"At the Statler," Web insisted, "under my own name. Bring money. And bring an escort. Watch out for old men with sharp noses. What? We've been invaded. Yes, by little old men with sharp—look, chief, never mind, come out here and I'll tell you the whole thing."
With that he hung up.
At the thought of how Dundon must look, he grew cheerful for the first time since the whole business had begun. For a risingly happy moment he began to feel for once like his old gay carefree self.
I am going to wait, he said happily to himself, until the whole damn army gets here.
I am not going to move a foot. I will sleep and eat until the cows come home, I will load up on scotch and I will lock my door, because, by heck, I deserve it.
Because he had had little experience with hotel rooms, especially rooms of such a lavish nature, he did not think of room service. He strode through the door gaily whistling, and was halfway to the elevator when the orange flash cut him down.
Kunklin and Prule joined to rake in twelve more Faktors, and to dissolve Web once again.
"This is quite hard on the boy, really," Prule observed reproachfully.
Kunklin was unmoved. "He doesn't feel a thing. He will never know about it."