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because the mob owns and controls Atlantic City, while Philadelphia is the headquarters of the National Police. They run the Philadelphia vice, too, and own some of the best politicians money can buy, but there's no use in tweaking them too far." I nodded. "But so far this operation is only the fifty prostitutes? No more?" "That we know of, although things do appear to be changing. The work done up on the farm-the estate up-country-on the gate there seems to be very extensive, and they wouldn't do that if they weren't planning some real expansion. We also believe that they are importing a lot more of the drug than before, and one dose a day is not only the minimum but the maximum you need. Any more has no real effect on an addict. Then there's this Addison woman. She tends to show up now and again, much more in the last few months than ever before, but she never uses the Pennsylvania gate. She has also been seen in the large compound they're building in Guiana." "Then why don't you have pictures of her? At least I'd think you would have them places staked out as best you could." "We do, and we've had half a dozen chances, brief ones, to photograph her and a file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%2...D.%20Inc%202%20-%20The%20Shado w%20Dancers.txt (67 of 146) [1/19/03 4:19:23 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20G.O.D.%20Inc%202% 20-%20The%20Shadow%20Dancers.txt couple of opportunities to photograph Dr. Carlos, but no matter what the photos turn out too blurry to be used. They must have some sort of device that makes it impossible. That's all we can figure." Well, to folks who could build and run the Labyrinth, a gadget like that would be no trouble at all, I thought. Still, it brought up a real point. "If they don't want their pictures taken that bad, then there must be somebody somewheres who might recognize them," I pointed out. "That means they ain't no flunkies and messengers. Have you tried composite sketches?" "Oh, yes. We sent some fairly detailed ones to security, but they were unable to get anything from them. It's another of those mysteries." "Other than this Addison, has there been any contact between this Carlos and Siegel? Anything?" "We think there must be, but we haven't been able to document anything as yet. Page 80 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Consider that the National Police at least know of the drug and are scared by it, too. They think it's locally made and they're scared stiff that it might be mass-produced for general use. They, and we, have staked out, bugged, and tapped both operations as much as humanly possible and come up with nothing at all. The odds are very good that Wycliffe and Siegel have anti-bugging technology far in advance of ours. For them, this is a strictly business proposition. They are getting new technology for their operations that make a joke out of the police efforts, and in exchange they are doing this on the side. None of it, however, makes sense. I mean, why hook fifty young girls on it, all under nineteen when hooked, when you can use far more conventional drugs the same way? And why no men?" "Any link between the fifty? Families? Anything?" "The first thing we looked for. Most are runaways or the sort that decided to go on the street on their own. None come from powerful or influential families, although a few are from the middle class, God help us. They are all well built and attractive, but none are much more than that. The bulk are white, but there are some Negro girls in there and also some Chinese girls. At the start, when there were only a dozen or so, they were kept together, but now they're in small groups working in various cities along the eastern seaboard, no more than six to eight. Siegel keeps three around his personal home at the Jersey shore as virtually his slaves, although even they occasionally work the streets." Well, we managed to make it to Huntington. After bein' Vogel's Beth I didn't mind eatin' mostly carry-out food and mostly sleepin' in the car. The train ride was real nice-we don't have trains like this back home, I'll tell you-and most everybody just assumed I was Lindy's personal maid or something like that. Their assumptions pissed me off a little, but I played along with it because it was handy and the laugh was on them. Most of the train crew was black, though-the porters, cooks, waiters, that sort of thing- and every damned black man on there seemed to think he was God's gift to women and were the most arrogant bunch I ever was around. Philadelphia was very much different and still pretty much the same. There was no Schuykull Expressway or I-95 or like that-no expressways to speak of at all, and no U.S. 1 as such, either-but it was still a big city, it was still laid out based on Market and Chestnut, and it had elevated railways, streetcars down every street, and trolley buses, too. The downtown buildings, even the new ones, tended to look old-fashioned and not all box and glass, but it was familiar enough, and out on all sides was the row houses and tiny streets lookin' much the same. They had a couple of northern bridges across the Delaware, but the big ones I was used to, like the Franklin, Whitman, and Ross, just didn't exist. Most folks took ferries across the Delaware to Camden, which was more wide open than in my world. Blacks lived in their own sections and only there, comin' out only to work or shop, but things wasn't so bad otherwise. Philadelphia stores took the same money no matter what the color, although some of the big department stores had separate dressin' rooms for colored and white. On the other hand, you rode anywhere on the trolley or train you wanted and all but the fancy restaurants didn't care if you ate there so long as you had the money. The most real trouble file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%2...D.%20Inc%202%20-%20The%20Shado w%20Dancers.txt (68 of 146) [1/19/03 4:19:23 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20G.O.D.%20Inc%202% 20-%20The%20Shadow%20Dancers.txt I had was that I kept lookin' the wrong way before steppin' into a street and almost got run over, and when a streetcar-they called 'em trams-or somethin' stopped, I half the time would have to keep from walkin' to the wrong side, Page 81 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |