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“Presumptuous of you.”
“Not at all. I am modeling my business on yours.”
“I am an old man and beyond the influence of flattery. But I do wonder how you would compare a gumshoe to an oil man?”
“E. M. Hock wrote that you achieved your great success in the oil business by being ruthlessly efficient. I heard with my own ears your boast of efficiency to Mr. Van Dorn. In order to be the best ‘gumshoe’ in the private detective business, I had better be efficient.”
Rockefeller replied without a hint of expression, and Bell could not for the life of him tell if the man had a sense of humor. “You’ll know you’re efficient, Detective Bell, when they call you a monster.”
Bell said, “I will make the travel arrangements.”
“I have a man who handles them.”
“Not on this trip. I will decide the safest route.”
Rockefeller nodded agreement. “Of course, none of this is to be repeated. I want no one to know I have business in Baku. We must travel in the utmost secrecy.”
“That will make my job a lot easier,” said Bell. “When do you want to arrive?”
—
At Grand Central Station, which was being simultaneously demolished and expanded into an electrified Grand Central Terminal, the sidings reserved for private railcars offered connections to city telephone systems.
“I need another rifle,” said the assassin.
“Another 99?” asked the gunsmith.
“Have you anything better?”
“I always make you the best.”
“Then more of the best! 99 it is.”
“With telescope?”
“Only the mounting. But I want different bullets.”
“Is there a problem with my loads?”
Picturing the gunsmith’s fussy hands and the desperate-to-please eyes of a genius who didn’t believe he was a genius, the assassin reassured him, “Your loads are wonderfully consistent. I trust my life with them. But I’ve been thinking, have you ever made a bullet that explodes?”
“A dumdum bullet?”
“No. Not a hollow-point. A bullet that detonates on impact.”
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“Like an artillery shell?”
“Precisely. A miniature artillery shell.”
“It’s hard to imagine stuffing an impact fuse and explosive into such a small projectile.”
“But you have a wonderful imagination.”
“I am intrigued,” said the gunsmith. “You are as stimulating as ever.”
17
