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A neutral at A. J.'s level is of course unthinkable.... Hassan is a notorious Liquefactionist and suspect to be a secret Sender -- "Shucks, boys," he says with a dis- arming pin, "I'm just a blooming old cancer and I gotta proliferate." He picks up a Texas accent associating with Dry Hole Dutton, the Dallas wildcatter, and he wears cowboy boots and ten-gallon hat at all times in- doors and out.... His eyes are invisible behind black glasses, his face smooth and blank as wax above a well- cut suit made entirely from immature high denomina- tion bank notes. (Bank notes are in fact currency, but they must mature before they can be negotiated.... Bank notes run as high as one million clams a note. ) "They keep hatching out all over me," he says shyly. ..."It's like, gee, I don't know how to say it. It's like I was a Mummy scorpion carrying those little baby notes around on my warm body and feeling them grow.... Gosh I hope I don't bore you with all this." Salvador, known as Sally to his friends -- he always keeps a few "friends" around and pays them by the hour -- got cured in the slunk business in World War II. (To get cured means to get rich. Expression used by Texas oil men.) The Pure Food and Drug Department have his picture in their files, a heavy faced man with an embalmed look as if paraffin had been injected under the skin which is smooth, shiny and poreless. One eye is dead grey color, round as a marble, with flaws and opaque spots. The other is black and shiny, an old un- dreaming insect eye. His eyes are normally invisible behind black glasses. He looks sinister and enigmatic -- his gestures and man- nerisms are not yet comprehensible -- like the secret police of a larval state. In moments of excitement Salvador is apt to lapse into broken English. His accent at such moments sug- gests an Italian origin. He reads and speaks Etruscan, A squad of accountant investigators have made a life work of Sal's international dossier.... His operations extend through the world in an inextricable, shifting web of subsidiaries, front companies, and aliases. He has held 23 passports and been deported 49 times -- deportation proceedings pending in Cuba, Pakistan, Hongkong and Yokohama. Salvador Hassan O'Leary, alias The Shoe Store Kid, alias Wrong Way Marv, alias After Birth Leary, alias Slunky Pete, alias Placenta Juan, alias K. |
