Towers of Utopia. Mack Reynolds

can you steal twenty-five barrels of olive oil?” Bat Hardin said, looking around the storage room.

      Pierre Daunou made a Gallic gesture of despair. “One does not know. It is impossible. It is ridiculous. What would one even do with it if one was not a chef for twenty thousand people?”

      His assistant, who was standing next to him, grunted. “It is more than five thousand liters of the best oil. If I had five thousand liters of Montenegrin olive oil and couldn’t sell it for a small fortune I would go out of business. I would soon find out where.”

      Bat Hardin didn’t know the man, which mildly surprised him. He was reasonably well acquainted with the staff of Shyler-deme.

      Pierre Daunou looked at the other in contempt. “Best of oil, ha! One knows little of olive oil if one makes such sweeping statements. For salads, yes!” He made a gesture of sweeping approval. But then his face turned indignant. “For cooking, but no. For the flavoring of, say, gazpacho, no. But, no. For such, Spanish olive oil.”

      His assistant was no brown-noser. He snapped, “I prefer the Italian.”

      “No.”

      “Or even the more delicate oils of Provence.”

      “Then you are an idiot.”

      They glared at each other.

      Bat said, “Listen …”

      Pierre Daunou turned his glare at him. “You too perhaps prefer the olive oil of Italy to that of Spain for cooking gazpacho?”

      Bat said, “I think the Greek is best.”

      They both glowered their indignation.

      “Holy Smokes,” Bat rasped. “Let’s get off this. I don’t even really know if they make olive oil in Greece and I haven’t the vaguest idea of what gazpacho is. Let’s get to the facts. You call me and say twenty-five barrels of olive oil have been swiped out of your storerooms. It doesn’t make sense. Pilferage, yes. It always happens. Pilferage we will always have with us. But you don’t pilfer twenty-five barrels of anything. What does twenty-five barrels of olive oil, Montenegrin, Spanish, or any other kind, come to? I mean in pseudo-dollars.”