Melon. Good afternoon."
"I"m not Mr. Melon," Malone said testily.
Willcoe looked gently surprised, like a man who has discovered that his evening sherry contains cholesterol. "Really?" he said. "Then I must be on the wrong line. I beg your pardon."
"You"re not on the wrong line," Malone said. "I am Mr. Melon in a way." That didn"t sound very clear when he got it out, so he added: "Your secretary got my name wrong. She thinks I"m Mr. Melon--Kenneth J. Melon."
"But you"re not," Willcoe said.
Malone resisted an impulse to announce that he was really Lamont Cranston. "I"m Kenneth J. Malone," he said.
"Ah," Willcoe said. "Quite amusing. Imagine my mistaking you for a Mr.
Melon, when you"re really Mr. Malone." He paused, and his face got even more wrinkled. "But I don"t know you under either name," he said.
"What do you want?"
"I want to talk to Mr. Manelli," Malone said.
"But Mr. Aoud--"
"Mr. Aoud," Malone said, wondering if it sounded as silly to Willcoe as it did to him, "isn"t in. So I thought you might be able to arrange an appointment for this afternoon."
Willcoe bit his lip. "Mr. Manelli isn"t in just now," he said.
"Yes," Malone said. "I didn"t think he would be. That"s why I want to arrange an appointment for later, when he _will_ be in."
"Does Mr. Manelli know you?" Willcoe said suspiciously, the wrinkles deepening again.
"He knows my boss," Malone said carefully. "You just tell him that this is something that ought to be worth time and money to him. His time, and his money."
"Hmm," Willcoe said. "I see. Would you wait a moment, Mr. Mel--Mr.
Malone?"
The screen blanked out immediately. The wait this time was slightly longer.
And the next face that appeared on the screen was that of Cesare "Big Cheese" Antonio Manelli, the nearly invisible cog.
For a cog, the face was not a bad one. It was strong and well-muscled, and it had dark, wavy hair running along the top. At the sides of the face, the hair was greying slightly, and behind the grey two large ears stuck out. Manelli"s nose was a long, faintly aquiline affair and his eyes were very pleasant and candid. They were light grey.
"Aha," Manelli said. "You are Mr. Malone, right?" His voice was guttural, but it was obvious that he was trying for control. "I regret announcing that I was out, Mr. Malone," he said. "But a man in my position--I like privacy, Mr. Malone, and I try to keep privacy for myself. Let me request you to answer a question, Mr. Malone: do I know you, Mr. Malone?"
"Not personally," Malone said. "I--"
"But I"m supposed to know your boss," Manelli said. "I don"t know him, either, so far."
Malone shrugged. "I"m sure you do," he said, and dropped the name almost casually: "Andrew J. Burris."
Manelli raised his eyebrows. "So that"s who you are," he said. "I ought to have known, Mr. Malone. And you want to talk to me a little bit, right?"
"That"s right," Malone said.
"But this is no way to act, Mr. Malone," Manelli said reproachfully.
"After all, we understand each other, you and me. What you should do, you should come in through channels, in the correct way, so everything it would be open and above the board."
"Through channels?" Malone said.
Manelli regarded him with a pitying glance. "You must be new on your job, Mr. Malone," he said. "Because there is an entire system built up, and you don"t know about it. The way things work, we sit around and we don"t see people. And then somebody comes and presents his credentials, you might say--search warrants, for instance, or subpoenas. And then we know where we are."
Malone shook his head. "This isn"t that kind of call," he said. "It"s more a friendly type of call."
"Mr. Malone," Manelli said. The reproach was stronger in his voice.
"You must be very new at your job."
"Nevertheless," Malone said.
Manelli hesitated only a second. "Because I like you," he said, "and to teach you how things operate around here, I could do you a favor."
"Good," Malone said patiently.
"In an hour," Manelli said. "My place. Here."
The screen blanked out before Malone could even say goodbye.
Malone got up, went out to the corridor, and decided that, since he had time to kill, he might as well walk on down to Manelli"s office.
That, he told himself, would give him time to decide what he wanted to say.
He toyed at first with the idea of a nice bourbon and soda in a Madison Avenue bar, but he discarded that idea in a hurry. It was always possible for him to get into a tight spot and have to teleport his way out, and he didn"t want to be fuzzy around the edges in case that happened. _Trotkin"s_ had showed him that, under enough stress, he could manage the job with quite a lot of vodka in him. But there was absolutely no sense, he told himself sadly, in taking chances.
He started off downtown along Fifth. Soon he was standing in front of the blue-and-crystal tower of the Ravell Building.
That made up his mind for him. He checked his watch, mentally flipped a coin and then cheated a little to make the answer come out right. He went inside and stepped into an elevator.
"Six," he said with decision.
Lou was sitting at the Psychical Research Society desk, talking to the tweedy Sir Lewis Carter. Malone waved at Carter, decided that conversation with Lou was out, and started to walk away. Then he realized that he couldn"t have Carter thinking he was crazy. He had to figure out something to tell the man--and in a hurry, too.
Carter smiled and gestured to him. "Ah, Mr. Malone," he said. "I"m glad you brought our Lou home safely. I"ve heard a little about your-- ah--escapade. Astounding, really."
"Not for the FBI," Malone said modestly. "We"ve been through too much."
"But--"
"No, really," Malone said. "We never call anything astounding any more."
"I can well imagine," Carter said. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Malone thought fast. He had to have something, and he didn"t have much time. "Why--uh--" he said, and then it came to him. "Yes, as a matter of fact you can," he said.
"Glad to be of service," Carter said. "I"m sure we can do anything you request."