Heller arrives ten minutes early for the meeting/ambush arranged by Mr. Bury. As he enters the restaurant and orders his meal, Gris catches sight of a familiar face. He gets a freezeframe of the HellerVision to focus on a man with "very Sicilian" features, a scar extending from the corner of his mouth to his ear, and "reptilian" eyes. And then there's a profoundly sad moment where Gris picks up a camera, presses it up against the HellerVision screen, and takes a picture of the picture because these super-advanced aliens don't have the equipment to transfer a still image from a video file to a printer.
And why not? Because a "proper computer system" is illegal to install on this planet. These guys have a secret base hidden by holograms and capable of servicing interstellar spacecraft, but they aren't willing to take the risk of bringing along a decent PC. The Apparatus, which gleefully breaks the laws of the Voltarian Confederacy in its campaign of death and extortion, follows the rules when it comes to banning extremely useful equipment like two-way radios.
Idiocy. Idiocy that is necessary for Hubbard's plot to function. Idiocy that enables further idiocy, layers upon layers of stupid.
Anyway. While Heller enjoys his hamburger, the HellerVision picks up on the Sicilian showing a gray haired fellow something cupped in his hand, and nodding towards Heller. The gray haired man, who gets a full paragraph describing how well-dressed he is, politely sidles up to Heller and introduces himself in a very English accent as Buttlesby, here on behalf of Mr. Bury to take care of the "young master."
Buttlesby leads Heller back to the Caddy, holds the door open for him, and gets in the passenger seat, while the Sicilian gets in his own vehicle to follow, which Heller notes but does not react to. Buttlesby gives instructions while he gives directions - Heller is to take his car to a garage in Weehawken, New Jersey, a place Gris describes as shabby, then take a cab into New York City. This is to save the precious Caddy the horrors of New York fender-benders, while Gris notes how Buttlesby is defeating the FBI vehicle trace.
Heller gets to the garage, parks his car, gets his luggage, and hands over one set of keys. Apparently he had two the whole time and Gris just now noticed. There's a taxi waiting for him, and Buttlesby declines to accompany him into New York City, because it's a "dreadful place."
Heller spends more time gawking at the battered and dented fenders of New York City's traffic than looking up at the towering buildings surrounding him.
The taxi drops him off at the Brewster motel, in a section of New York that Gris deems shabby. Heller signs in as Al Capone, gets to his shabby room, and looks out his double window at a building across the street that would be a wonderful place for a sniper to kill him from. Then he repeats an earlier bit of "comedy" and attempts to fix the old black-and-white TV, before giving up and watching a movie about how "the Mafia won World War II for America in Italy."
Gris gets fed up and actually does something beyond watching Heller's life unfold. He tracks down Faht Bey and shows him the picture of the TV, then spends an hour digging through the base's records to identify the man as Razza Louseini, adviser to mob boss Faustino "the Noose" Narcotici, outlet for the illegal drugs produced by I. G. Barben Pharmaceutical, which is controlled by Delbert John Rockecenter. "One of our best customers had been given the job of knocking off Heller!"
And that's about it. Heller had dinner, met a guy, dropped off his car, and got in a hotel room. I guess we're supposed to be rigid with tension over whether or not he's about to get whacked? Though the garage would have been a great place to do it if they were planning to, and they certainly don't seem to be rushing to get to Heller or anything.
Guess we'll just see what happens next chapter. Will the main character of the series with eight volumes after this one get killed off?
...Hey, all the mobster crap in this book is getting us ads for some Godfather game.
Back to Chapter Seven
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