Angry Lead Skies by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

thing. You’ll see what I mean when you meet one.” He sounded confident that I’d do so.
    “Kip? Anything you can say to help out here? It’s really your ass that’s on the line.”
    Playmate advised, “Despite earlier events Kip still isn’t quite convinced that he’s in any trouble himself.”
    Most people are that way. They just can’t believe that all this crap is raining down on them. Not even when somebody is using a hammer to beat them over the head. And they particularly can’t believe that it’s because of them.
    We talked while we enjoyed our tea. I asked more questions. Lots of questions, most of them not too pointed. I didn’t get many useful answers. Kip never said so, of course, but now that he was where he felt safe himself his main concern was his friends with the absurd names. He had decided that not telling me anything was the best way to shield them.
    “It’s not me you need to protect them from,” I grumbled. “It’s not me that’s looking for them.” He might not know exactly where they were hiding but I was willing to bet he had a good idea where to start looking.
    Playmate offered nothing but a shrug when I sent him a mute look of appeal. So he was going to be no help.
    Playmate is a firm believer in letting our young people learn from their mistakes. He had enlisted me in this thing because he wanted to keep Kip’s educational process from turning lethal. Now he was going to step back and let events unfold instructionally.
    “You do know that I’m not real fond of bodyguard work?” I told Playmate.
    “I do know you’re not fond of any kind of work that doesn’t include the consumption of beer as the main responsibility of the job.”
    “Possibly. But asking me to bodyguard is like asking an opera diva to sing on the corner with a hurdy-gurdy man. I have more talent than that. If you just want the kid kept safe you should round up Saucerhead Tharpe.” Tharpe is so big you can’t hurt him by whacking him with a wagon tongue and so dumb he won’t back off from a job as long as he’s still awake and breathing.
    “It was your remarkable talents that brought me to your door,” Playmate responded, his pinky wagging in the wind as he plied his teacup. “Saucerhead Tharpe resembles a force of nature. Powerful but unthinking. Rather like a falling boulder. Unlikely to change course if the moment requires a flexible response. Unlikely to become proactive when innovation could be the best course.”
    I think that was supposed to be complimentary. “You’re blowing smoke, aren’t you? You can’t afford Saucerhead.” I’d begun roaming through the junk and unfinished inventions, growing ever more amazed. “He’d want to get paid up front. Just in case your faith in him was misplaced.”
    “Well, there is that, too.”
    The rat. He’d counted on the Dead Man’s curiosity to keep me involved with this nonsense, whether or not I got paid.
    Don’t you hate it when friends take advantage of you? I picked up the most unusual crossbow I’d ever seen. “I used to be pretty good with one of these things. What’s this one for? Shooting through castle walls?” Instead of the usual lever this crossbow was quipped with a pair of hand cranks and a whole array of gears. Cranking like mad barely drew the string back. Which was a misnomer. That was a cable that looked tough enough for towing canal boats.
    “We’re trying to develop a range of nonlethal weaponry, too,” Playmate told me. “That’s meant for knocking down a man in heavy armor without doing any permanent injury.”
    I didn’t ask why you’d want to do that. Didn’t mention that, sooner or later, the guy was going to get back up and get after you with renewed enthusiasm. I just hefted the crossbow. “Supposed to be a man-portable ballista, eh?” It had some heft to it.
    “The bolts are there in that thing that looks like a pipe rack.”
    “Huh?” I wouldn’t have recognized them otherwise. They looked more