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red as the little buzzard took off, but I did. Possibly I was supposed to, now
that it knew where I could be found later.
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"Pardon the expression but you look like shit on a stick," Max told me. "I've
seen better-dressed bums. What happened to the clothes we gave you?"
Gilbey said, "That's what he's come about." Manvil was a little cool.
"I didn't turn up here sometime in the last twenty hours and do something
unpleasant, did I?"
"No. Why?" Gilbey was just tired.
"There was a copy of me running around trying to do naughty things. And you
seem a little standoffish."
"Excuse me. Unintentional. Possibly it's because you haven't gotten anywhere.
Or because bad things happen when you're around."
I took it like a man. It was true. "I think that's about to change. It's
coming together. What I want to know right now is who handled the clothing you
sent me. Because somebody tagged them all with a tracking spell that let the
shapeshifters stick to me wherever I went." Too bad I couldn't be two places
at once. That would be a really useful skill in my racket.
"Genord," Max said. "Gerris Genord handled the clothing." And as soon as he
said that I recalled Genord being mentioned at the time. The evidence was
there. Maybe I'd gotten bopped on the noggin a time too many. Maybe I ought to
stick to working for the brewery.
The news relieved me some. I hadn't wanted to suspect Gilbey. I liked the
guy. "Maybe a connection with the shifters is why Genord overreacted when
Lance and Ty caught him sneaking in. Maybe there really was somebody at the
door, somebody he didn't want to be seen with . . . How would he be connected
with them? We know he wasn't a shifter."
I'd already recognized one commonality between Genord and Black Dragon. The
commando connection. Whether or not he seemed the type Genord had had an
armband that was worn by a small freecorps made up of former commandos. Once
the fair-haired thugs of The Call, the Brotherhood Of The Wolf had fallen out
of favor since Colonel Theverly's arrival. But I was willing to bet they were
still in business, still associated with Marengo North English. And a
shapeshifter had been flushed at The Pipes. "Uhm?"
Gilbey repeated, "I said, 'Why not ask Genord?' The Guard do have him in
custody, don't they?"
I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't. But I didn't feel like walking back up
to the Al-Khar. I'd put too many miles on me already today. "Can my friends
and I get space to rest for a while?" The willow-bark tea was wearing off. I
hurt. And I needed a nap.
"Find them a place, Manvil," Weider said. His tone suggested he'd begun to
grow disappointed in me, too. I didn't blame him. I was disappointed in me
myself.
Carefully failing to alert the staff to our presence Gilbey installed all
three of us in a guest room probably reserved for visiting tradesmen. Belinda
he failed to recognize. Morley he knew only by distasteful type. He remained
rigorously polite throughout.
Gentlemen that we are, Morley and I let Belinda have the one narrow bed. I
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took the bedclothes to make a pallet for me. Dotes wasn't in a napping mood.
He kept muttering about how trying to do a small favor had become a career. I
asked, "You want to make yourself useful while I'm snoring, work this out.
What could you do with a brewery? Besides make beer?"
"Why?"
"That's where this mess started. The shapeshifters wanted to replace the
Weiders. Which makes sense only if they wanted control of the brewery." I
snuggled down and went to sleep. The floor was softer than the most yielding
cobblestone.
A toe ground into my ribs. I didn't have to open my eyes to know it belonged
to Belinda. Only a woman would use a toe like a forefinger. A man would just
kick you.
I grunted.
"That's four hours, Garrett. Dotes and I don't have a life to devote to your
snoring, entertaining as it is. If I'm out of touch much longer I'm going to
find myself out of touch permanently."
I sat up, groggy and disoriented. But I remembered, "I wanted up sooner than
this."
"You needed the sleep," Morley said. "You really ought to go home and stay
till you're completely recovered. You look a little ragged."
Maybe I did. People kept mentioning it.
I pulled myself together. Belinda looked ragged, too. I felt a twinge of
guilt. She needed rest worse than I did. But here she was chasing wild geese
with me. "There something going on that you guys forgot to mention?"
Morley looked at me askance. Belinda ignored me. Mostly.
"I appreciate you ambushing me and getting me loose from whoever was
following me." I rubbed the back of my head. "I think. But I don't see why you
bothered."
Morley shrugged. Belinda, without looking me in the eye, said, "The ratgirl
insisted. She was scared those people might do something bad to you."
I smelled a scheme. Some kind of three-cornered deal between the Outfit,
Reliance, and Morley Dotes, that would put me right in the middle. I hoped
their little hearts weren't broken when I wouldn't go along.
Morley sneered. "I don't know how you do it, Garrett. That Singe would
gleefully follow you into Hell. And be your love slave besides."
Sourly, putting herself together for travel, Belinda said, "And that blond
bimbo walked right in here a while ago. She was really put out because you
weren't alone."
"Alyx? Alyx is just a spoiled kid."
Morley grinned at me and flashed me his own version of the raised eyebrow
trick.
"Maybe," Belinda begrudged. "She did come back with some food."
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