“What? Who?”

“Kingston, as in hospital. Where they send people like you.”

“No. Who did you say scared me into a faint?”

“A doctor friend.”

“In the square in front of police headquarters?”

“X marks the spot.”

“Sure?”

“I was with him, looking for you. Your valet told me about the explosion and I was worried. We got to the rescue just in time.”

“Did you see his face?”

“See it? I’ve kissed it.”

“What’s it look like?”

“It’s a face. Two eyes. Two lips. Two ears. One nose. Three chins. Listen, Ben, if this is some more of the awaken-asleep-reality-infinity lyrics… it ain’t commercial.”

“And you brought me here?”

“Sure. How could I pass up the opportunity? It’s the only way I can get you into my bed.”

Reich grinned. He relaxed and said: “Duffy, you may now kiss me.”

“Mr. Reich, you have already been kissed. Or was that when you were still awake?”

“Forget that. Nightmares. Plain nightmares.” Reich burst into laughter. “Why the hell should I worry about having nightmares? I have the rest of the world in my hands. I’ll take the dreams too. Didn’t you once ask to be dragged through the gutter, Duffy?”

“That was a childish whim. I thought I could meet a better class of people.”

“You name the gutter and you can have it, Duffy. Gold gutters… Jewelled gutters. You want a gutter from here to Mars? You’ll have it. You want me to turn the System into a gutter? I’ll do it. Christ! I can turn the Galaxy into a gutter if you want it.” He jabbed his chest with his thumb. “Want to look at God? Here I am. Go ahead and look.”

“Dear man. So modest and so hung-over.”

“Drunk? Sure, I’m drunk.” Reich thrust his legs out of the bed and stood up, reeling slightly. Duffy came to him at once and he put his arm around her waist for support. “Why shouldn’t I be drunk? I’ve licked D’Courtney. I’ve licked Powell. I’m forty years old. I’ve got sixty years of owning the whole world ahead of me. Yes. Duffy… the whole damned world!” He began walking around the room with Duffy. It was like a stroll through her ebullient erotic mind. A peeper decorator had reproduced Duffy’s psyche perfectly in the decor.

“How’d you like to start a dynasty with me, Duffy?”

“I wouldn’t know about starting dynasties.”

“You start with Ben Reich. First you marry him. Then—”

“That’s enough. When do I start?”

“Then you have children. Boys. Dozens of boys…”

“Girls. And only three.”

“And you watch Ben Reich take over D’Courtney and merge it with Monarch. You watch the enemies go down… like this!” In full stride, Reich kicked the leg of a busty vanity table. It toppled and crashed a score of crystal bottles to the floor.

“After Monarch and D’Courtney become Reich, Incorporated, you watch me eat up the rest… the small ones… the fleas. Case and Umbrel on Venus. Eaten!” Reich brought his fist down on a torso-shaped side table and smashed it. “United Transaction on Mars. Mashed and eaten!” He crushed a delicate chair. “The GCI Combine on Ganymede, Callisto, and Io… Titan Chemical & Atomics… And then the smaller lice: the backbiters, the haters, the Guild of Peepers, the moralists, the patriots… Eaten! Eaten! Eaten!” He pounded his palm against a marble nude until it toppled from its pedestal and shattered.