Cold Copper Tears gf-3

by Glen Cook

  "The blonde was in a hurry?"

  "Running. My guess is, she'd made you and was waiting for a chance to run."

  "Thanks." I took off, ignoring the curses of those I jostled. I wondered how Jill could have recognized us from over there... .

  Damnation! How dumb can a guy be? She probably didn't recognize us at all. But she sure as hell could've recognized the clothes Maya had borrowed.

  How come we never thought of that when we were being so clever about changing who we were?

  I kicked up the pace as the people thinned out. Once I was out of the Tenderloin I couldn't do anything but guess which way Jill was headed.

  I saw nothing.

  I wondered why I bothered. I wondered if Maya would hang on. I wondered what Jill would do if she couldn't shake Maya. I wondered how Maya would get in touch if she did run Jill to ground.

  I looked down cross streets as I passed them. I questioned street-side vendors. Some told me to get the hell away from them. Some just looked blank. Here, there, one gave me a straight answer. One of those actually had noticed Jill.

  She was still headed toward the heart of town.

  I wasn't going to get much cooperation just being Garrett. So I swallowed my pride and started alluding to Chodo Contague. That kicked the level of cooperation up a few notches. A man with a sausage cart on a corner needs the goodwill of the kingpin. Else somebody's liable to put him out of business.

  That kept me on the trail until I got out of the area where there was anyone to ask, by which time Jill's course had shifted southward.

  I wished I knew more about her. Where could she run? But I'd had no time to research her. In any of her guises, let alone all of them. More than ever I felt that things were moving too fast.

  I'm a plodder. I get to the end of the trail through sheer stubbornness, just keeping on until I get there, doing what I have to do. I hadn't had a minute to catch my breath since Jill first turned up on my doorstep.

  When you're moving like that sometimes you don't have time to think. Your mind works on things out of sight and you come up with hunches. Three minutes after Jill's trail turned southward I had one.

  She was headed for the Dream Quarter.

  She did have that one resource. That little gink who used the apartment across from the one Peridont provided. If he was who I thought he was... But Warden Agire had disappeared. I'd heard nothing about him turning up again. But I'd been too busy to stay in touch with that situation.

  "Bet the long odds," I told myself. I adjusted my course and increased my pace. Ten minutes later I got to Playmate's stable.

  He was about to close his main gate. But he brightened like a rising sun when he saw me. He always does. He is the one grateful former client I can count on any time. "Garrett. Been wondering about you. Where've you been?"

  "Working. I've got a real mind-twister going. You been keeping up with the scandals?"

  "Not much to keep up with lately. Too much other excitement. That your place where the demon turned up last night?"

  "Yes. Part of what I'm working on."

  "You're playing with fire this time, then."

  "The hottest. You don't know the half. I'll tell you about it sometime."

  "In a hurry?"

  "Aren't I always?"

  "Usually. What do you need?"

  "A horse so I can make up some time on somebody I'm chasing. And some info. The horse shouldn't be one of your damned Lightning's or Firebrands, either. I want one that will run but won't play games." Horses and I don't get along. I don't know why but the whole damned tribe is out to get me. They think it's great fun making my life miserable.

  "You always say that. I can't figure a guy your age being scared of horses. But since you are I picked up a nag so docile and stupid even you'll be satisfied."

  Grumble grumble. He led me into the stable. While we walked I asked, "You heard anything about Warden Agire and the Terrell Relics?"

  "Funny you should ask. Agire turned up last night. Minus the Relics."

  "Ha!" I'd guessed right, more or less. But there wasn't time to congratulate myself. I had to move. "I need the beast fast. I have to get to the Dream Quarter before somebody who's already way ahead of me."

  Playmate threw a saddle blanket on a monster that didn't look docile to me. There were moments when he surrendered to a nasty sense of humor. This was no time for that. I jumped him as he started cinching the saddle.

  "No joke, Garrett. The animal is a pussycat."

