Pantheon 00 - Age of Godpunk Read Online Free PDF Page A

together, haven’t we? Quite a streak of wins we’ve had. We make a good team. But who’s benefited from it more, do you think? You or me?
    “Me,” I admitted.
    Absolutely. Your stock has never been higher. Dion Yeboah is in demand like never before. You’ve been billing enough in fees to make your peers and rivals gnash their teeth. Your name has cropped up in the papers – not just the Law Society Gazette , but the national dailies. You’re a star in the legal firmament. But Anansi... Well, what has poor old Anansi got out of this?
    “Entertainment,” I offered, lamely.
    Oh, yes, entertainment indeed. But is that enough? I’m a god, after all. Gods cannot be expected to get by on entertainment alone .
    I was passing London Zoo. My pace had slowed. The animals were grumbling and hooting to themselves, a soft, wild dawn chorus.
    No , Anansi continued. Our association is a two-way street, Dion. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. You’ve had your go. I’ve done you a favour. Now it’s my turn .
    “You want something from me.”
    Naturally I do. But don’t panic. It’s nothing terrible. You might even enjoy the challenge .
    “I won’t do anything illegal,” I said firmly. “I just won’t.”
    Nor would I expect you to. What if I said I’d like to give you the opportunity to exercise your skills at coercion and skulduggery in another theatre of combat, outside the courtroom?
    “Go on.”
    You’d be pitting yourself against some of the greatest swindlers, backstabbers and double-dealers the world has ever known .
    “I’d say my career so far has been ample preparation for such a thing.”
    A pair of pretty women ran past me, bouncing beautifully in Lycra. I followed them with my gaze, and Anansi, with his many eyes inside me, looking out through mine, followed them too. Neither of us could help himself.
    Yes – ahem – now, where was I? said Anansi. Oh, yes. You see, Dion, once in every generation an event occurs – an event like no other. You could call it a convocation of likeminded individuals. A competition. A kind of divine Olympics .
    “Divine...?”
    I am not the only trickster god in existence. You must realise that. There are, oh, dozens of us. Perhaps even hundreds – no one’s done a census. Just about every pantheon that’s ever been counts a trickster amongst its number. We’re kind of fitted as standard. You don’t get the full set of gods if it doesn’t have one of us, just as you don’t get a full pack of cards if it doesn’t have a joker in .
    “But they don’t... I mean, they’re not...”
    Not real? Anansi chuckled. But I am, aren’t I? And if I am, then all gods must be too, surely. Stands to reason .
    By this point I had slowed until I was plodding along like a donkey, almost at a standstill. What Anansi was telling me was hard to process. Somehow, without meaning to, I’d become embroiled in something far bigger than I’d thought, far bigger than I could readily imagine. Until now, Anansi and I had just been fooling around, toying with the legal system, enjoying ourselves, getting one over on judges and juries. But this – all at once, this seemed serious. Deadly serious.
    “Other trickster gods,” I said. “And what do you do when you get together once in a generation? Drink? Party? Dance ’til the early hours?”
    There’s a certain amount of that, sometimes , said Anansi. Depends on the venue and the circumstances. Mostly we play tricks one another .
    “Play tricks? That’s it?”
    We are, are we not, trickster gods? Clue’s in the name. It’s a free-for-all contest of chicanery. Each of us attempts to outwit the others. Last one standing is the winner .
    “Why do you need me for this?” I asked. I was searching desperately for a way to excuse myself from participating in this contest. Anansi was doing his best to make it sound like it was all just one jolly jape, but I wasn’t convinced. I sensed there was more to this contest than he was