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see. So the customer can't reach over and snatch cash out of the cash drawer."
     
     
"Right. It's perfectly simple, but people don't think of it. Especially restaurants that are used to doing it their own way on their own premises. They aren't always thrilled, either, when I tell them they have to do it my way here. Tomorrow they'll be finishing the setup of the booths. Even though I told them several times, I'll go around and find out that half of them didn't conform."
     
     
"So you actually train the vendors."
     
     
"Sure. We do all kinds of things. Preplanning, for instance, so that the space is kind of cut up and foot traffic is organized for small groups, so that you don't encourage mobs. Fire prevention. We wander around eyeballing everything and asking ourselves, How could that particular booth or ride or whatever catch on fire? A lot of the hot-food booths have serious fire potential. There's LP gas for cooking and hot fat for frying and so on. There's huge barrels of wastepaper. We get somebody from the fire department in to take a look, of course. Other duties? We install security cameras. And once the festival opens, we'll get into the ever-popular policing of alcohol and drugs."
     
     
"You can buy beer at the BluesFest."
     
     
"But not at the Oz Festival. This is a child-oriented event. Still, there will be plenty of people selling prohibited substances under the table."
     
     
"A security firm must need multitalented people."
     
     
"We have to have a lot of different specialists these days. We even do corporate liability consultation. Security in the United States is a thirty-billion-dollar business. But it's like any other business. To grow, you have to have a track record, credits. Unfortunately, you have to have a track record to get hired and you have to get hired to develop a track record. We did the JazzFest. And one of the art festivals. And we've done a lot of smaller jobs around the Chicago area. But this assignment is very important for us as a company. The Oz Festival is going to be our biggest credit. It's gotta be perfect."
     
     
"So you're being extra thorough."
     
     
"Yeah. Check and recheck. Back and forth. Round and round. Man! I wish I had wheels like a Wheeler."
     
     
"You know about the Wheelers?" I said without thinking. In Ozma of Oz , Dorothy washes ashore in a chicken coop after an accident at sea. She finds herself on a strange coast, where the hostile natives have wheels instead of hands and feet. Naturally, they are able to pursue her faster than she can run, but she evades them by running up a rock-studded hillside.
     
     
Plumly studied my face. "You're surprised I know about Wheelers, aren't you?"
     
     
"Um, frankly, I guess I am."
     
     
He stopped in his tracks, standing on the Yellow Brick Road. "You're a reporter, Ms. Marsala. You know my company is relatively new. I'm sure you think I paid somebody off to get this job. Chicago politics as usual?"
     
     
"Well, it wouldn't be un usual, would it?"
     
     
"Nope. But I didn't. I got the job through nepotism; that's a fact. My brother's married to the— Oh well. You could look that up, if it matters to you, although I can't imagine why it would. I got preference, yes, but I didn't pay anybody off. I draw the line at payoffs. In fact, I hate them." From the clench of his jaw, I thought he was telling the truth.
     
     
"Just theoretically, what's the difference between payoffs and nepotism, morality-wise?"
     
     
"In one case money changes hands; in the other, it doesn't."
     
     
"I know that." Unfortunately, I couldn't stop myself from frowning.
     
     
"Okay. Maybe there's not much difference. But I think when you introduce cold cash into a situation, it's just more corrupting." He heaved a sigh and changed the subject. "Anyway, I suppose you think a former cop who gets a job through favoritism doesn't have the sensitivity to read books?"
     
     
"Oh, great," I said. "When I came here a few minutes ago, I