Our Friends From Frolix 8 Read Online Free PDF

Cordon’s execution?’
    Seating himself, Denfeld unzipped his briefcase. ‘According to Irma’s instructions, and my professional advice, we have changed several clauses – minor ones – in the separate maintenance agreement. Here.’ He handed a folio, a document, to Gram. ‘Take your time, Council Chairman.’
    ‘What will happen when Cordon is gone?’ Gram asked as he unfolded the legal size sheets of paper and began reading here and there; in particular he scanned the passages marked in red.
    Denfeld said offhandedly, ‘I couldn’t even manage to guess, sir.’
    ‘“Minor clauses”,’ Gram mocked with bitterness as he read. ‘Jeez Christ, she’s upped the child support from two hundred pops a month to four.’ He shuffled among the pages, feeling the edges of his ears glow with wrath – and with stunned dismay. ‘And the alimony up from three thousand to five. And—’ He reached the last sheet; it was strewn with red lines and sums penciled in. ‘Half my travel expenses – she gets that. And
all
of what I make for paid speeches.’His neck had become grimy and soggy with warm, stinging sweat.
    ‘But she’s allowing you to keep all your earnings from written material which you—’
    ‘There isn’t any written material. Who do you think I am, Eric Cordon?’ He tossed the papers brusquely onto the bed; for a time he sat steaming… partly from what he had just now read and partly because of the attorney, Horace Denfeld, who was a New Man; low as he was in the general New Man standings, Denfeld considered all Unusuals – including the Council Chairman – merely a pseudo evolvement. Gram could pick it up from Denfeld’s mind: that low, constant level of superiority and contempt.
    Gram said, ‘I’ll have to think it over.’ I’ll show it to my own attorneys, he said to himself. The best government attorneys there are: those in the tax branch.
    ‘I want you to consider one thing, sir,’ Denfeld said. ‘In a way, it may seem to you that it’s unfair of Mrs. Gram to ask so—’ He searched for the word. ‘So large a share in your property.’
    ‘The house,’ Gram agreed. ‘And the four apartment buildings in Scranton, Pa. All that, and now this.’
    ‘But,’ Denfeld pointed out smoothly, his tongue flitting about his lips like a paper streamer dancing in the wind, ‘it is essential that your separating from your wife must at all costs be kept secret –
for yourself.
For the fact that a Council Chairman of the Extraordinary Committee For Public Safety cannot let a breath of… well, shall we say
la calugna
—’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Scandal. There can’t be a scandal for any high-ranking Unusual or New Man anyhow, as you well know. But this, plus your position—’
    ‘I’ll resign,’ Gram grated, ‘before I sign that. Five thousand pops alimony a month. She’s insane.’ He raised his head and scrutinized Denfeld. ‘What happens to a woman when she’s getting a separate maintenance or a divorce? She – they – want everything, nailed down or otherwise. The house, the apartments, the car, all the pops in the world—’ God, hethought, and rubbed his forehead wearily. To one of his servants he said, ‘Get me my coffee.’
    ‘Yes sir.’ The aide fiddled with the coffee maker, handed him his black, strong espresso cup.
    To the aide, and to everyone in the room, Gram said, appealing to them, ‘What can I do? She’s got me.’ He placed the folio of documents in the drawer of his bedside desk. ‘There’s nothing more to discuss,’ he said to Denfeld. ‘My attorneys will let you know my decision.’ He glowered at Denfeld, whom he did not like at all. ‘Now I have other business.’ He nodded to an aide, who put his firm hand on the attorney’s shoulder and guided him toward one of the doors leading out of the bedroom.
    After the door had shut behind Denfeld, Gram lay back, meditating and drinking his coffee. If only she’d break a law, he said to himself. Even