Potboiler

“Twenty-one,” Savory said. “Three of them you left in. That’s seven-eighths of the code, destroyed. You turned it into cryptographic Swiss cheese. God knows how the operatives made anything out of it. But obviously they did, because next thing we know, the president of East Zlabia is in intensive care. At first we assumed it was the West Zlabians. Everyone did. They’ve been at each other’s throats for four hundred years. But then we get a coded transmission from one of our Zlabian sleeper cells that the operation had been a failure. Well, that set off a scramble. What operation? We hadn’t called any operation. It wasn’t long till we figured out what the message referred to. What stumped us was how the order had been set in motion. In the first place, the manuscript you stole had nothing to do with shooting Thithyich, at least not until you mangled it. It was supposed to be a plain old recon directive. In West Zlabia, no less. More to the point, it never should have been released, because after Bill died we ordered all his files destroyed.” Savory touched his lips philosophically. “Although given what you did to it, one could argue that the book was, in fact, destroyed. Neither here nor there. Somehow it missed the shredder and got into your hands, leaving us with a pantsload of angry East Zlabians. Thing about Thithyich is, despite being a merciless tyrant, he’s quite the populist. Born dirt poor, ‘one of us,’ all that jazz. To you and me he’s a run-of-the-mill post-Soviet autocrat. To your average East Zlabian peasant grinding it out at subsistence level in a thatch-roofed hut filled with six, maybe eight, kwashiorkoric children who have, collectively, no more than ten, maybe twelve, teeth, he’s Jack Fucking Kennedy. Try to see it from their side. They’re upset.”

“I shot the president of East Zlabia,” Pfefferkorn said.

“The power of literature,” Savory said. “Whatever. The important thing now is to stop the bleeding.” He stood up. “That’s where you come in.”

Pfefferkorn was alarmed. “Where.”

Savory shuffled to the file cabinet and began opening drawers. “We need someone to fill the position vacated by Bill. Seeing as how you’ve already gone ahead and preempted us . . . where the hell did I . . . and over and above that, established superb brand recognit—ah.” He found what he was looking for: a thick manuscript bound with rubber bands. He brought it over and dropped it heavily on the desk in front of Pfefferkorn.

“Tag,” Savory said. “You’re it.”

44.

The title page read Blood Night.

“I think you’ll find that it expands upon the themes begun in Blood Eyes,” Savory said. “Additionally, there’s a lot of good character development, some real poetry to the descriptions of weather. Killer sex scenes. The Boys are proud of it, and rightfully so.”

“This is outrageous,” Pfefferkorn said.

“Quit being such a prima donna.”

“It’s blackmail.”

“The word is ‘collaboration.’”

“Not if I don’t have a choice, it isn’t.”

“Oh, you always have a choice,” Savory said. “But why in the world would you say no? I guess you could, but then you really are done with publishing. Let me let you in on a little secret, Artie: you haven’t got any talent. I read your first book. It was a piece of dreck. Here’s another secret: I’ve read your interviews. I’ve been to your new apartment building. I’ve seen enough to know that you like being a published author. Of course you do. Your new life is a hell of a lot nicer than your old life. You’d be a fool to give it up. And for what? It’s not like I’m asking you to do anything you haven’t done already. I’m giving you the chance to keep your reputation, serve your country, and build up a decent retirement fund in the process. It’s the best deal imaginable. You should be spit-shining my asshole.”

Pfefferkorn said nothing.

“You can always say no. You can walk out of here right now. I’d hate for you to do that, though. Never mind the headache it makes for me. Never mind that. It’s more that I’d hate to see you suffer. You do understand, don’t you? I’ll expose you. I’d have to. It’s the only fair thing to do. What a field day the press would have with that, huh? Just imagine. You’ll be trash, and so will your agent, your publisher, and your family. Everyone within fifty miles of you will reek.”

“If you expose me,” Pfefferkorn said, “I’ll expose you.”

Savory smiled. “Go for it. I’m sure everyone will believe you.”

There was a long silence.

“Does Carlotta know?” Pfefferkorn asked.

“She’s clueless.”

“I don’t want her to find out.”

“She won’t unless you tell her.”

There was a silence.

“What really happened to Bill?” Pfefferkorn asked.

“Hand to God,” Savory said, “it was a boating accident.”

There was a silence.