"Mack Reynolds - Day After Tomorrow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Mack)

comparatively small amounts and dribbles his product onto the market
over a period of time. We had one old devil up in New York once who
actually drew one dollar bills. He was a tremendous artist. It took us years
to get him."

Larry Woolford said, "Well, why go into all this? We're hardly dealing
with amateurs now."

Steve looked at him. "That's the trouble. We are."

"Are you batty? Not even your own experts can tell this product from
real money."

"I didn't say it was being made by amateurs. It's being passed by
amateurs—or maybe amateur is the better word."

"How do you know?"

"For one thing, most professionals won't touch anything bigger than a
twenty. Tens are better, fives better still. When you pass a fifty, the person
you gave it to is apt to remember where he got it." Steve Hackett added
slowly, "Particularly if you give one as a tip to the maitre d'hotel in a first
class restaurant. A maitre d' holds his job on the strength of his ability to
remember faces and names."

"What else makes you think your pushers are amateurs?"

"Amateur," Hackett corrected. "Ideally, a pusher is an inconspicuous
type, the kind of person whose face you'd never remember. It's never a
teenage girl who's blowing money at fifty dollars a crack."

It was time to stare now, and Larry Woolford obliged. "A teenager!"

"We've had four descriptions of her, one of them excellent. Fredrick, the
maitre d' over at La Calvados, is the one that counts, but the others jibe.
She's bought perfume and gloves at Michel Swiss, the swankest shop in
town; a dress at Chez Marie— she passed three fifties there—and a hat at
Paulette's over on Monroe street.
 "That's another sign of the amateur, by the way. A competent pusher
buys a small item and gets change for his counterfeit bill. Our girl's been
buying expensive items, obviously more interested in the product than in
her change."

"This doesn't seem to make much sense," Larry Woolford protested.
"You have any ideas at all?"

"The question is," Hackett said, "where did she get it? Is she connected
with one of the embassies and acquired the stuff overseas? If so, that puts
it in your lap again, possibly—"