“Then what?”

“Then we, Quarry, we take over for the Broker. We play the middleman role and get some of the safe money, for a change. Shit! Who in fuck is better qualified than us?”

I nodded. Sat staring thoughtfully at him.

“I know, I know,” he said. “There’s more to it than just what I’ve said. I’m just sketching it in, broad strokes, broad strokes. But it’s not hard to see that there’s more here than just one man can handle. Two men… if they’re men like you and me, Quarry, the sky’s the fuckin’ limit, man. What do you say?”

“How about ‘this is so sudden’?”

“Take your time. Think it over. Nobody’s rushing you.”

“You keep talking. I’ll be thinking it over.’’

“Okay. First move is, hit Ash. Got to question him first, of course, find out if this was his idea, and if not, whose it was. We got to find out about the mechanical side, too, you know, find out just how exactly taking over Broker’s old setup could be put into effect. I mean, I assume there’s a list or something of the people like you and me who worked through the Broker, and we’ll need that; that’ll be the key. Questioning Ash won’t be any big deal. I, uh, know how to get people to talk to me, if I have to. Even somebody like Ash.”

I remembered the stiletto in the other room and knew what he meant.

“All right. I gave you the name, like I said, But it’s meaningless without the address. I can take you there. We can go see Ash together, we could go tonight.”

“It’s within driving distance, then?”

“That’s right. You’ll excuse me for not being exact about how far, or how long it’ll take us, you understand. But if we left now, we could be there in… a reasonable amount of time, yes.”

“You do realize there’s a body in the other room that needs getting rid of.”