" He was now a target to be eliminated by other Treadstone operatives or assassins (called "assets") because the CIA was embarrassed by the botched mission.However, after consulting his calendar, Bud notices that Mr.Kirkeby is already scheduled for Friday - with Sylvia.Kirkeby is heard dictating in his office, with his familiar habit of adding-wiseto every word, before he receives Baxter""s phone-call plea to switch nights:Premium-wise and billing-wise, we are eighteen percent ahead of last year, October-wise.It was commonplace to see the chorus girls wearing next to nothing but scanty lingerie, wisps of gauze, or barely-there bathing suits."On the sidewalk outside a jewelry pawn store run by an avaricious owner, Harold noticed a sign for 1/2 off a platinum lavalliere chain (to match the pendant he had sent to Mildred).Their plan seems simple enough, but the simplest plans so often go a miss.For at the very moment Hawkins was delayed on the road, the maid Jean was to run afoul of the King""s men, who were scouring the countryside for the fairest wenches in the land.