carlo watched the man in the red hat. he was seated at the two table, the middle table, and he did not look up at george when george passed behind him on his way to the three table.
the man in the red hat’s name was al shrader, and, as gonzalvo had explained to carlo and clorinda, he was widely known as an informant for the security authorities. in fact he was so widely known that carlo had heard of him, though as far as he knew he had never actually seen him before.
until al shrader became the man in the red hat he was just an ordinary guy, leading an ordinary life. like so many humans, on arcturus and throughout the galaxy , he had always wanted to be anybody but himself.
al hated everything about himself, starting with his name. why could he not have a name like dirk bennett or martin calvoisier? or even something like jerry hastings or ray black? or even a comical name like bisciuit boy mcjoggins? but al shrader?
then one night, he got his chance. he left dave’s one night, having busted out a little later than usual, and a guy named bud brown was hanging outside, looking up and down the dark street as if he was wondering where to go.
bud brown, like al, was a regular at dave’s and at the handle, another, slightly larger card room a block away, but they had never had much to say to each other.
now bud turned and looked at al as if he were some kind of strange specimen he was noticing for the first time, and asked him, “headed for the handle?”
“no,” al answered, “i’m busted. i’m going home.”
“i tell you what,” bud said. “i got a proposition for you.”
“a proposition? you mean a bet on something?”
“ha, ha, no, not a bet. come on , i’ll buy you a cup of coffee, and i will tell you all about it.”
thus it was that al became an informer for what bud simply described as “the people”.
unlike most of bud’s recruits, who had to be cajoled or conned into working with him, al was an eager convert.
for the first time in his life, he felt he was doing something. not necessarily something “worthwhile”, but something.
at first he flourished in his new role. he did not sleep much, frequented places other than card rooms and casinos and betting parlors - like bars, all night diners, even libraries and park benches - and provided bud - who remained his only contact with “the people” - with a steady stream of information that bud professed to be happy with.
the problem was, he was a little too eager, and became widely suspected as someone to avoid.
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