Page 195 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

There was a movement in the back room. "Yes?"

"Tape recorder."

"Yes."

Josef came out carrying a plain cardboard box. He was a younger man, maybe nineteen, with a cigarette dangling from his lip. Although small, he was muscular. He put the box down on a table. "It's heavy," he said. "Have you got a car?"

"Around the corner."

Natalya counted out the cash.

Max said: "It cost me more than I expected."

"I don't have any more money," Natalya said.

Max picked up the bills and counted them. "All right," he said resentfully. "It's yours." He stood up and stuffed the wad into the pocket of his jeans. "Josef will carry it to your car." He went into the back room.

Josef grasped the box to pick it up.

Dimka said: "Just a minute."

Josef said: "What? I haven't got time to waste."

"Open the box," said Dimka.

Josef took the weight of the box, ignoring him, but Dimka put his hand on it and leaned on it, making it impossible for Josef to lift it. Josef gave him a look of blazing fury, and for a moment Dimka wondered if there would be violence. Then Josef stood back and said: "Open the damn thing yourself."

The lid was stapled and taped. Dimka and Natalya got it open with some difficulty. Inside was a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The brand name was Magic Tone.

"This is not a Grundig," Natalya said.

"These are better than Grundigs," Josef said. "Nicer sound."

"I paid for a Grundig," she said. "This is a cheap Japanese imitation."

"You can't get Grundigs these days."

"Then I'll have the money back."

"You can't, not once you've opened the box."

"Until we opened the box, we didn't know you were trying to defraud us."

"Nobody defrauded you. You wanted a tape recorder."

Dimka said: "Bugger this." He went to the door of the back room.

Josef said: "You can't go in there!"

Dimka ignored him and went in. The room was full of cardboard boxes. A few were open, showing television sets, record players, and radios, all foreign brands. But Max was not there. Dimka saw a back door.

He returned to the front room. "Max has run off with your money," he told Natalya.

Josef said: "He's a busy man. He has a lot of customers."

"Don't be so fucking stupid," Dimka said to him. "Max is a thief, and so are you."

Josef pointed a finger close to Dimka's face. "Don't you call me stupid," he said in a threatening tone.

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