Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure (Fortune Chronicles Book 1) by Kathleen McClure Read Free Book Online Page A

stopping until he turned onto Carroll Square. The square was made up of a mix of small retail businesses, at least two pubs and the Elysium Hotel, all surrounding the neighborhood's agri-center.
    "What do you think," he murmured to Elvis, “do we keep him following in the wet or settle in for the night?"
    Elvis snorted and shook his head.
    Gideon took this to mean the draco didn't give a broken talon they were being followed, he just wanted to get someplace warm and dry.
    "Settle in, it is," Gideon said, aiming for the Elysium Hotel, which had been advertised on the tram station kiosk as being Keeper run, which in its turn meant clean beds and decent food, much of it likely grown in this very square.
    “ There's the place ," he said, louder this time, so his shadow would be sure to hear, then adding, more to himself than his unknown shadow, "Hope they have private baths."
    Elvis flapped in agreement. Or at least, Gideon took it to be agreement.
     
    * * *
     
    "There's the place."
    Hearing the mark's voice, Mia pulled back into the nearest recessed doorway and waited for him to enter the hotel. And what a relief he'd finally stopped.
    At first, she'd hoped for a shot back in Red Crystal Alley, none being so easy to rob as them in the throes of carefully negotiated passion, but he'd passed through the alley with no more than a smile for a lonely Jane, so Mia continued after him.
    There'd been one point he'd stopped dead in the middle of Chaucer and she thought sure to see him flattened by an oncoming rickshaw. Despite the fact the mark's untimely demise might give Mia a better shot at the draco, she'd still been on the verge of rushing out to push him onward when the driver's bell woke the man from his stupor.
    Lucky for her he'd taken time to recover, as Mia also needed a second to calm her racing heart.
    By the time he'd moved on, she was more than half convinced she'd be doing the draco a favor by removing it from the suicidal maniac.
    But now, finally, he entered the Elysium Hotel and Mia remained in hiding, watching and waiting until, honeycomb! A light went on in the second floor, street side. Not as good as one of the alley-facing rooms, but better than those facing the pub on the other side, which would be busy well past fourteen midnight. And with the agri-center between the hotel and the buildings on the opposite side of the square, anyone looking out a window would see nothing but trees, trellises, and rain-towers.
    She was about to slip out of her doorway shelter and make for the alley when she spied movement on the other side of the street, which was interesting.
    It was interesting because the movement appeared to be another individual, dressed in clothes as dark as hers and, like her, moving from shadow to shadow, right before darting into the selfsame alley Mia planned to use for her own purposes.
    Someone else was following her mark!
    Even as she realized this, the someone stopped dead in the light of the last street lamp before the alley and turned in her direction. Though she could see no face, and in fact suspected that face wore a mask, she did see, quite clearly, the hand which rose and pointed up to the newly lit room. After a measured pause, the hand dropped down but the finger remained pointing straight up so Mia could easily see it shake back and forth in a distinct 'no, no, no' fashion. Then the hand fell, the figure turned and, in seconds disappeared into the blackness of the alley.
    Most people, faced with such specific opposition would shrug and move on to the next mark.
    Most people didn't have to deal with Fagin Ellison.
    Oh no, you don't , she thought at her rival, already adjusting her plan of attack. No one's getting that draco but me.
     
    * * *
     
    Safely hidden by the alley's shadows, Nahmin Soor, General Rand's sometimes-valet, made a few hasty changes to his appearance. This was his second such transformation of the evening, having already discarded the coveralls of the