Backlash

Начало книги

Boder stood silently in from of the hotel desk, feeling the hot rush of blood, the roar in his ears. He waited until he could speak quietly.

His voice sounded strange in his ears as he said to the haughty clerk. “It s no business of yours why I want a room on the north side on the second or third floor. Just say yes or no. That’s all.”

He saw the clerk’s eyes widen: he felt that he was looking and acting strangely. It was no wonder, after the months of waiting — and now he had decided.

The bell-hop took the bag and the key. Boder stood in the small elevator, trying to quiet the heavy rasp of his breathing, knowing that the clerk would remember him. Then he thought of Bess and Karl and the roaring came back in his ears. He stumbled out of the elevator in front of the bell hop.

When he had tipped the boy, he stood for a moment with his back against the locked door, breathing hard, his sullen face slack and expressionless.

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