Entendi - é de Neil Gaiman Nós podemos conseguir para você por atacado, escrito em 1989. Está em várias antologias, incluindo Smoke and Mirrors, que é onde eu li pela primeira vez isto. Também foi adaptado para curtas-metragens e mídia gráfica.
Desde o início da história:
But the love of a woman can do strange things to a man, even one so colourless as Peter Pinter, and the discovery that Miss Gwendolyn Thorpe, twenty-three years of age, of 9, Oaktree Terrace, Purley, was messing about (as the vulgar would put it) with a smooth young gentleman from the accounting department-after, mark you, she had consented to wear an engagement ring, composed of real ruby chips, nine-carat gold, and something that might well have been a diamond (£37.50) that it had taken Peter almost an entire lunch hour to choose-can do very strange things to a man indeed.
Ao redor do meio:
“Bulk rate?”
“Of course, but I doubt that sir would be interested in that.”
“No, no, I am. Tell me about it.”
“Very well, sir. Bulk rate, four hundred and fifty pounds, would be for a large job. Ten people.”
Peter wondered if he had heard correctly. “Ten people? But that’s only forty-five pounds each.”
“Yes, sir. It’s the large order that makes it profitable.”
“I see,” said Peter, and “Hmm,” said Peter, and “Could you be here the same time tomorrow night?”
E perto do fim:
“Well, I’m sorry it’s so late, only I was wondering… How much would it cost to kill everybody? Everybody in the world?”
“Everybody? All the people?”
“Yes. How much? I mean, for an order like that, you’d have to have some kind of a big discount. How much would it be? For everyone?”
“Nothing at all, Mr Pinter.”
“You mean you wouldn’t do it?”
“I mean we’d do it for nothing, Mr Pinter. We only have to be asked, you see. We always have to be asked.”
Peter was puzzled. “But-when would you start?”
“Start? Right away. Now. We’ve been ready for a long time. But we had to be asked, Mr Pinter. Good night. It has been a pleasure doing business with you.”