Vanishing Act. Fern Michaels

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      Maggie Spritzer rubbed the grit from her eyes. Even though she’d slept the last hundred miles into the District, she was tired and cranky, and she couldn’t see any food anywhere in the office. That only made her more irritated. “I need some food,” she bellowed to Ted, who was standing in the doorway waiting for his marching orders.

      “Maggie, it’s four o’clock in the morning. Where do you think I’m going to get food at this hour? No one is in yet, so there are no donuts. Nothing in this area opens till six o’clock. You know no one replaces the fruit and snacks over the weekend. Plus, I have to go home to check on Mickey and Minnie. I can bring you some stuff from home if you can wait. You do know that you are obsessed with food, right?”

      Maggie bristled. Ted was right, she did obsess about food, but she also obsessed about sex. She said so, to Ted’s chagrin.

      Ted hopped from one foot to the other. “So what you’re saying is if I don’t get you some food, then there won’t be any sex.”

      “Right!” Maggie said, pulling up her e-mails. “It was your idea to drive through the night. We could be in bed right now back on Nantucket, possibly having sex, possibly eating strawberries dipped in chocolate. Strawberries dipped in sweet cream. Instead, I’m sitting here looking at e-mails while I’m starving, and you aren’t helping matters.”

      “Okay, I’m gone. I’ll be back. I want to make sure I understand something. If I fetch food back, we can have sex, maybe tonight?”

      Maggie looked up from the computer. She loved to devil Ted. “Depends on what you bring back, Teddie.”

      Ted groaned as he hotfooted it to the elevator.

      Maggie mumbled something to herself that sounded like, “Maggie, you are shameless,” as she scanned her e-mails, which were hardly earth-shattering. She reached over for her Rolodex and punched in the number for Abner Tookus.

      Maggie sighed and nibbled on her thumbnail while she waited for her old friend to pick up the phone. She was so hungry. Seven rings, eight rings. “C’mon, Abner, pick up. I know you’re there.” When the hacker’s voice mail came on, Maggie disconnected and dialed the number again.

      Finally, the phone was picked up, dropped, then picked up again. “The answer is no. It’s four o’clock in the morning. People only call other people at this hour when there is an emergency. No. Take my name out of your Rolodex and forget you know me.”

      “Abner, sweetie, I’m just as cranky as you are. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be calling you. Do you think for one minute that I like waking people up at four o’clock in the morning?” When there was no response, Maggie tried wheedling. “I hate to wake people up at this hour, but I am up, so you need to get up, too. The early bird gets the worm. C’mon, Abner, I need some help.”

      Maggie heard her old friend sigh. She almost had him.

      “I don’t do that kind of stuff anymore. I’m on the straight and narrow. I even have a full-time if slightly unusual job working for Big Blue, and I’m getting married. So, hang up and let me go back to sleep.”

      “What do you mean you’re getting married? You said you would wait for me forever. Well, that sucks, Abner. When did you get a job with IBM? If you’re lying to me, I’m going to sic the vigilantes on you. Who are you marrying?” Maggie asked, suspicion ringing in her voice.

      “Just you never mind who I’m marrying. Big Blue recruited me. I didn’t go looking for a job, and they pay a hell of a lot better than you do.”

      “Yeah, but are they going to give you a smashing wedding present like I’m going to give you? No, they are not. I’m willing to quadruple your usual fee. Furthermore, you and I both know you could retire on what you charge me. All IBM will do is drain your blood, make you work around-the-clock, then what’s-her-name will get sick and tired of sitting home alone and divorce you. I rest my case, Abner.”

      “Jesus, Maggie, it’s too early in the morning for this kind of discussion. I have to be in the office at six, and you’re eating into my sleep time. Quadruple my fee? What kind of smashing wedding present?”

      “How about I pay for your honeymoon to Hawaii, or maybe Paris?”

      “Plus quadrupling my fee?”

      Maggie sighed, and she was getting hungrier by the moment. She sighed again. “Yeah. That’s how special you are to me.”

      “That’s СКАЧАТЬ