"Tinnie is Tinnie. Leave her out of it. She isn"t part of this."

"If you say so. Need some help?"

He meant it. And if it came to a slugfest he might be handy, being nine feet tall and strong enough to lift the horses he tended. But he wasn"t a fighter by nature. He"d get himself hurt because he was too d.a.m.ned kindly. "You stay out of it. You did enough, letting me use that four-legged snake. Sell the d.a.m.ned thing for dog food."

Playmate laughed. He gets a kick out of my feud with the equine species. "Sure you don"t want some help?"

"No. You do what you do best. I need a hand I"ll get somebody who does it for a living." I"d shot h.e.l.l out of my disappearing act. "You really want to do something, go by the house and see how Dean and the Dead Man are doing. I"ll get back with you in the morning." If I was alive in the morning.

"Sure, Garrett."

I knew what I was going to do next. I was going to make a lot of people unhappy. I"d be the unhappiest of all if I got caught.

Crask was staked out at a table in Morley"s place, alone. He looked like he"d been there a long time. He didn"t look happy. I didn"t spot him until I was halfway to the serving counter. Then it was too late to duck out.

He summoned me with a gesture. I held my temper, joined him. From the comer of my eye I saw Slade talk into the speaking tube connecting with Morley"s office. "What you need?"

"Chodo"s getting impatient for results."

I gave him a blank look. "I missed something. The way I hear, he"s getting results right and left. The city ratmen are working overtime picking up the bodies."

"Don"t get wise, Garrett. He owes you but that don"t mean he"s gonna let you mess him around."

"Crask, I"m farther at sea every time you say something. How could I mess him around?"

"You were supposed to catch a broad for him. Where is she?"

I looked over my shoulder, back to Crask. "Me? Catch somebody for him? I don"t remember it that way. What I heard was we were going to join forces, let each other know what we knew. And that"s the way I"m playing it."

"Chodo Contague ain"t a guy you want mad at you, Garrett."

I agreed. "You"re right. He isn"t. But he isn"t a guy I want trying to run me, either. The deal I made is the only deal. Exactly the way it was worded. No hidden meanings. Understand?"

Crask rose. "I"ll tell him. I don"t think he"s going to be pleased."

"I don"t care if he"s pleased. Far as I"m concerned I stuck to my half of the bargain."

He gave me an evil look. I knew what he was thinking. Someday he was going to pull my toes off one at a time.

"One more thing. Everywhere I go I get this load of c.r.a.p from people who think I work for Chodo. I don"t. I work for Garrett. If somebody is putting it out that I"m on the kingpin"s payroll, tell them to stop. I don"t work for him. And I won"t."

He sneered, sort of, which is the most emotion I"d ever seen him show. He stalked out.

I headed for the bar. My hands were shaking. That d.a.m.ned Crask really put the hoodoo on me. He came on like a natural force, distilled menace and intimidation.

Slade said, "Morley says come straight up."

I went. Morley wasn"t alone but both he and his guest had their clothes on, which was all I could ask, I guess. The woman was the same one I"d seen before-record setter. I"d never seen him with the same one twice. Maybe he was settling down.

"Had a run-in with Crask?"

"Sort of. Chodo"s working on me. Trying to recruit me through the back door. Crask is irritated because I won"t cooperate."

"Heard you had some excitement at your place last night."

"Some. The Dead Man took care of it."

"Remind me not to get on his bad side. What"s up?"

"I need somebody to cover my back on a break-and-enter gig. Targets aren"t going to be easy. People won"t be understanding if we get caught."

He frowned. "Sensitive?"

"Like a ripe boil. One wrong word in the wrong place afterward could get a bunch of people killed."

"Right. I know the man to give you a hand. Wait downstairs. I"ll take you to him myself."

Good. He had the idea. Don"t let the woman know any more than she"d heard already.

Though I"d be the engineer on this, I"d still have to be careful. Morley would volunteer himself. Once he found out what I intended he"d get real nervous. If he was to pull a stunt like this he"d get rid of his backup man afterward, just to make sure n.o.body ever found out, even twenty years down the line. Though he tried to understand me he still didn"t really believe, in his heart, that I didn"t secretly think the way he did. He might get so jumpy we"d have a problem.

He came downstairs as I was draining a brandy Slade had slipped me. Slade was one employee of Morley"s who wasn"t devoted to the vegetable cause. He kept the real stuff hidden but handy. Morley pretended he didn"t smell it. "Let"s. .h.i.t the street. Not so many ears out there."

We went out. Before he asked, I said, "I"m going into Chattaree. I want to break into Peridont"s office."

Morley grunted. He was impressed. "You have a good reason?"

"Somebody grabbed Maya again. To have a shot at getting her loose I have to steal something from Peridont"s office."

Providing the Church guys hadn"t messed everything up there, now the Grand Inquisitor had gone to his guaranteed reward. I couldn"t see that Sampson character not trying to move in.

Morley walked half a block with me before he said, "Tell me straight. Not with your heart. Can it be done?"

"I was in there the other day. There isn"t any internal security. They flat don"t expect anything. They don"t think they have reason to expect anything. I"m not worried about doing the job." Liar. "I"m worried about pulling it without anybody finding out who did it. I don"t want every member of the Church after me for the rest of my life."

