The Ravagers [antikvár]

it was an acid job, and they're never pleasant to come upon, even when you're more or less prepared to find something wrong, as I'd been. One of our people had failed to call in when he was supposed to, and I'd been pulled off another job nearbywell, five hundred miles south in the Black Hills of South Dakotaand sent up to investigate. I'd crossed the bordér into Canada well after dark, I'd found the right motel, named The Plainsman, in the right town, named Regina, in the right province, named Saskatchewan, and I'd given the right knock on the door and received no answer.Following instructions, I had then circumvented the lock with a special piece of plastic disguised as a credit card, slipped inside, and waited in the dark for a reasonable length of time, to see if anybody cared to jump me or shoot at me. Nobody had. Hearing nothing breathe or move in the room, I'd turnéd on the light and seen hím lying on the floor at the foot of the bed.It wasn't pretty. I don't monkey with the stuff myself. Not many professionals do, although I have met a fewon both sideswho felt there was nothing like a splash of nice cor-rosive chemical reagent to make the most stubborn subject forget his principles and talk, if that was needed. For quick information, they'd claimed, it beat the thumbscrews and hot pokers all hollow. And as a distraction in a tight spot it was a natural, since people weren't apt to give much trouble while being painfully consumed alive.On the other hand, acid is messy, risky to keep around, and hard to use without getting somé on yourself; and the re-sulting burns, on flesh or clothing, are distinctive and hard to explain away. So we generally leave it to the jealous la-dies who want to spoil their rivals' looks. But it had been used here, liberally and viciously. It had made brownish charred splotches on the pale motel carpet, and it had pretty well destroyed the face of the man I'd come here to check up on.At least I thought he was the man Fd come to find, but it was a little hard to teli. He wasn't a colleague I'd