Book 1 - Sweet Silver Blues Read Online Free PDF Page B

time
she’ll get somebody to cut your throat.”
    The possibility had occurred to me. I’d made a mental note
to rummage up some of my more interesting gimmicks and armaments.
In the general course of business I find being fast on my feet
protection enough, so I load myself down with hardware only in
special cases.
    This case looked like it was getting pretty special.
    The Dead Man had warned me.
    “Where’s Morley?”
    “Up.” He pointed. “He’s busy.”
    I headed for the stairs.
    The barkeep opened his mouth to yell at me, then thought about
it. That might start a riot. In his friendly voice he said,
“Hey, Garrett, you owe us five marks.”
    I turned around and gave him the fisheye.
    “Saucerhead said you’d knock it off his
tab.”
    “A grin like that ought to be bronzed and saved for
posterity.”
    It got bigger.
    “That big goof isn’t as dumb as he looks, is
he?” I dug down carefully, my back to the crowd. No point in
showing what I was carrying and having the boys who were high on
lettuce getting fancy ideas.
    “Nope.”
    I flipped the five coins and headed upstairs before he could get
back to trying to stop me.
     
    I hammered on Morley’s private door. No response. I
pounded again, rattling hinges.
    “Go away, Garrett. I’m busy.”
    I shoved through the door, which was not locked.
Somebody’s wife squealed and dove into another room, a
fistful of clothing trailing. Otherwise, I caught nothing but a
flash of fancy tail. It was not one I recognized.
    Morley did his best to look elf-haughty in nothing but his socks
and a snarl. He could not bring it off, despite being half
darkelf.
    “Your timing is lousy as usual, Garrett. Not to mention
your manners.”
    “How did you know it was me?”
    “Magic.”
    “Magic, my ruddy red. You have trouble making food
disappear. If you call that silage you eat food.”
    “Ah-ah. Watch your mouth. You owe me one apology
already.”
    “I don’t apologize. My mother makes excuses for me.
How did you know it was me?”
    “Voice tube from the bar. You look awful, boy. Saucerhead
must have sold that gal his top of the line. What did you do to
her?”
    “Wouldn’t lie, cheat, and steal for her. And turned
her down when she tried to bribe me with the big bribe.”
    He laughed. “You never learn. Next time diddle the gal and
walk. She’ll sit around wondering what went wrong instead of
sending cutthroats after you.” His grin vanished. “What
do you want, Garrett?”
    “I’ve got a job offer for you.”
    “Not something foolish involving Saucerhead Tharpe, I
hope.”
    “No. I’ve got a job I need some backup on. I can
thank Saucerhead for reminding me that if I don’t get it soon
my health might suffer.”
    “What’s in it?”
    “For me, ten percent of a hundred thousand marks, plus
expenses. You’re expenses.”
    He whistled soundlessly, his pucker bringing his dark hatchet
features to even more of a point. “What do we have to do?
Take out one of the Venageti warlords?”
    “You’re
closer than you think. I have to go into the Cantard and find a
woman who just inherited on the up side of a hundred thou. I have
to talk her into either coming here to claim it or waiving her
claim in favor of whoever is next in line.”
    “That doesn’t sound so tough. Except for the part
about the Cantard.”
    “There are some people around who might feel that the
money was not the deceased’s to bequeath. There are some in
the deceased’s family who feel a strong reluctance to let so
large a fortune go to a stranger. There is the possibility of
similar difficulties on the legatee’s end. It’s
possible her relationship with the legatee was, shall we say,
imprudent.”
    “I love it when you talk dirty, Garrett. And I love what
money does to you humans. It’s the only thing that saves you
from being totally tedious.”
    I did not have anything to say to that. People do get silly
about money.
    “I take it your principal has his own ax to grind in