A Gathering of Widowmakers (The Widowmaker #4) Read Online Free PDF

"I've been traveling with him since you sent him out, and he's everything you must have been at twenty-for or twenty-five. He's got the quickest reactions I've ever seen, he's as good with his hands or weapons as you were, his eyesight is unbelievable, and he's totally fearless. He's taken the Kimani Twins, and Jimmy Three-Eyes, and—"
    "Okay, he's good. Get on with it."
    "He's good because he has all the natural gifts he needs, and because you trained him to do what the job requires." He paused. "But you sent him out too soon."
    "Explain."
    "He sees everything in black and white. There are no grays in his world. If there's paper on a man, the man is to be killed, no questions asked."
    "You stop to ask questions in this business, you don't celebrate too many birthdays."
    "In general I agree with you, but there are always exceptions."
    "I assume you're about to tell me of one."
    Kinoshita nodded. "He went after Jubal Pickett, and he found him."
    "Pickett, Pickett . . ." said Nighthawk. "Didn't he kill his wife and kids and a couple of dozen others?"
    "He didn't have any kids. He was found guilty of killing his wife and eighteen other men, women and children. After the paper was issued on him, he was accused of killing a lawman and two bounty hunters who tracked him down."
    "Sounds like just the kind of man Jeff should go after," remarked Nighthawk.
    "I agree," said Kinoshita. "That's exactly what he sounded like."
    "But?"
    "But an unimpeachable source told us that he'd been set up by some greedy politicians on his home planet, that the whole thing was a scam to appropriate his property."
    "Easy to say," noted Nighthawk.
    "This source could prove at least part of it, which certainly cast doubt on the rest."
    "I take it Jeff didn't listen to him."
    "Jeff put him in the hospital and killed Pickett."
    "Obviously your unimpeachable source wasn't very convincing."
    "I don't think Jeff gives a damn whether Pickett was guilty or not," said Kinoshita. "There was paper on him, and that was all Jeff cared about."
    "These things happen," said Nighthawk.
    "That's all you've got to say about it?" demanded Kinoshita angrily. "It happened once. It could happen again, or ten more times!"
    "It's possible," agreed Nighthawk. "Not likely, but possible."
    "That isn't what you created him for. You've got talk to him, explain why what he did was wrong. There's no way that he's going to listen to me."
    "Forget it," said Nighthawk, as Sarah brought out a beer for Kinoshita. "Stick around," he told her. "Ito's talking about our whatever-the-hell-he-is."
    "You mean Jeff?" she asked.
    "Yes."
    "Is he all right?"
    "He seems to be."
    "He's physically all right," said Kinoshita. "Jefferson taught him how to kill, and he's the best I ever saw at it. Now he's got to teach him when to kill and when not to."
    "What did he do?" asked Sarah.
    "He made a mistake," said Kinoshita.
    "He may have made a mistake," corrected Nighthawk.
    "Who did he kill?" asked Sarah.
    "It's not important," said Nighthawk. "That's not why Kinoshita's here."
    "What are you getting at?" asked Sarah.
    "You didn't come halfway across the galaxy just because the kid killed a man with paper on him," said Nighthawk. "That's exactly what I trained him to do, so it's got to be something more."
    "You're as sharp as you ever were," said Kinoshita admiringly.
    "Whatever the reason, you're wasting your time here. If it was all that important, go find the clone who survived that mess on Pericles and get him to talk to—" Nighthawk stopped in mid-sentence, as a look of comprehension suddenly crossed his face.
    "What is it?" said Sarah, puzzled.
    "That's the only thing that could bring you here," said Nighthawk. "Is he dead?"
    "Is who dead?" demanded Sarah.
    "The clone I've never seen." He turned back to Kinoshita. "Is he?"
    "Not quite," answered Kinoshita. "He's calling himself Jason Newman these days. He'll be in the hospital on Giancola II for a long time. They're growing him a new spleen and