"Where is Mr. Minderbinder?" McBride was asking, as Yossarian came through alone to the landing on which he stood with Gaffney.
"Off to get more skyscrapers in Rockefeller Center," Yossarian reported with derision. "Or build his own. He wants them all." Someday, Yossarian thought as they descended the wrought-iron staircase, those monstrous hounds stirring now might really be there; and what a final tricky surprise that would be! They had found all the elevators, McBride told him, exulting. Michael and his girlfriend Marlene had wearied with waiting and had gone far down below with Bob and Raul. McBride had something else to show Yossarian.
"How far is far down?" asked Yossarian, humorously.
McBride tittered nervously, and, shiftily, answered over his shoulder. "Seven miles!"
"Seven miles?"
Gaffney was amused by these yelps of astonishment.
And those were some elevators, McBride went on. A mile a minute going up, a hundred miles an hour going down. "And they've got escalators too, going all the way. They say they go down forty-two miles!"
"Gaffney?" asked Yossarian, and Gaffney nodded slowly. "Gaffney, Milo's unhappy," Yossarian let him know, in a jocular vein. "I suppose you know."
"Milo's always unhappy."
"He fears."
"And what does he fear today? He's got the contract."
"He fears he did not ask enough and is not getting as much for the Shhhhh! as Strangelove is getting for his plane. And they won't even work."
Halting on the staircase so abruptly that the two men collided, Gaffney, to Yossarian's total astonishment, regarded Yossarian with a lapse in his aplomb.
"They won't? What makes you say that?"
"They will?"
Gaffney relaxed. "They do, Yo-Yo. For a second I thought you knew something I didn't. They're working already."
"They can't be. They won't. They gave me their word."
"They break their word."
"They made me a promise."
"They break their promises."
"I have a guarantee."
"It's no good."
"I have it in writing."
"Stick it in your Freedom of Information file."
"I don't understand. They've beaten Strangelove?"
Gaffney gave his silent laugh. "Yossarian, my friend, they are Strangelove. They've blended, of course. Except for the difference in names and companies, aren't they the same? They've had planes going for years."
"Why didn't you ever say so?"
"To whom? Nobody asked."
"You could have told me."
"You didn't ask. Often it's to my advantage to keep things to myself. Sometimes knowledge is power. Some say the ultimate weapon will be good for my business, some say it won't. That's why I'm down here today. To find out."