"Mel Gilden - Zoot Marlow 2 - Hawaiian UFO Aliens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilden Mel)

when we weren't watching nothing else. I saw them look up a number, but I never seen them use a
phone. Nobody around me saw them use a phone. When it was all over, I checked.'
'OK,' I said. 'Nobody saw them use the phone. Make something out of it.'
'OK, buster. You asked for it. A few seconds after these two don't use the phone, a big black guy
with a moustache you could hang birdcages from and wearing a Big Orange Taxi Service cap comes in
looking a little confused, wanted to know if anybody had called for a cab.'
He waited for applause. He didn't get it, but he had everybody's attention. He finished, 'So these two
Oriental types walk out with the cabbie just as casual.' He shook his head.
 'You expect us to believe that?' Charlie said from his station at the turn in the bar.
'God's truth,' the geezer said, making an X over his heart with a finger.
'You guys give me a pain. First that Rare freak, and now you guys with your blonde gooks and your
giant hats and your phantom phone calls.' He didn't seem to move, but a second later, he smacked
something down on the bar.
Everybody but me jumped. I had only the vaguest idea what the thing was, but no one else seemed to
be in doubt. The customers at his end of the bar sort of began to drift away. Charlie gripped the thing as
it lay on the bar, smooth and deadlyтАФa weapon of some kind but too long even for Charlie to carry in a
pocket. Charlie glared at me, almost smiling. Then the smile was gone and he was looking at Dweeb hard
enough to push him over. 'You get out of here. And take your friends with you.'
'I'm a customer,' Dweeb said, showing more crust than I would have suspected he had.
Charlie hooked his thumb over his shoulder at a sign that said, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO
REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE. He slid a dollar across the bar and shouted, 'Get out.' Dweeb
grabbed the dollar and ran. Charlie gave another dollar to the geezer. The geezer mumbled. 'There are
other bars in this town. Guy knows when he's not wanted.' He climbed from his stool and followed
Dweeb out.
'Yeah,' I said. 'This is a classier establishment already, now they're gone. I can feel it. I'll recommend
this place to my friends.' I grabbed Bill around the neck and walked out dangling him. When we got
outside, I put him down and he kind of straightened his beak. The geezer was gone, along with Dweeb
and my dollar. That was OK, I'd gotten my money's worth.
Bill and I walked back the way we'd come. Quietly, I said, 'What was that thing?'
'What thing?'
'The thing on the bar everybody seemed so afraid of.'
'Sawed-off shotgun.'
'Sawed off from what?'
'Haw!' said Bill, giving me another sample from his menagerie of laughs.
'Haw,' I said. I suddenly felt dirty, just having been inside the Malibu Bar and No-Grill. I probably
wouldn't have liked the place any better when it had been Surf Naked. 'Let's get out of here,' I said, and
walked faster.
The sun was sliding slowly toward the far edge of the Pacific, turning the few clouds a pink I'd never
seen on a T-shirt. The crowds on the walkway were thinning as the air grew cool. I couldn't get the
geezer's story out of my head. Somehow it fit with Captain Hook's problem and with the top hat itself.
Those two Orientals were worth a closer look, if only because of that. But there was more to the story,
Orientals, blonde or not, don't just climb out of hats unless they have a reason. It might all just be
innocent good fun, but I doubted it.
On a hunch, I stopped to look in the window of a place selling little animals made out of seashells
glued together. Not far away, a big robot in a white suit was looking in a window, too.
I said, 'Somebody's following us. Any ideas?'
'Better scheming through electronics,' Bill said, and laughed as he waddled off.