sharkey escorted mister green into moran’s office. then sharkey, without having met moran’s eyes, left and closed the door behind him.
moran saw that mister green did indeed “dress nice” as sharkey had said. moran did not usually notice such things, and might not have if sharkey had not mentioned it.
mister green looked like an ad for men’s suits in the newspaper. he had a nice tan and showed shiny white teeth when he said “good aternoon , mister moran.”
“good afternoon to you.”
mister green looked at the chair in front of moran’s desk. “do you mind if i sit down?.”
“be my guest, but say what you have to say.”
mister green seated himself, “i understand you have the ear of president capone.”
“you might say that, i have seen him just about every day for twenty-three years. if you have something to say, say it. if i think it’s worth passing on to al, i will do it. you have three minutes.”
“to be sure, i represent the rulers of what for your purposes we will call the avar empire from the sculptor dwarf galaxy,”
moran had never heard of the sculptor dwarf galaxy, and just nodded.
“at least three empires of the galaxy have targeted this most fecund and delightful planet, for purposes it might be difficult to describe to you. there is certain to be competition between the three…”
“why don’t you try?” moran interrupted.
“excuse me?”
“why don’t you try to explain what you want from this whatever and delightful planet? i think it might help.“
“the inhabitants of our galaxy are interested in a substance which exists in abundance on this planet.”
“which is what? people? we have plenty of people. you want slaves, is that what you want ?”
“good gracious, no, that is the last thing we would want. if we wanted slaves, we could just make some.”’
“what do you want then? oil? gold? soybeans? cockroaches?”
“no, no, what we want is a substance that the inhabitants of your planet have no use for and don’t even know exists.”
moran considerred this. “and is this wonderful stuff in any particular place? or all over?
“most of it is far beneath what you call the pacific ocean. ”
“oh! well in that case, you don’t want to talk to al, you want nancy nan, of the pacific empire.”
“our understanding, which might be imperfect, is that the oceans beyond certain limits are not part of any of the seven empires.”
“maybe. i think you want to talk to mister woodrow wilson, he is secretary of state, what you might call call the international guy. i’m more the local guy, keeping the lid on things, as it were.”
“we have been attempting to contact mister wilson.”
“maybe you should keep trying. that is all i have to say on the subject.”
“i thank you for your time, mister moran. i hope you will find your way to at least mentioning my little visit to mister capone.”
“i might. if i think of it.”
“then i thank you again.” mister green stood up.
“just one little thing, pal, before you go.”
“yes?”
“you talk about the so-called seven empires as if they were all equal. that is a mistake. there is only one that counts, and that is america, the greatest country in the world, the greatest that ever was or will be. you got that?”
“i will keep it in mind.” mister green managed a smile.
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