Book 10 - Angry Lead Skies by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

said
so. Those homely boys didn’t know it but I was looking out
for them.
    “Call it an inner glow kind of 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