Sweet Silver Blues

36

I ambled up the lane toward the Orthodox cemetery, where we were to meet at the Kronk family plot. Convenient, that. Zeck Zack or his messenger was supposed to take us to the meet from another plot just two hundred yards away, come midnight.

I reached the place where the first man to arrive was supposed to lie in the weeds for anybody following the rest. "Morley? I'm clean."

Dojango came out of the darkness, not Morley. "What took so long?"

"I had more tails than an uighur. All pros. Took awhile to shake them. Where's Morley?"

"Pushing sugar."

"Doris and Marsha?"

"At the plot. They just got here, too. They almost forgot. They were having fun trotting around town watching the humans huff and puff trying to keep up."

"The ladies?"

"You and Morley better forget those two and take up kicking beehives."

"Mad, huh?"

"Furious, actually."

Morley came back from his pandering. "Just in time, Garrett. Let's go check something out." He marched off through the graveyard.

His destination proved to be a decrepit mausoleum. He examined its door. I couldn't see what he saw. He grunted. "Hunh. Maybe they knew what they were talking about. Marsha. Open it up."

The groll obliged. There was no sound of seals breaking. There was almost no sound at all. Curious in a door that should have been unmoved for generations.

Then the stench rolled out.

I considered a crack about ducking the stampeding buzzards, but desisted. Death is no joke.

"We need a light, Morley," Dojango said.

"I figured we would. I borrowed a lucifer stone from my bitty buddy Hornbuckle." He removed it from its protective sack. It was a young one, burning bright.

I didn't want to go inside, but I did. I stayed only as long as I could hold my breath, which was long enough to get an education. It was pretty bad, but I did recognize what was left of Father Mike, the Sair, and the clerk from the civil city hall. I had no idea who the others were.

Marsha closed it up. We walked to the Kronk plot in silence. Finally, Morley said,"Somebody's garbage dump."

"Who put them there?"

"Soldiers. I quote Hornbuckle: ‘Soldiers without livery.' "

"I see." I saw a great deal. It had nothing to do with finding Kayean, but a lot to do with a nameless major.

Morley said,"On no evidence at all I'll bet you fifty marks your major was part of the outfit that liberated the church the day your girlfriend's father died."

"No bet. Not even at ten to one."

A man in the major's position wouldn't quietly dispose of the top Venageti agent in his territory. Not when he could bring him in and harvest all sorts of rewards. Not unless that agent could name some very interesting names, like maybe that of an agent even better placed than he.

"Investigators from TunFaire, you had to say. He thinks we're the King's men and we're looking for him. What other reason for the interest in people named Kronk?"

"Or the Emperor's men." I shook my head. "My poor sweet, silly Kayean. She had to make the worst choices in fathers and husbands."

Morley frowned. "Husbands? You don't even know who he is."

"I don't have to to know he's somebody Zeck Zack and his bosses want to keep us away from. It can't be her. There's no evidence that she's anything but a woman carrying on a profitable correspondence with an old flame."

Morley grunted. "What about your major?"

"You know me. I'd rather negotiate, like with the centaur. Or I just let them ride and hope for the best, like with Vasco and his bunch. I've only killed two men since I got out of the Marines, and one of them was by accident. But I think somebody is going to have to chop the head off this snake before it crushes us all."

We scouted the terrain thoroughly. There was no sign the centaur planned anything cagey, but that wasn't especially reassuring.

Zeck Zack came for us himself, which said something about his relationship to the shadow folk behind him. "You're early," he accused.

"So are you."

"I told them I needed time to scout you for treachery. In truth, I wanted time to talk."

"You trust us, then?"

"As much as one dares, given the circumstances. Your claims received independent corroboration from persons who had no wish to further your mission."

"Who?"

"I believe they called themselves Quinn and Kurts."

So. I had to reorganize my notions about who had done what to whom that bloody night.

"Mr. Garrett, I've gone to a great deal of trouble on your behalf. For myself as well, I admit, for it could mean my neck if the knowledge of the movement of certain letters reached the wrong persons. But still, on your behalf I have saved your lives by convincing them that the surest way to handle you is to let you get your affidavit. You might also note the removal of two deadly enemies, which improves your odds."

"You want something."

"Sir?"

"Besides me not mentioning any letters—a subject I wouldn't mind chatting about, just to satisfy my curiosity—there must be something else. Call it a hunch."

"Yes. I might as well be direct. There is so little time."

"So?"

"In my youth I was guilty of, shall we say, a mortal indiscretion. A certain gentleman acquired proofs sufficient to place me in extreme jeopardy should they come to the attention of either my employers or the Karentine military. He used the threat to compel me to perform tasks that only worsen my chances of living to old age. The whereabouts of the evidence is known only to him. He does not allow me to get anywhere near him. You, however, could walk right up to him."

"I get the picture." I had no intention of skragging anybody for him, but I played the game out. I wanted him to stay my buddy. "Who?"

He wanted to get cagey.

"Come on. I don't agree to anything till I hear a name."

He had made up his mind to tell me if I pressed. He did. "A priest named Sair Lojda. At the Orthodox church at—"

"I know him." Morley and I exchanged glances. So the centaur didn't know that the Sair had gone invisible. Far be it from me to respect a dead villain so much I failed to profit from him. "You've got a deal, buddy. He's dead meat right now. If I see the woman, get what I want, and leave in one piece, I'll show you the body before the sun comes up."

"Pact?"

"Pact and sworn."

"Good. Let's go. They'll be getting impatient."