had performed on him a vasectomy that would guarantee the extinction of the Nilsson killers.
As eldest, Gu
Gu
Lhasa was to have telephoned a message to the field officer which should have arrived by now. It made a difference-being a millionaire medical missionary, or a pe
Field Lieutenant Pepperidge Barnes was at home when Dr. Gu
No, there had been no message for Doctor Nilsson. Was it anything important? Oh, just a message from his brother on vacation? Well, of course, feel free to use the telephone. Lt. Barnes was going to walk to his office to see what mischief the retarded inhabitants of this retarded land had committed on Her Majesty during the night. Perhaps when Dr. Nilsson had completed his call and had rested, he would stop at Lt. Barnes' office and the two could play a game of chess?
After Barnes left, Gu
Gu
He sat for another hour with the telephone in his hand, staring at his hand, taking satisfaction in the knowledge that it was old and ta
No more killing. Just this one by Lhasa and then no more.
He felt the telephone vibrate in Ms hand and he raised it to his ear.
«We have your number in Switzerland,» the female voice said.
«Thank you,» he said.
«Go ahead,» she said.
«Hello,» a man's voice said.
«I am calling in regard to certain moneys due to a Mr. Nilsson for performance of a certain service,» Gu
There was a pause, then the voice said, «Who is this?»
«My name is Dr. Gu
«Oh, I see. Dr. Nilsson, I am sorry to have to tell you this. There will be no payment made on that contract.»
Gu
«The contract has not been concluded.»
«I see,» Nilsson said slowly. «Have you heard from Lhasa?»
«Again, I am sorry, Doctor. I have not heard from him. However I have heard of him. I'm afraid your brother has met with an untimely end.»
Nilsson blinked hard. He caught himself doing it, and reacted by opening his eyes wide.
«I see,» he said again. «Do you have any details on the matter?»
«Yes. But I am not-able to discuss them on the telephone.»
«Of course, I understand,» said. He cleared his throat. «I will speak with you again in a few days. But now there is something you must do.» He cleared his throat again.
«What is that?»
«Close the contract. I will carry it out myself. Without interference.»
«Are you sure you wish to do that?»
«Close the contract,» Nilsson said and hung up the phone without saying good-bye. His old and ta