  "Yeah?" I didn't like the way it looked at me, like it had heard of me and was determined to make a liar out of Playmate.

  I have that kind of trouble with women, too, and have never understood it.

  "Here we go."

  "Thanks." I grabbed the horse by the bridle and looked it in the eye. "I got work to do. I don't got time to mess around. You want to play games, just remember that around here you're never more than a couple miles from the glue works."

  It just looked back at me. I went around and mounted up. In a moment I was pounding through the streets. People cussed me. Some threw things. What I was doing was against the law because it was so damned dangerous. But there was no one to stop me. I had several narrow misses. The horse slipped and slid on sections that were cobbled, and a couple times I thought we were going down. As we neared the Dream Quarter I began to feel foolish. I was ready to bet that I'd outguessed myself and was going to find nothing.

  Wrong. They were there. I spotted Jill first, from three blocks away, passing Chattaree, blonde hair flying. She was in a sprint for the Orthodox complex. Maya was right behind her and looked like she'd decided to catch her. Jill glanced over her shoulder. She didn't see me.

  I booted the horse into an all-out gallop.

  A gallop wasn't good enough. Jill reached the gates. Ordinarily those were open and unguarded, but not today and not since the scandals had begun. Jill spoke to the guards, glanced at Maya, then spotted me.

  Maya reached Jill when I was still a block away.

  The guards grabbed both women, flung them inside, and closed up.

  I reined in outside. Though I could make out no specific words I heard the women and a man arguing inside the gate house. The gate the women had gone through was a small pedestrian entrance now shut. I eyed those steel bars, then the coach gate beside it. A guard looked at me nervously. He was unarmed but determined. I didn't have to talk to him to know he wasn't going to let me in or, probably, even answer me.

  I wasn't exactly heavily armed, either. I had a couple of knives and my head-knocker tucked away, but nothing I could intimidate anyone with while they were on that side of the gate and I was on the street side.

  The coach gate wasn't quite five feet high in the middle.

  Maya let out a squeal. Three men dragged her out of the gate house, headed toward the center of the grounds, which was concealed behind vegetation. Jill walked along with them. She glanced back, eyes huge, looking almost apologetic.

  All right. That did it.

  I backed my horse away, took him across the street, faced the gate and kicked him into a gallop. He ought to clear that gate easily.

  Let's just say he wasn't a jumper.

  He skidded to a stop. I yelled as I went over his head, crashed into the gate, and fell on my face. About ten guys lined up inside. They had no weapons but they weren't going to let me in without somebody getting hurt. I was hurt enough already—especially my pride.

  I peeled myself off the cobblestone. Still on hands and knees, I looked at that damned horse. I tell you, he was grinning. He'd scored big for his tribe in its old war against Garrett. "You've had it, beast." I stumbled to my feet, limped toward him. He ambled away, moving just fast enough to stay ahead of me.

  The guys behind the gate had a lot of fun at my expense.

  They were going to be real unhappy because they'd done that.

  A kindly passerby took pity and held the horse until I could take charge. I walked the son of a bitch back to Play
mate's.

  Playmate—my old buddy—took the damned horse's side. "Every animal has its limitations, Garrett. A jumper has to be trained. You don't just climb on a horse and tell it to take a leap."

  "Damn it, I understand that. I placed my bet and took my chances. I lost. I accept that." Like hell. "What I'm griping about is the way he laughed at me afterward. He did it on purpose."

  "Garrett, you got an obsession. You're always complaining about how horses are out to get you. They're just dumb beasts. They can't be out to get anybody."

  Shows you how much he knew. "Don't tell me. Tell them." They sure had him fooled.

  "What happened? Eh? You'd be laughing about the whole thing if something else hadn't gone wrong."

  So I told him how Maya had gotten herself grabbed and the reason I tried the jump was that I wanted to get her loose.

  "You going to try again?"

  "Damned straight I am. And it's not going to be any nice guy going in after her, either. I'm out of patience with these superstition mongers."

