The other patrons of the bar, Authors all, who had by now learned to bring their own supply when lounging at the Bar & Grill, looked on with interest. Echso was there, and weasel, and Zorlond (without Kiya, for the moment), and The Operator, enjoying his off-duty time. F-Cup Fitzgerald was NOT present, since his last experience with the Wizard had left . . . a bad taste in his mouth, so to speak. Fitzgerald generally avoided the Olde Wizard's Bar in the same way he'd avoid a stuffed animal infected with typhoid. But several little known minor Authors were present. There was #########################################, who nowadays, to save time, went by the name of Numbers. He was a notorious gambler outside of the Hotel, and while in the Hotel, ran the sports book. There was "..."--better known as "Ellipsis," an Author who tended to speak in a roundabout way. And finally there were !!*# and !!?* and !?!* and ??!*--the four Symbols Brothers, who sometimes played drums in Joe's Bar in the Hotel, and who were better known as Q, Ex, Aster-Rick, and L.B.
Anyway, they were all staring at Jenna and Barbara as the two girls swallowed the Wizard's drinks. . . . Instantly of course, as a result of the B.E. Special they had both been slipped, both girls' bustlines began expanding dramatically. Barbara, who apparently started with a nice C-cup, expanded rapidly to at least a D-cup. However, Jenna, more susceptible, expanded from around a C-cup, past D, past DD, even past triple-D, all the way to a mind-boggling G-cup. Buttons flew everywhere as her cleavage spilled out of her blouse. Her breasts hung out dangerously over the last two blouse buttons, barely contained by her flimsy brassiere. The gentlemen in the bar, usually cynical about this sort of thing, were unaccountably staring in mouth-watering desire. . . .
The girl named Jenna ran her hands over her new bustline, her eyes clouded with sudden lust. She began wandering from table to table, flirting with the patrons of the bar.
"What the hell did you give her?" shouted Echso to the Wizard.
The Wizard stared at his bottle in amazement. "Looks like a little 'Lust' got mixed in with the B.E. Special," he said.
Jenna was up to Numbers' table by now, rumpling his loud tie and unbuttoning the top button of his shirt, runnning a hand through his hair. The four Symbols Brothers were quick to take advantage, as well: abandoning their instruments, they formed a circle around Jenna. "Hey, bay-bee, how'sa 'bout a little kiss?" said Aster-Rick.
"Yeah, babe, what a rack you've got! How about a little feel?" said L.B.
"Why don't we go someplace quiet?" said Q, crooking a finger inside the front of Jenna's inadequate bra and giving a little tug. The Major Authors watched all this with some amusement. Perhaps when the lightweights had had more experience with Authorship, they would learn a certain degree of subtlety, but for now. . . .
Where the hell did THAT guy come from? Echso and Zorlond rose abruptly to their feet, as a conservatively-dressed man suddenly walked swiftly across the bar and snatched Q's finger out of Jenna's bra. Zorlond was close enough to hear the bone go SNAP! At first, he thought the man was one of the Men in Gray (there WAS a certain resemblance). Now eight had suddenly appeared, from the hallway leading to the elevators, but THESE men were dressed in ordinary suits, no bowlers, sunglasses, and earpieces stuck in their ears.
"Jesus, Gordon," cried Barbara to the man who had just broken Q's finger, "why can't you guys leave us ALONE for twenty minutes?" Jenna just laughed and clutched at her ruined blouse, trying to cover up.
"MOTHERFUCKER!" Q swore. "That motherfucker just BROKE MY FINGER!" He began to scream in pain. . . . Aster-Rick and L.B. appraoched the one called Gordon: "Why don't you clear out, asshole, before you need an ambulance?"
"Yeah, asshole, but first, apologize for breaking my brother's finger, motherfucker!"
UUUHHHGHHHH! That was L.B. getting flat-handed across a table by the first guy in a suit. Another one of the suits punched Aster-Rick in the eye and shoved him over a railing. Jenna was backing up, watching all of this, and bumped into Zorlond, who was standing his ground by his chair. The eight men in the suits had crowded into the bar by this time and had fanned out slightly. . . .
"Sir, step away from her. Now!" ordered Gordon.
Echso heard one of the men in the back say quietly, "My comm-link is down. No backup."
Zorlond was ignoring the suits for the moment, trying to divide his attention between Jenna, Barbara, and the meaning of Q's recently-broken finger. "Are these men folowing you?" Zorlond asked Jenna. Jenna for her part, was pretty much too drunk to form a sentence by this point, but she managed to say, "They follow us wherever we go. We can't seem to get rid of 'em."
Well, that was all Zorlond needed to hear. As The Operator stepped forward to give Jenna someone to lean on, Gordon stepped up to Zorlond, possibly intending to repeat the finger-breaking performance. "I said, *sir*, get away from the girls!"
"Piss off . . . sonny," said Zorlond. He waved a finger in the air. Gordon's nose began to twitch, as if he suddenly needed to sneeze. . . . And from the corner of the bar, the Olde Wizard brought from under the counter a huge oaken staff and POINTED it at the guys in the suits: "Get the HELL out of my Bar! All of you!"
The men in the suits, of course, had only one thought when they saw the staff: WEAPON.
One of them shouted "Gun!" . . .
Thu Jun 7 14:48:45 2001