7. High Caliber Encounter
I rented a car and we raced into Santa Barbara before
Graisseux could recover. The phone book led us to
Mortensen's stucco studio behind a typography shop. I felt
a surge of confidence--maybe now we'd make some progress.
I helped Mr. Szeu toward the door while Thalia dashed
in ahead of us: "Gordon, you must flee--Graisseux is
coming here with his terrible bugs that destroy new ideas!"
Mor en looked up from his drawing board. "Well
hello, Thalia. What's this about bugs?"
I stepped inside and showed him the envelope with the
ear in it. "Take a look for yourself, Mortensen."
Old Mr. Szeu said, "It's the silk purse you made
for Thalia, Gordon. I sent it to Detective Smith as a clue...
We couldn't find you." He trailed off and groped toward a
chair and sat down.
"A swarm of Graisseux's bugs attacked it," I said.
Mortensen looked into the envelope. "But. . .this has
been turned back into raw materials! Who is this Graisseux?"
"He's behind the Creativity Bowl," said Thalia. "He
wants to end new ideas--starting in the entire world of
graphics and advertising."
"And he's on the way here to test them one last time,"
I said. "On you."
Mortensen nodded. "Well, Thalia, you know I thrive
on difficult problems. I've got lots of contacts in LA--let's
go investigate this Creativity Bowl." He grabbed his hat.
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