Read Online (1969) The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace - Free Book Online

merely sat up and said, ‘I’ll send Magill in to see you. Brief him on your project, and he’ll take over. You can terminate tomorrow morning. Good luck. It’s our policy never to stand in anyone’s way.’ By the emphasis Thayer put on ‘anyone’s way’ Barrett knew that the old man did not mean Barrett’s way, but Osborn’s way. And this morning he was free.
    He had wanted to telephone Faye immediately, and then her father, and make his acceptance formal. Instead, he had called Abe Zelkin to make a lunch date, not having the courage to tell him on the phone what had happened. He still wanted to telephone the Osborns, but his sense of order, of chronology, of first things first, would not permit him to do it. He must see Zelkin first, get that unhappy task over with, clear the decks, and then he would be truly free.
    And here he was with Abe Zelkin.
    Barrett slowly opened his eyes to the present, and to his surprise there was Zelkin, in the booth across from him, grinning at him.
    ‘I was wondering when you’d come out of the trance,’ said Zelkin. ‘For a guy with only good news, you sure looked stricken. Or were you in yoga meditation, and was that the face of ecstasy ? Well, 1 tell you, I feel good, Mike.’ He picked up his knife and fork and dug into the hamburger steak. ‘It’s sure taken us long enough to get together.’
    ‘Abe, let me -‘
    ‘Okay, I’m. sorry. You were going to tell me how it happened.’
    ‘Yes, let me tell you the whole thing.’ He picked at his salad without eating it. ‘It goes back to that day when I first met Faye Osborn. You remember, I told you about that.’
    ‘Great girl, Faye.’
    ‘Yes, but that’s not the story. The story is her old man. Now, don’t bust in, Abe. Let me tell it all, because that’s why I’m here.’
    Carefully, sorting and rearranging the events that he had just reviewed in his memory, Barrett began to relate the growth of his relationship with Willard Osborn II. Eventually he came to the point where Faye had told him that her father wanted to see him privately. Then he began to recount the meeting with Osborn in his library the night before last, and he tried not to watch Zelkin when he quoted Willard Osborn’s offer of seventy-five thousand a year and a vice-presidency.
    He tried not to watch, but he could not help seeing Zelkin’s pumpkin face come up from the hamburger and go taut beneath the fat. Zelkin ceased eating.
    It was no use avoiding the hurt eyes. Barrett looked up. ‘I’m seeing Osborn tomorrow night. I’m going to accept his job. I’m sorry, Abe, but I have to. I don’t feel there’s any choice. Much as I have wanted to go with you, something like this Osborn thing
    comes up once in a lifetime. I can’t let the brass ring pass. I’ve got to grab. I hope you’ll try to understand.’
    Absently Zelkin touched the napkin to his mouth. ‘Well, what the devil, what can I say ? I can’t say what I offered you is better as far as material things go. I mean, our law office could give you only crumbs compared to this. You could work thirty years and still never see seventy-five thousand dollars in three years, let alone one. And, while I got us some nice attractive offices, they’d be like storage rooms compared to what Osborn can give you. And clients -well, you know, we’d have the helpless and the dregs alongside the big shots you’re going to be meeting with now. The question is… what you’re after.’
    Barrett would not allow himself to weaken. ‘I know what I’m after, Abe.’
    ‘Do you ? I never felt you were certain, even after you threw over the Good Government Institute to play Get Rich Quick. After all, you were considering going in with me.’
    ‘I was. That was sincere. But that was before this Osborn position came up. That’s the one I’ve spent years waiting for.’
    Zelkin shook his head. ‘I’m still not convinced that’s what you want. Forget the do-good part of you. Technically, you can