Rock of Ages by Walter Jon Williams Read Free Book Online

pause. “Is that Snail they’re performing?”
    “Frayng, your grace.”
    “Ah. I can never tell them apart.”
    “Hardly anyone ever can. I believe that’s why they were provoked into their unfortunate duel—each thought the other was imitating him.”
    “They fought with bassoons, did they not?”
    “Yes. Bassoons, your grace. Not the most graceful of weapons, but then they both died, so perhaps there is some hidden martial quality to the instrument of which we are unaware.”
    *
    “Good grief!”
    “Oh. Sorry, Mr. Maijstral. I really didn’t mean to startle you;”
    Maijstral contemplated the jutting finlike pompadour sticking up above his rack of suits. “If you didn’t mean to startle me,” he said, “why did you hide in my closet?”
    Conchita Sparrow’s genial face worked its way out from between a pair of jackets. “One of your servants was in here a minute ago, and I didn’t want him to see me, so I just nipped in for a second.” She fondled a shoulder seam. “Nice suit, this green one. I like the cut.”
    “Thank you, Miss Sparrow. Would you care to step into the room now?”
    “Only too.” Conchita left the closet, took a breath, and grinned. “It was stuffy in there.” She looked around the room. “Can you give me a drink or something?”
    Maijstral, ignoring this last request, folded his arms and regarded the intruder. “The matter of your being in my closet is now explained, but we have yet to address the question of your being in my room in the first place. Have you dropped off another stolen art treasure?”
    “Oh. No. I was just wondering if you’d had a chance to review my recordings.”
    “You needn’t have come in person. You could have phoned. Or you could have knocked on the front door and asked for me.”
    “Well, yes,” Conchita admitted. “But I wanted to show you how well I could neutralize the security in this place.” Her eyes widened. “Oh: The closet. One moment.”
    She reached into the closet and removed the command override she’d placed on-the closet command systems. “Close the doors, please.”
    “I have been interfered with.” The closet’s tone was sulky.
    “Close the doors, please.”
    The doors closed with a final grumble. Conchita turned to Maijstral and grinned.
    “Your technical ability is without question,” Maijstral said. “But I already employ a tech. The only work I could offer you is perhaps an occasional contract, and that only rarely.”
    Conchita’s face fell. “Oh, come on, Mr. Maijstral,” she said. “Your life would never be dull with me around!”
    This, Maijstral considered, was becoming all too plain. “Perhaps that’s so,” he said, “but I can’t fire a perfectly good employee just to relieve the tedium.” At that point there was a knock at the door.
    He and Conchita looked at each other for a moment, and then Conchita turned to the closet. “Open, please,” she said.
    “I won’t,” the closet said. “You interfered with my mechanisms.”
    “Open, closet,” Maijstral said.
    “Well,” the closet said, “for you .”
    The closet opened and Conchita ducked inside, jabbing her command override into the closet’s systems as she did so. The doors shut smoothly, and Maijstral went to answer the knock.
    Kuusinen’s head was cocked slightly in an inquiring manner. “I hope I do not interrupt, sir,” he said.
    Maijstral unconsciously straightened his jacket. “Oh. Not at all. Would you come in?”
    “Thank you, no. I had only a single question to ask you,” Kuusinen said. “I hope you won’t consider it impertinent, but I’m afraid I’m compulsive in certain ways, and I won’t be able to sleep unless I know the answer.”
    “I will do my utmost to assume you rest, Mr. Kuusinen.”
    “What do you call the technique you used in the trick where the cards were hidden under the creamer? The one where you substituted one card on the very top of the deck for another?”
    Maijstral blinked. “I must have