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came out in the alley next to the studio, and circled the building till he
found the parking lot. Barkin was striding toward a big yellow Continental.
"Barkin! You motherfucker!" Handy screamed at him.
The tall man turned and stopped in mid-step. His long hair had been neatly
combed for the evening television appearance, and in a suit he looked
anachronistic, like King Kong in knickers. But the brace of his chest and
shoulders was no less formidable.
He was waiting for Handy.
The little publicist came fast, across the parking lot. "How much did they pay
you, you sonofabitch? How much? How much, motherfucker!"
Barkin began to crouch, waiting for Handy, fists balled, knees bent, the
handsome face cold and impassive, anticipating the crunch of knuckles against
face. Handy was howling now, like a
Confederate trooper charging a Union gun emplacement. At a dead run he came
down on Barkin, standing between a Corvette and a station wagon parked in the
lot.
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At the last moment, instead of breaking around the Corvette, Handy
miraculously leaped up and came across the bonnet of the Corvette, still
running, like a decathlon hurdler. Barkin had half-
turned, expecting Handy's rush from the front of the sports car. But the
publicist was suddenly above him, bearing down on him like a hunting falcon,
before he could correct position.
Handy plunged across the Corvette, denting the red louvered bonnet, and dove
full-out at Barkin.
Blind with fury, he was totally unaware that he had bounded up onto the car,
that he was across it in two steps, that he was flying through the air and
crashing into Barkin with all the impact of a human cannonball.
He took Barkin high on the chest, one hand and wrist against the beach-bum's
throat. Barkin whooshed air and sailed backward, into the station wagon. Up
against the half-lowered radio antenna, which bent under his spine, then
cracked and broke off in his back. Barkin screamed, a delirious, half-crazed
spiral of sound as the sharp edge of the antenna cut through his suit jacket
and shirt, and ripped his flesh. The pain bent him sidewise, and Handy slipped
off him, catching his heel on the Corvette and tumbling into the narrow space
between the cars. Barkin kicked out, his foot sinking into Handy's stomach as
the publicist fell past him. Handy landed on his shoulders, the pain surging
up into his chest and down into his groin. His rib cage seemed filled with
nettles, and he felt for a moment he might lose control of his bladder.
Barkin tried to go for him, but the antenna was hooked through his jacket. He
tried wrenching forward and there was a ripping sound, but it held. He
struggled forward toward Handy awkwardly, bending from the waist, but could
not get a hold on the publicist. Handy tried to rise, and Barkin stomped him,
first on the hand, cracking bones and breaking skin, then on the chest,
sending Handy scuttling backward on his buttocks and elbows.
Handy managed to get to his feet and pulled himself around the station wagon.
Barkin was trying frantically to get himself undone, but the antenna had
hooked in and out of the jacket material, and he was awkwardly twisted.
Handy climbed up onto the hood of the station wagon and on hands and knees,
like a child, came across toward Barkin. The big man tried to reach him, but
Handy fell across his neck and with
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.txt senseless fury sank histeeth into Barkin's ear. The beach-bum shrieked
again, a woman's sound, and shook his head like an animal trying to lose a
flea. Handy hung on, bringing the taste of blood to his mouth. His hand came
across and dug into the corner of Barkin's mouth, pulling the lip up and away.
The fingers spread, he poked at Barkin's eye, and the beach-bum rattled
against the car like a bird in a cage. Then all the pains merged and Barkin
sagged in a semiconscious boneless mass. He hung against the weight of Handy
and the hooking antenna. The strain was too great, the jacket ripped through,
and Barkin fell face-forward hitting the side of the Corvette, pulling Handy
over the top of the station wagon. Barkin's face hit the sports car; the nose
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