“You put a tail on me.”
“I’m afraid so, yes. Mr Formutesca here followed you when you left your hotel in New York.”
Formutesca was letting all his self-satisfaction show. “We thought we hadn’t made a good impression on you,” he said, “so you might decide to go away. And that’s what you did.”
“We were determined,” Gonor said, “to correct that impression. Keeping track of you was, you will admit, not sloppiness.”
Parker nodded. “So?”
“You will also notice,” Gonor said, “that we are one less than previously. We found our traitor.”
“You sure he was the one?”
Gonor’s smile contained a small hint of delicate savagery. “We’re sure,” he said.
Formutesca said, “He told us all about it before we were done.”
“Where is he now?”
“He isn’t,” Formutesca said.
Parker looked at him. Behind the humor Formutesca looked tough. Behind the impassivity Gonor also looked tough. The third man, younger, looked strong and willing.
Gonor said, “We had hoped to bring you news of Hoskins’ removal as well, but he seems to have disappeared for good this time.”
“He’ll be back,” Formutesca said. “But probably not for a while.”
Parker said, “That general and his colonist friends”
“General Goma.”
“They know you found out about their man.”
“That won’t make any difference,” Gonor said. “They won’t move against us until they believe we have the diamonds.”
Parker turned and looked at the restaurant. Claire was sitting in there on the cool side of the glass, watching. She nodded when their eyes met. He turned back to Gonor and said, “Why follow me? I gave you a no up in New York when I left.”
“Because you had the wrong impression of us,” Gonor said. “If you say no to us after we have corrected that impression, of course we will no longer bother you.”
“We want to give you the proposition first,” Formutesca said. “We never got to that in New York.”
“You want me to plan your heisting the diamonds.”
Gonor frowned. “Heisting?”
Formutesca grinned at him. “Stealing,” he explained, then said to Parker, “I went to M.I.T. Mr Gonor learned his English in school.”
Gonor was irritated. “M.I.T. is a school,” he snapped. Then to Parker he said, “The proposition is this. We will pay you twenty-five thousand dollars, plus expenses, to plan the robbery and train us to perform it, the money payable on the eve of the robbery before we do it and yours whether the robbery succeeds or not.”
“You don’t want me along.”
“Not unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Gonor said. “Which would be, of course, your decision. If you feel your physical presence during the robbery will be necessary, we will pay you an additional twenty-five thousand dollars. At the same time as the first.”
“You’ll give me the layout?”
“Naturally.”
“What if I look at it and decide it can’t be done?”
“We’ll pay your expenses up to that point,” Gonor said, “and thank you for your opinion.”
Parker watched the traffic. “Where are you staying?”
Gonor grimaced. “At a place called the Sunrise Motel.”
“For colored,” Formutesca said, amused.
“If I call at eight o’clock tonight,” Parker said, “it means yes. If I don’t, it means no.”
“Fair enough,” Gonor said. “We’ll hope to hear from you.”
Parker nodded and turned away and went back into the restaurant. The air inside was too cold for comfort now, chilling the sweat on his face and back. He sat down at the table and Claire smiled knowingly at him, saying, “You’re going to do it.”
“Maybe,” Parker said.
“They got your interest,” she said. “You’ll do it.”
“Maybe,” Parker said.
7
Claire said, “What time is it?”
