"Fine. Don't look. In the doorway of the tailor shop is a dark-complexioned man in a gray sharkskin suit. He's a tail. He picked me up at the airport. I don't know the town well enough to lose him easily in broad daylight. Never been here before today. Take him out for me?"
Rick and Scotty nodded. Neither looked toward the doorway. "How will we get in touch with you?" Rick asked.
Steve hesitated. "There's no one I'd rather see more of, and no one I'd rather have on my side. But this case is not for you. Just do me this favor, then forget you saw me."
"You never know when you'll need help," Rick pointed out. "We won't horn in, but it won't do any harm to know how we can reach other. Tonight we'll be at a hotel called Alexander's Rest. Tomorrow we take off for an island called Clipper Cay."
"All right. If you really need to reach me, call the duty officer at the UDT base and leave a message. I'll get it."
Rick turned slightly. In a plate-glass window across the street he could see a reflection of the tailor shop Steve had mentioned, and he could make out the form of a man in the shadowed doorway. He estimated that the shop was about fifty feet away.
Scotty was also measuring the situation. He said, "Walk away from us so the tail will have to come by."
Steve nodded. He shook hands, gave them each a grin, and was gone.
Rick said loudly, "Give me your shoulder to lean on. I've got a rock in my shoe."
Scotty obliged, and Rick half turned as he did so. He saw the man in the gray sharkskin suit saunter out of the doorway and start toward them.