ingly shaking his hand, Cade said, "Good point, indeed. Seems to me,
though, that anybody that valuable oughta be wearing gold and have the keys to
the ship."
The guy laughed, "Damned right, but it'll never happen."
Cade reached for a sandwich, but the guy moved the tray away and said, "Nah,
these have been out there all morning, man. They're stale as hell. I'm supposed
to pull them."
"Got any more behind the bar?"
"Not yet. In an hour or so it'll be time to set out the lunch snackies,
though. Can you hold on that long?"
"No," Cade said firmly, reaching for the tray again and getting a grip on
it. "Stale is fine; I'm starving. I'll bring you the tray in a few minutes. It
won't leave this room."
Sounding a bit like Jim Carey, the guy raised his hands clear and said,
"Well, all righty, then."
"Fanks," Cade said around some ham and cheese.
"No problem. I thought they fed you guys. Or paid you enough to afford food,
anyway."
Swallowing the last of the first sandwich, Cade said, "Special
circumstances," and started on the next sandwich.
Someone reaching for potato chips nudged his arm and the tray tilted
sharply. Cade righted it quickly enough to keep the sandwiches aboard, but there
was a loud 'wunk' sort of noise and the black guy's eyes got big as he looked at
the tray.
Cade's gaze followed his and he thought, 'Oh, shit,' as he saw that his
thumb had heavily dented the edge the heavy aluminum tray, squashing the ridge
around it flat and warping the metal for several inches.
"Um. Sorry," said Cade.
He stacked the remaining sandwiches on a napkin and turned the tray over to
push the damaged area flat, then handed the tray across the table, gathered up
the sandwiches, and said, "Sorry. Really," and turned to go.
"Hey," said the black guy, "Wait."
Turning to face him, Cade indicated the tray and asked, "Would ten bucks
cover it?"
"I buy 'em used. Seven would do it, but that's not..." He waited until
another table-grazer moved away and continued, "How'd you do that? I ran over
one of these trays with my truck once and didn't much more than scratch it a
little."
Setting the sandwiches down, Cade fished ten bucks out of his money clip,
laid it on the tray, and said, "I've had a real workout this morning. That's why
I'm so hungry. Thanks again," and headed for the door with the sandwiches,
detouring to the drink dispenser for a cup of