  He gave me a little of my own raised eyebrow. "Girl means enough to get you upset, eh? What about Tinnie?"

  "Tinnie is Tinnie. Leave her out of it. She isn't part of this."

  "If you say so. Need some help?"

  He meant it. And if it came to a slugfest he might be handy, being nine feet tall and strong enough to lift the horses he tended. But he wasn't a fighter by nature. He'd get himself hurt because he was too damned kindly. "You stay out of it. You did enough, letting me use that four-legged snake. Sell the damned thing for dog food."

  Playmate laughed. He gets a kick out of my feud with the equine species. "Sure you don't want some help?"

  "No. You do what you do best. I need a hand I'll get somebody who does it for a living." I'd shot hell out of my disappearing act. "You really want to do something, go by the house and see how Dean and the Dead Man are doing. I'll get back with you in the morning." If I was alive in the morning.

  "Sure, Garrett."

  I knew what I was going to do next. I was going to make a lot of people unhappy. I'd be the unhappiest of all if I got caught.

  45

  Crask was staked out at a table in Morley's place, alone. He looked like he'd been there a long time. He didn't look happy. I didn't spot him until I was halfway to the serving counter. Then it was too late to duck out.

  He summoned me with a gesture. I held my temper, joined him. From the comer of my eye I saw Slade talk into the speaking tube connecting with Morley's office. "What you need?"

  "Chodo's getting impatient for results."

  I gave him a blank look. "I missed something. The way I hear, he's getting results right and left. The city ratmen are working overtime picking up the bodies."

  "Don't get wise, Garrett. He owes you but that don't mean he's gonna let you mess him around."

  "Crask, I'm farther at sea every time you say something. How could I mess him around?"

  "You were supposed to catch a broad for him. Where is she?"

  I looked over my shoulder, back to Crask. "Me? Catch somebody for him? I don't remember it that way. What I heard was we were going to join forces, let each other know what we knew. And that's the way I'm playing it."

  "Chodo Contague ain't a guy you want mad at you, Garrett."

  I agreed. "You're right. He isn't. But he isn't a guy I want trying to run me, either. The deal I made is the only deal. Exactly the way it was worded. No hidden meanings. Understand?''

  Crask rose. "I'll tell him. I don't think he's going to be pleased."

  "I don't care if he's pleased. Far as I'm concerned I stuck to my half of the bargain."

  He gave me an evil look. I knew what he was thinking. Someday he was going to pull my toes off one at a time.

  "One more thing. Everywhere I go I get this load of crap from people who think I work for Chodo. I don't. I work for Garrett. If somebody is putting it out that I'm on the kingpin's payroll, tell them to stop. I don't work for him. And I won't."

  He sneered, sort of, which is the most emotion I'd ever seen him show. He stalked out.

  I headed for the bar. My hands were shaking. That damned Crask really put the hoodoo on me. He came on like a natural force, distilled menace and intimidation.

  Slade said, "Morley says come straight up."

  I went. Morley wasn't alone but both he and his guest had their clothes on, which was all I could ask, I guess. The woman was the same one I'd seen before—record setter. I'd never seen him with the same one twice. Maybe he was settling down.

  "Had a run-in with Crask?"

  "Sort of. Chodo's working on me. Trying to recruit me through the back door. Crask is irritated because I won't cooperate."

  "Heard you had some excitement at your place last night."

  "Some. The Dead Man took care of it."

  "Remind me not to get on his bad side. What's up?"

  "I need somebody to cover my back on a break-and-enter gig. Targets aren't going to be easy. People won't be understanding if we get caught."

  He frowned. "Sensitive?"

  "Like a ripe boil. One wrong word in the wrong place afterward could get a bunch of people killed."

  "Right. I know the man to give you a hand. Wait downstairs. I'll take you to him myself."

  Good. He had the idea. Don't let the woman know any more than she'd heard already.

