Read Vulture Peak for Free Online Page B

the downside?”
    “Take us through the downside, Linda,” Jack said.
    Linda frowned, then sucked in her left cheek while leaving the right one inflated. “You know,” Linda said.
    “What?” Jack said.
    “It’s like, you start to give specific examples of what could go wrong, you end up arguing about the examples?”
    “A forest-for-trees thing?” Jack said.
    “Exactly that.”
    “So give us the forest, forget the trees,” Jack said.
    “Okay,” Linda said. “So, it’s the whole unknown of this industry. There are no responsible papers on public reaction to organ trafficking, but anecdotal reports indicate we’re in serious voodoo territory. I don’t mean the science is voodoo, I mean the ordinary uninstructed human reaction. We have to forget the professional oversight for a moment and look at it from a personal point of view. Think about your own favorite organ, Ben,” Linda said.
    “Bet we know what his favorite organ is,” Jack said.
    “Okay,” Ben said, struggling with a blush. “So, we’re talking about my liver.”
    Linda and Jack smiled wryly at the joke. “No,” Jack said, “let’s make it your—wait, which is your favorite testicle?”
    “My favorite testicle?” Ben said.
    “Yeah, the one you’re most fond of,” Jack said, winking at Linda, who smirked.
    “I don’t have a favorite testicle,” Ben said.
    “Sure you do, Ben,” Jack said.
    “Yes, Ben, sure you do,” Linda said.
    “It’s the one you most like the lady to jiggle and bounce around a bit when you get laid,” Jack explained, and looked at Linda.
    “Don’t look at me, Jack,” Linda said, “I don’t have one.”
    Jack looked at Ben and said, “Well?”
    “The left,” Ben confessed with a pout.
    “So, think about all the possessive, tender, and above all proprietorial feelings you have about your left testicle,” Linda said. “Then think about someone taking it away from you and giving it to another man.”
    “Or woman,” Jack said.
    “Or woman,” Linda said. “Now, hold that moment—the point where it’s lost and gone forever, that oh-so-very-important part of you—”
    “Wait,” Jack said. “I think we’d better make it his cock, now I see where you’re going.”
    “We’re already committed to the testicle,” Linda said.
    “Oh, okay. So, your left testicle,” Jack said, looking at Ben and jerking his chin. “Close your eyes. Right.” Jack looked at Linda.
    “Go deep into that very specific personal proprietorial male agony, that nightmare of nightmares, far worse than dying, right?”
    “Right,” Ben said, keeping his eyes closed.
    “Now project that over the population of the third world—like, say, four billion people divided by two gives two billion males with those kind of feelings.”
    “What kind of feelings we talking about here?” Jack said.
    “I already got the message,” Ben said, opening his eyes. “Yeah, so what you’re saying is, this could all backfire badly owing to the verypowerful and unpredictable feelings this new industry provokes in people. Instead of associating the Colonel with a major law and order breakthrough, we might end up with a labeling problem where he gets associated with a Frankensteinian experiment, even though he’s the good guy trying to fix it, or, even worse, as the guy preventing people from undergoing life-saving operations by busting the racket. The disgust, loathing, and paranoia could spread to all parties. At the same time you get a medical lobby kicking in defending the industry, and you end up with a public relations oil slick. Yeah, I get that.”
    “But we do need to at least pay lip service—” Jack murmured.
    “Oh, I think we can pay lip service, so long as we all agree we might have to finesse it,” Linda murmured back.
    As if by common tribal programming, the three Americans seemed to have come to an agreement indecipherable to the rest of us. Now they were looking at me again. The two men kind of glazed over me