Wicked Bronze Ambition

97

The gods of rain were merciful. Or, more likely, were setting a trap. The heavens would open and flash flooding would commence once I got three blocks from the house. For the moment, though, precipitation consisted of a mist.

I said, “I was hoping we could do this on our own.”

Morley chuckled. “That’s why I love you. You never cease to be optimistic.”

We had not yet gone twenty feet from my steps. We already had four canine companions, plus Preston Womble and Elona Muriat in beanbag-tossing range, not pretending that they weren’t going to stay connected by a very short string.

A couple of steps onward, Morley added, “As ever, your popularity grows.” Dollar Dan Justice popped into existence and fell in with us following a brief exchange with Brownie and Number Two. He had a deeper than normal slump to his shoulders.

“What’s up?” I snapped, knowing it couldn’t be good. “And don’t ever jump out at me like that. I’m gonna have to change my skivvies.”

Morley gave me a look that told me to find my patience. Dan needed to work up to his news.

I found a reserve. A very small reserve.

In the near distance Womble and Muriat fussed at each other because they had been completely surprised by Dan’s advent, too. Dan said, “Thank you, sir. We lower orders have a sneaky repute to live down to.”

I exchanged looks with Morley, who observed, “A smart plague is burning through the rat tribe. I’m scared, Garrett.”

Maybe, but Dan wasn’t clever enough to keep the snaps going. Having worked off some tension, he got down to business. “As the saying goes, I have good news and bad news.”

“And the traditional question would be, which do I want first?”

“As you say.” Putting on a trace of noble-class accent.

Where the hell was this guy lurking when he wasn’t stalking Singe?

“Let’s go with the good to start. There hasn’t been a lot of that lately.”

“You are going to see the smith?”

“We are. The news?”

“Right direction, then. Mud Man picked up your fugitive outside your place. He and his crew are shadowing her.”

“It hasn’t been that long. She can’t have gotten far.”

“Let me amend. Mud Man is following her and is now sure where she will settle.”

Morley remarked, “And now they are divining the future. The terror grows.”

Dan retorted, “And does not every rat ever born fervently wish that? No. There is no magic. John Stretch has everyone with whom he has influence poking sniffers in everywhere. Regular rats have been sent places our kind cannot access almost from the moment Furious Tide of Light went down. That sneaking and spying has begun to yield dividends. So. We now can guess where the big woman hides out.”

“Didn’t we find that already?”

“Different hideout, Mr. Garrett. Not much better, though. Mud Man would like to know what you want to do.”

“All right. Is it on the way?” A fat raindrop ricocheted off the tip of my nose. “Are you suggesting a visit?”

“You might learn something.”

“Always a dangerous proposition.” I might get my ass kicked and my guts stomped out. Vicious Min, even bad sick and fighting knockout drugs, was way bigger and stronger than me. I had no desire to put her down, which might be the only way I could handle her. I was now reasonably sure that she was not responsible for what had happened to Strafa.

“Mud Man will scout the place but not closely. He knows his limitations. He believes there are other people living there.”

Really? Min’s kind of people? What might that mean? “As long as it’s on the way. All right. I’ve psyched myself up. Hit me with the bad news.”

“We found the ballista used against your wife.”

Wham! Four feet of heavy plank, right between the eyes.

I halted so suddenly that I totally avoided being nailed by a wren’s-egg-size raindrop that splooshed down hard in a puddle lapping at my toes.

The dogs closed in, faced outward with teeth bared, Number Two targeting Womble and Muriat in particular. They felt the deep shift in my emotional climate. “That is the bad news? Tell me, Dan. How can that be the bad news?”

I had a sinking, hollow feeling before he went on. He had wanted to prepare me. This was going to be bad news. It was a dead certainty: Dollar Dan Justice was about to share a secret I didn’t want to know.

And I was right, but not quite the way I was anticipating.