apologize to Tom or you leave this room right now, and maybe you won't be back ever. Understand?
Help him up, Billy. '
Billy hoisted Frank to his feet. Frank rubbed his mouth and looked at the blood on the back of his hand.
'I guess I'm sorry,' he mumbled, then looked at me directly.
'But what are you going to do about my sister?'
'I'm going to make the exchange.' I looked at the expression on his face, and then at Billy One.
'Did you have any doubt I would?'
A suppressed chuckle came from Billy.
'You're damn right they had doubts.' i31 Billy One exhaled a long sigh.
'Maybe I misjudged you, Tom,' he said quietly.
'Well, now we can plan,' said Billy. He sat down and picked up the letter.
'Frank was Alking about hoodlums, but Tom's right; this wasn't written by any illiterate jerk. But he used a typewriter they can be traced.'
'Typewriters are cheap,' said Frank as he picked up his chair.
'That one is probably at the bottom of Galveston Bay by now.' He sat down.
'And what's to plan? This guy is doing the planning. We can't do a goddamn thing until we get instructions on how we do the deal.'
'You're wrong,' said Billy.
'What's the use of having a security section in the Corporation if we don't use it? Those guys know all about bugs.'
Billy One lifted a shaggy eyebrow.
'So?'
'So we bug Tom. A transmitter in the heel of a shoe, maybe. In a ballpoint pen or sewn into his pants. We bug him until he's crawling.'
'And then?'
'Then we…'
Billy One had a sudden thought. He held up his hand and looked about the table.
'Hold it! There are too many damn people in here. Let's do some pruning. Tom stays, of course and Billy. Jack stays, too, if he wants.' He peered at the far end of the table.
'Jim, you stay. The rest of you clear out.'
There was a general murmur of disapproval but no one objected overtly except Frank.
'What the hell!' he said tightly.
'We're talking about my sister. I'm staying.'
Billy One scowled at him.
'Okay. But quit riding Tom; we're talking about his wife and that's a closer relationship. ' He turned to Jack.
'It's after four in the morning and you look beat.
You sure you want to stay? You've been grinding at this all night.
'
'So has Frank. So have you.'
'Yeah, but Frank is a young guy and I'm not as close to it as you.
I'm more objective. Why don't you catch some sleep and come up tomorrow full of the old moxie? '
'Maybe you're right,' said Jack. His face was grey with fatigue as he stood up slowly.
'Frank, fill me in tomorrow morning.
Hear? '
'I'll do that.' A frown creased Frank's forehead as he watched his father walk to the door.
I had a sudden insight into the workings of the Cunningham Corporation. It operated remarkably like the Kremlin collective leadership. Everybody had a vote but some votes were heavier than others. Every so often the old bulls at the top would do battle over some issue and the weaker would be tossed out. I had the idea that this was happening now; that Billy One was in the process of tossing out Jack, just as Brezhnev had got rid ofPodgorny.
Billy and Frank were fighting for second place. Where Jim Cunningham came into this I did not know; probably Billy One was sea ling an alliance with a faction of the clan. Jim was lucky he had been promoted to top table.
This was confirmed when, as the door closed, Billy One called, Jim, come sit up here. ' He glowered at us under white eyebrows.
'From now on we operate on ' need to know', and what they don't know won't hurt us, or Debbie. Hell, it only needs Joe to drop a loose word at home and Linda would spread it over half Houston. She's a gossip.'
Frank said, 'If she shoots her mouth off about what's happened to Debbie she'll wish she never married a Cunningham. I'll see to it if Joe doesn't.'
Billy One nodded. Jim, you know more about the security angle than any of us. Got any ideas on this? '
Jim was a young chap of about twenty-five, dressed casually in jeans.
He had a sleepy look about him which was deceptive because he was as sharp as a tack. He said, 'Billy is right.' He turned to me.
'I'll need your clothes coat, pants, everything you wear down to socks and underwear. The outfit you'll use when you go to make this lousy deal. We'll have you radiating right through the electromagnetic spectrum.' To Billy One he said, 'We'll need cars, light airplanes and maybe choppers. Better lay on a couple of fast boats, too; Tom might be taken out to sea.'
'We'll use my boat,' said Frank.
'Nothing faster in Texas.'
'No!' said Jim quickly.
'We use nothing Cunningham. We rent everything.'
'My job, ' said Billy.
I said, 'But no one makes a move until Debbie's safe.'
'That's understood,' said Billy One.
'What about a gun?'
I shook my head.
'No gun. I don't want to kill anybody.'
He looked disappointed; my way was not the Texan way 'You might need a gun to stop someone killingJoa.'
'A gun wouldn't stop them not the way I use one,' I said dryly.
'Anyway, they'll search me. The joker who wrote this ransom note doesn't sound like a damn fool.'
Jim agreed.
'Finding a gun might make him nervous; nervous guys are dangerous. '
A telephone beeped discreetly in a corner of the room. Billy One jerked his head and Jim got up to answer it. Even though he had got to the inner cabinet he knew his place on the totem pole; he was still a messenger boy. Presently he said, 'It's the Security Officer speaking from the lobby. He says an envelope has been handed in addressed to Jack.'
Billy One grunted.
'Have him bring it up.'
'Our security force might need beefing up,' said Billy.
'The way this is turning out we might be spread thin. What about a detective agency?'
'I'll fix that,' said Billy One.
'I know a good one.'
Frank said, 'We might not have time for all that. I have a gut feeling trouble is coming up in the elevator right now.'
Billy One looked at his watch.
'If you're right, it's bad news.' He picked up the ransom letter.
'I know this guy said he'd know when Tom arrives, but Tom's been here not much over an hour.'
'Good intelligence service,' said Billy.
'Too goddamn good.' Frank frowned.
