A Touch of Infinity Read Online Free PDF Page B

Party of the Soviet Union. He cost less than the princess, but he was more profitable in the long run.”
    He said all this, never taking his eyes from Jerico’s face. Jerico listened with interest.
    â€œYou’re a forthright man, Mr. Blunt.”
    â€œI don’t have time to crap around, Mr. Jerico.”
    â€œWhat do you propose?”
    â€œI like you, Mr. Jerico. You see the point and you come to it. I want to live. I propose to buy off God.”
    Jerico nodded, his pale eyes fixed on Blunt. He remained silent, and Frank Blunt waited. Minutes of silence passed, and still Frank Blunt waited patiently. He respected a man who considered a proposition carefully.
    â€œYou’re not dealing with the principal. You’re dealing with an agent,” Jerico said finally. “How do you propose to enforce the contract?”
    â€œI’m not an unreasonable man. I’m sixty years old. I want fifteen years more. I’ve made arrangements with a man whose line of work is the enforcing of contracts. If I die before the fifteen years are up, he will kill you.”
    â€œThat’s sound,” Jerico agreed after a moment. “I like the way you think, Mr. Blunt.”
    â€œI like the way you think, Mr. Jerico.”
    â€œThen perhaps we can do business.”
    â€œGood. Now what’s your price?”
    â€œHow much are you worth, Mr. Blunt?”
    â€œAbout five hundred million dollars.”
    â€œThen that’s the price, Mr. Blunt.”
    â€œYou’re not serious?”
    â€œDeadly serious.”
    â€œThen you’re insane.”
    Jerico smiled and spread his hands. “What’s the alternative, Mr. Blunt? I could suggest the reward that awaits a man who has lived well—but no one takes any money with him to that place. You want it here on earth.”
    â€œTo hell with you!” Blunt snorted. But he didn’t get up. He sat there, watching Jerico.
    â€œI didn’t come to you,” Jerico said softly. “You came to me.”
    Silence again. The silence dragged on, and this time Jerico waited patiently. Finally Blunt asked:
    â€œHow much will you let me keep?”
    â€œNothing.”
    â€œA man doesn’t live on air and water. A million would see me through.”
    â€œNothing.”
    â€œWell, I’ve heard it said that I have more money than God. Now it’s reversed. The fact is, Mr. Jerico, that you drive a hard bargain, a damn hard bargain. I don’t need money; I have a credit line of twenty million. You have a deal. Suppose we let the lawyers get together tomorrow.”
    It took seven weeks for the lawyers to finish the legal arrangements and for the papers to be signed. On the eighth week, Frank Blunt suffered a stroke. He was taken to the Dallas Colonial Nursing Home, which Joe Jerico immediately purchased, installing his own staff of doctors, nurses, and technicians. A year later Frank Blunt was still alive. A mechanical heart had taken over the function of his own weary instrument; a kidney machine flushed his body; and nourishment was fed to him intravenously. Whether or not he was more than a vegetable is difficult to say, but the report issued by Joe Jerico, who visited him once a week, was that he lived by faith—a testimony to faith.
    By the third year, Joe Jerico’s weekly visits had ceased. For one thing, his home was in Luxembourg—re the tax benefits—and his fortune was increasing at so lively a pace that he abhorred the thought of airplanes. He found his eighteen-thousand-ton yacht sufficient for his travel needs. His revivals had decreased to one a year, but whenever he was in America for the occasion, he made certain to visit Frank Blunt.
    Frank Blunt died in 1971—fifteen years to the day from the time in Joe Jerico’s dressing room when they had shaken hands and closed their deal. Actually his death was caused by a malfunction of the artificial heart, but it was only to