When I woke up, Debbie was sitting there in a bathrobe, holding my hand. Yes, we were talking guilt. Guilt and happiness. She was doing pretty well. Organophosphates are not bioaccumulative. If you survive the dose, they go away and you're back to normal.
The explosion of the mine threw Tom Akers way over to the far side of the railway and they didn't find him until the next day. They did an autopsy, because there were so many possible causes of death, and discovered that he was riddled with cancer. We got in touch with his doctor in Seattle and found out that he'd known of the problem for a couple of months; long enough, I guess, to build up a pretty intense hatred for Alvin Pleshy.
Now we're into the part where we sort out all the legal responsibility. Maybe I'll go to jail, who knows. Basco would have to spend lots of money on lawyers to really nail me, and they just declared bankruptcy.
Which sounds kind of satisfying, but it isn't, because bankruptcy is just another ploy, a way to get out of their union contracts and reorganize the company into a lean, mean, litigating machine. I've bought a lot of BMWs for a lot of corporate lawyers.
On the other hand, they're in huge trouble and eventually they really are going to pay. Dolmacher's evidence was suppressed for a few days but now it's out, and it's the mediapathic goods. The attorney general announced that any corporate execs who participated in the contamination of Dolmacher's body are going to be charged with attempted murder. I hear they have lots of weight machines at the State Penitentiary.
Eventually, Basco's going to eat shit and die. So, when they let me out of the hospital, I picked up a magic marker at an office supply store, went down to the yacht club and drew Basco's logo onto the nose of our new Zodiac. This one was donated by the employees of a software company on Route 128.
Then I went for a spin around the Harbor. On my way out of the club, I blew by a nice fifty-foot yacht that was going out for an afternoon cruise. All the well-dressed people grinned, pointed, raised their glasses. I smiled, gave them the finger, and throttled her up.
THE END