Cruel Zinc Melodies by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

I’m just gonna shake some bugs out of a place Old Man Weider is building.”
    “You in the extermination racket now?”
    “Not quite. These are special bugs. Here they come.” Meaning Singe, John Stretch, and several of Stretch’s associates. Each lugging a clever wicker cage filled with quarrelsome critters. Up close, those were the nastiest rats I ever saw. Pit bull rats. Champion fighting cock rats. I grumbled, “Did you need to bring the ones that are foaming at the mouth?”
    Singe countered, “There you go, exaggerating again. Hello, Mr. Tharpe. How is Grosziella?”
    Grosziella? Who would that be?
    “We broke up. I...” Saucerhead launched a tale told many times. The names change but he keeps connecting, and disconnecting, with the same woman. They could wear the same underwear.
    John Stretch told me, “I thought you would want enthusiasm.” The last word arrived in a flurry of lisps.
    “As long as they save it for the bugs. Everybody set? You bringing all these handlers?”
    “Have to. Too many rats for me to manage alone.”
    Singe said, “I need to run inside for a minute.”
    I told John Stretch, “I don’t see how we can get them and the cages all inside the coach.” I watched Singe climb the steps. She’s worse than Tinnie, sometimes. And Tinnie must have a bladder the size of a grape.
     
     

13
    John Stretch and his crew began unloading cages.
    I frowned at the World. Construction had stopped. “Am I missing a holiday? Did the weekend sneak up on me?”
    I went looking for Handsome. I found a pair of Civil Guards instead. They were all shiny and self-important in the new, pale blue uniforms. They wore red flop hats and brandished tin whistles.
    They ambled over. One eyed the rat cages, horrified. The other looked away. “Who’re you, ace?”
    He tweaked that nerve. “Deuce Tracy. Who’s asking? And why?” I didn’t feel hard-ass enough not to fish out my note from the Boss, though.
    The Watchman considered exercising his right to be obnoxious. He accepted the note instead. He looked at it upside down, then passed it to the man who could pretend to read. After surveying Playmate and Saucerhead, the red tops opted for manners. For the moment.
    They did have those tin whistles.
    Playmate and Saucerhead are intimidating just standing around picking their noses. Especially Tharpe. He looks exactly like what he is, a professional bonebreaker of considerable skill. One who wouldn’t scruple about busting the skull of a tin whistle if the mood took him.
    The second Watchman said, “It do look like he’s got business here, Git. This is from Weider himself.”
    I use Watch and Civil Guard interchangeably. There is a distinction, mainly of importance to Colonel Westman Block. The Civil Guard is supposed to be the new order of honest lawmen. The old Watch is supposed to wither away. When the new order gets as corrupt as the old, they'll hire some new thugs and change the name again.
    Git rumbled, “Just trying to do the job, Bank.”
    “Sure. So. Mr. Chief Security Adviser. We still need to ask you a few.”
    “Fine by me. Right after you answer me just one. What’re you doing here? John, you guys go ahead. Get after it.”
    Git answered for his partner. “There was a murder. We’re supposed to find something out. If there’s anything to be found.”
    That startled me. “A murder? Here?”
    Bank said, “An old man named Brent Talanta. Usually called Handsome. You knew him?”
    “I met him yesterday. I came over after getting the assignment from Weider.”
    “About?”
    “You read it in the pass. He thinks there’s sabotage. I’m supposed to make it stop. What happened to Handsome?”
    The Watchmen eyeballed Playmate and Tharpe. Not recognizing them, except as seriously dangerous.
    Git said, “He got dead.”
    Bank added, “Messily. How ain’t clear. Something tried to eat him.”
    I lost my inclination to be disagreeable.
    We watched the ratmen take cages into the World. I