Then he said, "Four hundred eighty-three million and some change. Plus my usual five percent commission, which in this case comes to about two and a quarter million."
"But I offered you five million," Walton said. "That offer still goes."
"You want me to lose my license? I spend years placing bribes to get a slyster's license, and you want me to throw it away for an extra couple million? Uh-uh. I'll settle for two and a quarter, and damn good doing I call that for a day's work."
Walton grinned. "You win. And Sue Llewellyn will be glad to know it didn't cost the whole billion to grab Citizen. You'll be over with the papers, won't you?"
"About 1000," the slyster said. "I've gotta follow through for Murlin on his monorail deal first. The poor sucker! See you in an hour."
"Right."
Rapidly Walton scribbled memos. As soon as the papers were in his hands, he'd serve notice on Murlin that a stock-holders' meeting was to be held at once. After that, he'd depose Murlin, fire the present Citizen editors, and pack the telefax sheet with men loyal to Popeek.
Fred was due at 1100. Walton buzzed Keeler, the new security chief, and said, "Keeler, I have an appointment with someone at 1100. I want you to station three men outside my door and frisk him for weapons as he comes in."
"We'd do that anyway, sir. It's standard procedure now."
"Good. But I want you to be one of the three. And make sure the two who come with you are tight-mouthed. I don't want any newsbreaks on this."