Sitting to the desk’s right were two men, hats on, right hands out of sight. The three were all looking toward Heller.

Behind Heller the door closed.

Suddenly he was seized from behind!

His arms were pinned with a lock grip!

He was wrestled to a straight-back chair in the corner beside the door!

He was forced to sit down in the chair, his captor behind him, still holding him.

One of the men beside the desk gestured at Heller and addressed the manager. “So this is one of your fancy boys.”

“No! No!” cried the man behind the desk. “We don’t use young men here!”

The other gangster near the desk laughed in disbelief. “Aw, quit the (bleep), Vantagio. What do you charge for a boy with a pretty face like his?”

“Let’s get back to business, Vantagio. Faustino says you are going to push drugs here and you push drugs here. We supply, you sell.”

“Never!” said Vantagio. “We’d lose all our clientele! They’d be sure to think we were trying to bleed them for information!”

“Aw, what the hell do the niggers and chinks at the UN know about information!” sneered the gangster nearest Vantagio. “You got to learn new lessons. Faustino calls the shots now and you know it! So where do we start? Before we waste you, that is. Wrecking furniture? Disabling a few whores?”

The other gangster said, “How about the pretty new boy?”

The two hoods looked at each other and grinned. The one who had just made the suggestion lit up a cigarette and got it burning brightly. “For starts, we’ll just put a few deep holes in his face and cost you some fees!”

Holding the glowing cigarette, the gangster got up and started across the room. The man gripping Heller from behind tightened his lock on Heller’s arms.

Abruptly Heller brought his feet off the floor!

He did a sitting back flip!

His toes struck the man behind him on the head!

Heller’s hands caught the sides of the chair seat. He catapulted himself backwards, straight over the head of the one who had been holding him! He landed behind him!

He had the man’s gun out of its shoulder holster!

The gangster halfway across the room had stopped, staring!

The one still near the desk swung up a gun. “Get out of the way!” he screamed at the fellow in the middle of the room. That one promptly dropped to the floor!

The hood near the desk fired!

Heller was behind the one who had held him. The bullet struck the gangster’s chest!

Using his former captor as a shield, Heller was trying to get off a shot.

The hood near the desk fired again. Twice!

Both shots struck Heller’s former captor.

The hood at the desk realized he was shooting his own man! He flinched.

Heller slammed a shot straight into his heart!

The one crouched in the middle of the floor had his gun out. He was trying to get a shot.

Heller got a glimpse of him, momentarily putting himself in view. The man on the floor fired!

Another shot slammed into Heller’s former captor.

Heller ducked to floor level.

He drove a shot straight into the skull of the man who had been crouching on the floor.

Two dead men! The third still flopping about in his death agonies.

“Jesus!” said Vantagio Meretrici at the desk.

Running feet outside approaching.

Heller jumped back away from the door.

The hood who had been at the entrance got half his face and an arm in. He saw Heller.

He was raising a gun!

Heller slammed a shot into his upper shoulder.

The man was hurled back out the door, spinning around. But he did not go down. The door banged shut. Running feet were racing away.

With a roar, the car outside revved up. A car door slammed and the limousine could be heard racing away on screeching tires.

“Jesus!” said Vantagio. Then he seemed to come to life. “Kid, give me a hand, quick!”

The body closest to the desk had fallen on a throw rug. Vantagio grabbed a corner of it and, using it as a kind of sled, sped to the door. He blocked the door open with a chair. Then he grabbed the rug again and skidded it and its burden out into the lobby.

The manager pointed at the man Heller had used for a shield and then out into the lobby. Heller lugged the body out and dumped it in the lobby.

The chortle of distant cop cars sounded.

Together, the manager and Heller dragged the third body out.

An old woman had appeared in the lobby, a neatly uniformed cleaning woman. “Get the blood off the floor in the office!” the manager yelled at her. “Be quick!”

The cop cars were nearer.

The manager dived behind the desk. The clerk was there on the floor, tied up and gagged. Heller took the clerk and cut the bonds off.

The manager arranged the bodies in the lobby. He took the gun Heller had used and wiped it off and put it in the hand of the one who had been Heller’s captor.

The cop cars were drawing up. “The (bleepards),” said the manager. “They had the fuzz tipped to rush in and grab me if there was any shooting!”

The manager surveyed the scene, said something fast in Italian to the clerk and was about to tell Heller something, probably to beat it, when a stentorian voice called out from the entrance, “Everybody freeze!” The everybody was the manager, Heller and the clerk.

A police inspector, fronted with two cops holding riot shotguns, was there. He was a huge man, middle-aged, flabby. “All right, Meretrici, you’re under arrest!”

“For what?” said Vantagio.

The police inspector was looking at the bodies. He glared at the clerk. “What happened?”

“Just like you see,” said the clerk. “That one,” and he pointed to the body that was furthest from the entrance, the one Heller had used for a shield, “was evidently trying to get away from the others. And they came busting in the door after him and they all started shooting each other.”

The police inspector examined each of the bodies and the guns.

“They should be arrested,” said Vantagio. “We don’t allow shooting in here!”

“Wise (bleep),” said the inspector. He came over to Heller. “Who the hell are you?”

“He’s a delivery boy,” said Vantagio. “He came in from the back after the shooting.”

“(Bleep),” said the inspector.

“I wish you’d do your civic duty,” said Vantagio, “the ones the taxpayers pay you for and get these bodies the hell out of here. They already ruined one rug!”

“Don’t you touch nothing,” said the inspector. “The stiff team will be here in a few minutes and they’ll want pictures of all this. And you two,” he pointed at the manager and clerk, “don’t fail to show up at the coroner’s inquest! I oughta jail you as material witnesses!”

“We’ll be glad to perform our civic duties,” said Vantagio. “You just make sure you give honest businessmen better protection hereafter!” He glared at the bodies. “Hoodlums running all over the streets!”

The inspector left. A patrolman stood guard over the bodies so no one could corrupt the evidence.

“I’ll take that baggage in my office,” Vantagio said to Heller and beckoned.

Heller picked up his suitcases and the carry-all and followed him in.