How to Archer (16 page)

¹
It also turns out that an editrix—the plural of which is editrices—is just a woman editor.

²
Plus the (at least) two that I’d had in the cab on the way over.

³
Including, simultaneously, two actual princesses. Sisters. Not proud of it. (Just kidding, I totally am.)

⁴
I’m actually at the office. The Raffles banned me
years
ago.

⁵
Or an introduction to one, for that matter.

⁶
So good luck with your lawsuit, anguished mother of that dumb idiot kid who caught himself on fire.

⁷
And which you better not just be reading in the store.

⁸
And I just found out that footnote words count, so get ready for plenty of these. Blah blah blah blah blah.

⁹
Which, unless she happens to be a well-seasoned Saigon whore who lived through the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, she probably could not.

¹⁰
This is actually one of the things that I love about my job: the overlap of sill sets between my personal and professional lives. Knowing how to create an elaborate and well-crafted cover story to establish my
bona fides
when I’m undercover, for example, comes in incredibly handy when I need to blow off some clingy stewardess.

¹¹
I.e., very little, if anything.

¹²
I will leave the puerile “loose lips” joke to you. Mainly because I couldn’t think of one. Wait … no, it’s gone.

¹³
And not just information. Any number of items may also be placed in a dead drop: sticks of chewing gum, some polished pennies, twine, a spelling-bee medal, an old pocket watch, carved wooden miniatures of children… It just depends on how much free time you have on your hands, and how far you’re willing to go to lure those delicious children into your creepy old house. And I just assume the more free time you have, the more you want those yummy little cherubs.

¹⁴
Or figuratively—whatever. Sorry, I forgot you were William Safire.

¹⁵
A redoubled agent could, in theory, be redoubled an infinite number of times. In practice, however, somebody from either Agency A or Agency B usually gets tired of his bullshit after about three times and puts one in his ear.

¹⁶
Unless Agency A is a pirate ship.

¹⁷
It actually only works on one level. Which is as a joke about swallowing semen.

¹⁸
Because I don’t know why you were expecting this scenario to have a happy ending.

¹⁹
Oh, and also, we’re out of here, so tell your girlfriend to get her coat: I would, but I don’t speak bridge-and-tunnel.

²⁰
And also, on one regrettable occasion, on one leg. But I don’t take that kind of talk from anybody, disabled veteran or not. But thank you for your service.

²¹
If there even is one of those. After the whole cobra debacle, there’s no telling what’ll end up in this stupid book. Liars.

²²
Thanks to my mousy little editrix. As she begins to rear her jealous, passive-aggressive, dandruffy little head.

²³
Give or take.

²⁴
Also, the original joke was “the Applebee’s of martial arts.” Which, tor numerous reasons, is a much better joke: there is nothing wrong with Applebee’s per se; it’s just readily available to the general public. Not unlike karate. Dane Cook, on the other hand—actually, you know what? Dane Cook is great. Love to work with him someday.

²⁵
Or maybe Yiddish? One of those.

²⁶
I.e., every single other country in the whole entire Middle East.

²⁷
Also a pretty good place to learn about history, music, that Sandy Koufax and Sammy Davis, Jr. were awesome, science, literature, and how to invent the atomic bomb. Plus, I think I already covered beating the shit out of people.

²⁸
There was one a few years back, but apparently they’ve got that all straightened out now.

²⁹
Which you probably call a shoemaker. Because I want to murder you.

³⁰
Seriously, guys: Just gimme a call. I’m around.

³¹
The positive attributes of the .22 caliber cartridge, of which there are several, will be covered later.

³²
Some of which is true.

³³
Which I don’t consider a design flaw. At all. If anything, this makes the Walther PPK even more spectacular.

³⁴
Which is
perfect.

³⁵
Which I regret. Because the ashtray was a gift. From that same guy.

³⁶
No, that’s not a typo.