  Though I'd be the engineer on this, I'd still have to be careful. Morley would volunteer himself. Once he found out what I intended he'd get real nervous. If he was to pull a stunt like this he'd get rid of his backup man afterward, just to make sure nobody ever found out, even twenty years down the line. Though he tried to understand me he still didn't really believe, in his heart, that I didn't secretly think the way he did. He might get so jumpy we'd have a problem.

  He came downstairs as I was draining a brandy Slade had slipped me. Slade was one employee of Morley's who wasn't devoted to the vegetable cause. He kept the real stuff hidden out handy. Morley pretended he didn't smell it. "Let's hit the street. Not so many ears out there."

  We went out. Before he asked, I said, "I'm going into Chattaree. I want to break into Peridont's office."

  Morley grunted. He was impressed. "You have a good reason?"

  "Somebody grabbed Maya again. To have a shot at getting her loose I have to steal something from Peridont's office."

  Providing the Church guys hadn't messed everything up there, now the Grand Inquisitor had gone to his guaranteed reward. I couldn't see that Sampson character not trying to move in.

  Morley walked half a block with me before he said, "Tell me straight. Not with your heart. Can it be done?"

  "I was in there the other day. There isn't any internal security. They flat don't expect anything. They don't think they have reason to expect anything. I'm not worried about doing the job." Liar. "I'm worried about pulling it without anybody finding out who did it. I don't want every member of the Church after me for the rest of my life."

  "You're up to something."

  "I told you that."

  "No. I know you, Garrett. You're not just going to steal something. You're going to make it look like something it isn't."

  If I could. I didn't deny that. I didn't agree, either. I had some ideas. Maybe they'd work out, maybe they wouldn't. The way my life was going they wouldn't. Morley didn't need to know what those ideas were.

  "You play them too damned close to your chest, Garrett. What's the other target?"

  I shook my head, which he couldn't see in the dark, so I said, "We don't worry about that till we've handled the first one. If I don't get what I need from Peridont's office, I can't make another move anyway."

  "Too close to your chest, Garrett."

  "Did you let me in on anything that time we ended up going after those vampires?"

  "That was different."

  "Sure it was. It was you moving me like a pawn without ever telling me you were doing it. You in or not?"

  "Why not? You're a p
retty dull guy yourself but interesting things happen where you're at. And I've never been inside Chattaree. They say it's magnificent."

  He'd never been in because his kind were banned. According to Church doctrine he had no soul despite having human blood which was not a smart stance in a world where nonhuman races added up to half the total sentient population. And the Church didn't talk it up much here in TunFaire, where so many would be quick to take offense.

  "Yeah," Morley said, evidently thinking about that. "I'd like to get into Chattaree for a while."

  "Let's don't go grinding any axes."

  "Right." We walked away, toward the Dream Quarter. Then he said, "You're taken with that Maya gal, aren't you?"

  "She's a nice kid. She got herself in trouble because of hanging around with me. I owe her."

  "Got you."

  I glanced at him. He was grinning.

  "She's just a kid I know, Morley."

  The trouble with Morley is, he does understand.

  46

  I'd been hustling so much lately the weather had had little chance to gain my attention. Sitting in a deep shadow opposite Chattaree, watching, getting a feel for the night, it got plenty of opportunity.

  "Damned cold," I muttered.

  Morley glanced up. It was too dark to tell anything except that there were no stars out. "Might snow."

  "That's all we need."

  There'd been something going on at Chattaree when we arrived, just breaking up. It was a holy day but I couldn't remember which one. Morley didn't know. He didn't keep track of human superstitions.

  I asked, "Think we've waited long enough?" We'd given them an hour to settle down inside.

  "Give it a while yet." He wasn't comfortable with the adventure anymore. He was trying to recall if anyone had invaded the temple recently. I'd never heard of anybody trying. People in there ought to be lax. But Morley suspected safeguards that fixed it so invaders were not heard from again.