"You"re up to something."

"I told you that."

"No. I know you, Garrett. You"re not just going to steal something. You"re going to make it look like something it isn"t."

If I could. I didn"t deny that. I didn"t agree, either. I had some ideas. Maybe they"d work out, maybe they wouldn"t. The way my life was going they wouldn"t. Morley didn"t need to know what those ideas were.

"You play them too d.a.m.ned close to your chest, Garrett. What"s the other target?"

I shook my head, which he couldn"t see in the dark, so I said, "We don"t worry about that till we"ve handled the first one. If I don"t get what I need from Peridont"s office, I can"t make another move anyway."

"Too close to your chest, Garrett."

"Did you let me in on anything that time we ended up going after those vampires?"

"That was different."

"Sure it was. It was you moving me like a p.a.w.n without ever telling me you were doing it. You in or not?"

"Why not? You"re a pretty dull guy yourself but interesting things happen where you"re at. And I"ve never been inside Chattaree. They say it"s magnificent."

He"d never been in because his kind were banned. According to Church doctrine he had no soul despite having human blood which was not a smart stance in a world where nonhuman races added up to half the total sentient population. And the Church didn"t talk it up much here in TunFaire, where so many would be quick to take offense.

"Yeah," Morley said, evidently thinking about that. "I"d like to get into Chattaree for a while."

"Let"s don"t go grinding any axes."

"Right." We walked away, toward the Dream Quarter. Then he said, "You"re taken with that Maya gal, aren"t you?"

"She"s a nice kid. She got herself in trouble because of hanging around with me. I owe her."

"Got you."

I glanced at him. He was grinning.

"She"s just a kid I know, Morley."

The trouble with Morley is, he does understand.

45.

I"d been hustling so much lately the weather had had little chance to gain my attention. Sitting in a deep shadow opposite Chattaree, watching, getting a feel for the night, it got plenty of opportunity.

"d.a.m.ned cold," I muttered.

Morley glanced up. It was too dark to tell anything except that there were no stars out. "Might snow."

"That"s all we need."

There"d been something going on at Chattaree when we arrived, just breaking up. It was a holy day but I couldn"t remember which one. Morley didn"t know. He didn"t keep track of human superst.i.tions.

I asked, "Think we"ve waited long enough?" We"d given them an hour to settle down inside.

"Give it a while yet." He wasn"t comfortable with the adventure anymore. He was trying to recall if anyone had invaded the temple recently. I"d never heard of anybody trying. People in there ought to be lax. But Morley suspected safeguards that fixed it so invaders were not heard from again.

I said, "Any guy who can go into a vampire nest shouldn"t have problems with this."

He snorted. "That was do or die."

We gave it fifteen minutes. Morley stared at Chattaree with obsessive concentration. I wondered if he was mongoose or cobra. His night vision was better than mine. If there was anything to see he"d see it.

"Give me the layout again," he said. I did. He said, "Let"s do it."

It was a good time. There was no one in sight. But I found myself reluctant to go. I went anyway.

I was puffing when we reached the temple door.

Morley looked at me and shook his head. He raised an eyebrow, barely discernible in wan light from inside the temple. Ready? I nodded.

He walked through the doorway. I ducked out of sight.

"Hey! Where the h.e.l.l you going?"

I peeked. Morley had darted past the guard, who was awake. I wondered if that was a common occurrence. Morley turned to face the man, who was as wide as he was tall.

I wound up two-handed and stepped into it, whacking him behind the ear with my stick. He went down.

I let out a big breath. "I didn"t think I could put him down."

"I worried too, the way you"ve let yourself go."

"Let"s get him put away."

We used materials at hand, bound and gagged the guy and tucked him out of sight inside his post. Hopefully anybody who came by would figure he"d gone AWOL.

I led the way. We"d chosen our time well. They"d closed up shop except for one sleeping priest at the main altar. Pa.s.sing through in the far shadows we didn"t disturb his slumber. Morley made less noise than a tiptoeing roach. I found the stairway descending into the catacombs.

"We have a problem," I whispered, halfway down. It was tomb-dark. We hadn"t brought a light. I didn"t think I could negotiate the maze without one.

"I"ll go steal a candle, " Morley said.

He could be a ghost when he wanted. He went right up to the main altar and lifted a votive candle. The priest on duty never missed a snore.

He came back grinning. He"d been showing off. He hadn"t had to s.n.a.t.c.h a light from disaster"s jaws.

We descended into the catacombs. They seemed more claustrophobic than on my previous visit. A dwarf would have felt at home, but humans weren"t made to inhabit mole holes. I worked up a bad case of the creeps.

Morley did, too. He didn"t have anything to say, just tagged along quietly, so alert you could smell it.

The old memory was cooking. I made only one false turn and corrected that before I"d gone a step. I marched right up to Peridont"s door.

"This place gives me the creeps," Morley whispered.

"Me too." It was as quiet as a grave in there. I would have been happier if there"d been some guy howling down the way. Thinking just made the creeps worse.

The door was locked but the lock was of ancient vintage. It didn"t take me half a minute to open it. We stepped inside.