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About an hour later, Zed gave me a ring back.
"The stuff checks out like you said. That's a good piece of work, Red."
"Just tryin' to help out."
"We'll have to do something about Montsnmag Beverages producing this stuff."
"Good luck. I haven't been able to get Montsnmag to do anything they don't want to do, even with nuke weapons."
"We'll see. Where do you want the swap?"
"How about in front of the Lazy Lizard mine? That way it'll be out of sight of most everybody."
"Sounds reasonable. When?"
"We're ready as soon as your folks get here. The quicker, the better, for everybody."
"Ok, I'll call you back with an ETA."
I went back into the cave and woke up L. He started to grouse, but shut up when I told him the deal had been set up with Zed. If he had any grousing to do, do it with his boss.
I was glad I wouldn't have to listen to that ruckus.
Meanwhile, I picked up all the business papers from the T-shirts for later perusal.
A half hour later, the MIB showed up with DesertGrandpa. The swap went off slicker than a politican's payoff. It was good to see two older people huggin' and cryin'. One of the benefits of the job.
I escorted them back home, with VR and the gang in tow. I saw that they settled in, and told them to sip on the leftover Zany Carter Deluxe for a couple of days, until it was certain that the MIB would keep their end of the bargain. If they reneged and got a few holes in them, that wasn't any of my concern.
As we drove off, I asked, "Well VR, I promised Hugo and Lefty a day at the office. You want to come along?"
He shuddered. "Not with that cat there. I've called the Queen and told her that Hugo and Lefty have been found, and are in your custody. I think I'll fly back home. It's not my vacation time."
"Do you want me to put in a good word with Her Majesty for some more scritch time?"
"Wellll. If you wouldn't mind..."
"No problem at all. You fly over to Pinwheel and I'll have it arranged by the time you get there. Drop you off at the airport?"
"Over at the private plane section. And could you call my human?"
I punched in the number and held the phone while VR made his arrangements. We got to the airport and I dropped him off.
"Thanks Red. See you in Pinwheel."
"Scritch, scritch, VR."
I went over to the sardine can and took the next flight back home. I figgered it was safer to head out of town that to stick around as a clay pigeon at a Ranger's game.
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