Shiver on the Sky
Page 45
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So now Danny was late getting back for a meeting with Serno, and he had to leave early to meet the columnist, whether Mark and Howie got to him or not. If anybody else knew about the meeting in the mall, and knew enough to think it was important, Danny didn’t want to have to explain later why he hadn’t shown up.
How the hell was he supposed to get anything done today, with all the interruptions? Maybe he should have stayed a salesman.
The receptionist tried to say something. Danny dismissed him with an irritated wave and kept going. He didn’t have any interest in whatever crap this place was generating today.
He threw his office door open, almost slamming it into the wall. Some of the expenses he’d been seeing lately were ridiculous, and he looked forward to ruining Serno’s day by requiring full explanations. The new phones, for example—what was that about? The old system hadn’t had all the bells and whistles, but it had been less than a year old, and it had worked just fine.
Danny didn’t plan to admit to any benefits he’d derived from the new system. It was a good policy to keep the little jerk busy, so he didn’t have time to come up with any creative ideas of his own. Danny had had just about enough of those.
But he stopped halfway into his office. Atkins sat behind the desk, his hands folded in front of him. He looked sleepy.
Danny backhanded the air, watching his hand cross in front of Atkins’s face. “What? I’m busy. Tell Viktor I’ll call him.” He walked the rest of the way in and closed the door. “How’d you get in here, anyway?” Maybe he could fire somebody. That might improve his mood.
Atkins smiled. “Most people don’t stop me. And Viktor said he wanted to see you as soon as you got back.”
Danny leaned over the desk. “Look. I don’t have time. There are things going on that Viktor doesn’t know about, and some of them are important. Go tell him I’ll call him tonight. Or I’ll come by, if that’s what he wants.”
Atkins shook his head, still smiling.
“What?” Danny asked.
Atkins opened his jacket, revealing a gun in a shoulder harness. “Viktor said right away,” he explained.
“Fuck. Don’t you listen at all?” But Atkins was Viktor’s pet psychopath. Listening wasn’t what Viktor used him for.
Atkins rose from his chair. “Time to go.” He fingered the gun, still smiling.
“Fuck,” Danny repeated.
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