"Good."
Duane smiled. "How did I look?"
"Too handsome. I'll be fighting off the movie offers."
Duane laughed too hard. Much too hard. Wanda did not laugh. Neither did Myron. Then Duane feigned another yawn, stretched and stood. "I really need to get some rest," he said. "Big match coming up. Hate to let all this bullshit distract me."
He showed Myron to the door. Wanda still had not moved from her spot by the kitchen door. She finally met Myron's eye.
"Good-bye, Myron," Wanda said.
The door closed. Myron took the elevator back down and walked to his car. A ticket was nestled between the windshield and the wiper. He grabbed it and started the car.
Three blocks away Myron spotted the same powder-blue Cadillac with the canary-yellow top.
Chapter 4
Yuppieville.
The fourteenth floor of Lock-Horne Investments amp; Securities reminded Myron of a medieval fortress. There was the vast space in the middle, and a thick, formidable wall – the big producers' offices – safeguarding the perimeter. The open area housed hundreds of mostly men, young men, combat soldiers easily sacrificed and replaced, a seemingly endless sea of them, bobbing and blending into the corporate-gray carpet, the identical desks, the identical rolling chairs, the computer terminals, me telephones, the fax machines. Like soldiers they wore uniforms – white button-down shirts, suspenders, bright ties strangling carotid arteries, suit jackets draped across the backs of the identical rolling chairs. There were loud noises, screams, rings, even something that sounded like death cries. Everyone was in motion. Everyone was scattering, panicked, under constant attack.
Yes, for here was one of the final strongholds of true yuppieism, a place where man was free to practice the religion of eighties greed, greed at all costs, without pretense of doing otherwise. No hypocrisy here. Investment houses were not about helping the world. They were not about providing a service to mankind or doing what was best for all. This haven had a simple, clear-cut, basic goal. Making money. Period.