³⁷
The subsonic .22 might seem like a rather vaginal caliber. But it’s actually pretty great because, due to its low muzzle velocity, it doesn’t produce a through-and-through wound: That little .22 slug enters the human body and then—like a kitten with its head stuck in a sock—just sorta slams around all over the place, smashing into everything and totally unable to escape. Only instead of a kitten, it’s a bullet. And instead of all the expensive china and Waterford crystal on the table after a lavish dinner party, it’s the liver and spleen and lungs. Either way, your hosts won’t think it’s funny.

³⁸
I’m kidding! Jesus, lighten up, Joan Baez. First of all, I only use knockout drops when I need to incapacitate a sentry—human, Rottweiler, or some combination thereof—so that I may secure ingress into a fortified enemy compound with the goal of extracting either information or a prisoner, which/who will then provide me with the intelligence I need to keep you safe at home in your cheap, metal-framed bed, in which you’re probably lying, right now, waiting for Green Acres to come on so you can masturbate to Ralph. Secondly, the hollow coin
always
works.

³⁹
Yes, William, literally.

⁴⁰
Like some other spies whom I could mention but will not.

⁴¹
Ditto.

⁴²
The Shelby AC Cobra, while not an actual cobra, is nonetheless completely and utterly badass.

⁴³
Is this an audio book? What are we doing?

⁴⁴
Unnecessary weight in the car’s trunk is actually undesirable: not only will random items stored in the trunk decrease your top speed and gas mileage, these items could become dangerous projectiles in the event of a collision.

⁴⁵
That sentence makes it seem like the
alligators
have AR-15s. A chilling thought…

⁴⁶
And yet you’re going to sit there with a straight face and tell me you don’t believe in intelligent design.

⁴⁷
They say stress is the silent killer. But poison darts are also pretty damn quiet.

⁴⁸
If you happened to be reading that sentence when you got neck-darted.

⁴⁹
Mainly because your pants cost more than his house.

⁵⁰
Or possibly some sort of wood-elf.

⁵¹
Although, if you are a poisoner, that was probably too revealing.

⁵²
The results of my own personal Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test were actually forwarded to Interpol.

⁵³
And, more specifically, Monte Carlo. Which is in Monaco. The capital of which is
also
called Monaco. Which can be pretty confusing. The point is, the hookers are crazy-hot. And here’s a thing you probably didn’t know about Monaco: it’s a sovereign nation. Like most non-Monegasques, you probably just thought it was a part of France, But Monaco has its own constitution, royal family, palace, the works, Monaco does rely on France for military protection, however (which is sort of like the United States relying on Mexico to build our cars for us), but Monaco’s only other even slightly feasible military option would be Italy, with which Monaco is non-contiguous. Plus it’s not like the Italians are any great prize militarily. I mean, Italy just barely squeaked one out over
Ethiopia,
for fuck’s sake.

⁵⁴
True story: one time I’m driving through the desert, about an hour outside of Vegas. It’s at
least
120 degrees. I get flagged down by this Chinese guy, who’s kinda staggering around by the side of the road with his shirt wrapped around his head. I give him a ride and one of eight gallons of water I had in the trunk (because this is the desert, and I’m not an idiot) and he tells me that he has just lost all his money in Vegas. And he’s like, utterly dumbfounded that this happened, because he has a “foolproof system.” Which, it turns out, was this: Sit down at the roulette table. Pick a number. Keep betting that same number, over and over and over and over again, until it hits.
And then let it ride.
In the hopes that the same number will hit
twice in a row.
Seriously And I never found out how or why he had gotten so far out into that sun-blasted desert, but this is my favorite part: he was walking back
toward
Vegas.

⁵⁵
The Triple-A stands for “Awesome Awesome Awesome.”

⁵⁶
“No no no, todo está bien, linda, todo está bien. ¿Bebida?

⁵⁷
And you are going to want to rinse, because you didn’t wear a condom with those hookers. But don’t worry about it: they’re probably on the Pill. (Plus you told them your name was Elvis Roosevelt.)