Gilbert Solomon, a finder of rare objects, is hired to locate a prototype 50s-era robot. He soon finds it, but its current owner will let it go only in exchange for an equally rare item: one of the few surviving copies of a controversial men’s magazine. When Gil tracks down a copy of the magazine, its owner likewise insists on a trade. And so it goes, the job threatening to become a never-ending chain of trades, a job that winds up including everything from inept literary agents to nymphomaniac porn stars, from chocolate-cherry cheesecake to…kittens? Awww…
8,400 words