Morley told Sadler, "I"ve been trying."

Sadler looked at the sack and smiled, confident Dotes couldn"t resist betting now, confident that money would find its way home.

Crask said, "Sadler, problems. Out front." He took off. Everybody but Chodo and a bodyguard went with him.

Chodo said, "I"ll keep in touch, Mr. Garrett. Let me know when you find the woman. Crask will take you home once he"s dealt with whatever is brewing out there."

I nodded, turned away, dismissed.

He had such confidence in Sadler and Crask. But confidence was one of the attributes that took him to the pinnacle of TunFaire"s underworld.

Morley didn"t move. He"d received some sign that Chodo wanted to talk privately.

I headed to the front door, bemused. I"d made an alliance with the man I disliked most in this world.

I hoped I wouldn"t regret it.

29.

I stepped out of Chodo"s house into weirdness like nothing I"d ever seen.

Crask, Sadler, a dozen goons and a herd of thunder lizards had gathered out front. They gawked at the heavens.

The storm kicking up the racket didn"t cover more than a few acres of sky. And it was headed straight for Chodo"s place. I"d never seen a storm so close to the ground.

Lights bobbed inside that thunderhead, three the color of candle flames, the fourth a malignant red. When the cloud arrived, the yellow lights dropped toward the crowd on the lawn. When they got closer I saw that they were three guys walking on air, all of them in old-time armor.

The mind works funny. I didn"t boggle over them walking on air; I wondered what museum they"d robbed to get their iron suits.

A couple of thugs headed for the house. Their eyes were huge when they stampeded past me. Crask and Sadler decided their move made practical sense and ordered everybody inside. They weren"t equipped to face men in armor, let alone guys who pranced on moonbeams.

They pushed by without a word. Inside, Crask and Sadler started yelling about crossbows and pikes and whatnot. If they had the weapons they"d know how to use them. They"d served their five in the Cantard, too.

n.o.body invited me to the party.

My feelings weren"t hurt.

The first floating guy touched down. The light around him faded. He took a step toward me, raising a hand.

The thunder lizards. .h.i.t him. They took him apart in two blinks of an eye. Lucky for him he was wearing plate. Without armor they would"ve killed him quick.

The other two changed their minds about coming down. I don"t know what they"d thought they were headed into, but they weren"t here to become monster snacks. They hung there trying to decide what to do. The lizards started snapping at their heels. The guys decided to go up a little.

They started whipping lightning bolts around. The thunder lizards were too dumb to hightail it but Garrett knows when he"s overmatched.

As I turned away I noticed the red light was missing from the thunderhead.

I got a bad feeling.

Crask, Sadler, and the boys went racing outside, carrying enough deadly equipment to mount a siege. I hadn"t seen any of the big wizardries during my war, but I"d seen enough little ones to realize those flying guys could be in trouble.

They couldn"t do three things at once. If they protected themselves from missiles and kept flailing around with thunderbolts, they were going to have to come down. Bingo. Instant monster munchies.

It was not my worry. I was headed for the pool.

The whole manor shook.

I hit the doorway and skidded to a halt.

Something was tearing its way into the pool room through the roof, going at it like the place was made of paper. A big, shiny, ugly, purplish-black face like that of a fangy gorilla glared through the hole. Then it started ripping the hole bigger.

d.a.m.n, it was huge!

Chodo"s bodyguard headed for it. I don"t know what he thought he was going to do. Maybe he just wanted to show the boss how brave he was.

I arrived beside Morley and Chodo. "Might be smart to get him out of here. That thing don"t look sociable."

It dropped through the hole, and landed at the far end of the pool, fifty feet away. It was twelve feet tall, had six arms, and might have been the thing on those temple coins. It wavered as though I was seeing it through an intense heat shimmer. Or as though it didn"t know if it wanted to be a six-armed gorilla or something even uglier.

Chodo"s bodyguard stopped charging. I guess he had suffered a fit of sense.

Morley said, "I think you"re right."

The thing jumped Chodo"s man before he could turn around. Their struggle was a one-second contest. Pieces of thug flew. The ape thing munched on a leg and eyed the rest of us.

Chodo cursed. Morley got his chair moving. I dipped a hand into a pocket. This seemed like the time.

The thing roared and charged. I let fly with the ruby bottle Peridont had given me. It splattered on the monster"s chest. I spun to race Morley and the kingpin.

The monster skidded to a halt, scratched itself, and woofed puzzledly before it let out a howl. I reached the doorway and turned.

Flesh dribbled down the thing"s chest like wax on a candle. And it was evaporating, shedding a red mist. It screamed and clawed itself and threw gelatinous gobbets of itself that splattered on the marble floor, evaporated, left pitted stains. It went into convulsions, tumbled into the pool, thrashed the water into a scarlet lather.

Morley said, "I"d hate to be the one who has to clean that up."

Chodo croaked, "Now it"s a life I owe you, Mr. Garrett."

And Morley said, "Garrett, I grow ever more fearful that someday I"ll be with you and you won"t have a trick up your sleeve."

"Me too, Morley. Me too."

"What the h.e.l.l was that thing?"

"Tell me and we"ll both know."

"Never mind," Chodo growled. "Talk later. Take me to the front door."

He was right. We weren"t out of anything yet. There was a brawl out front.

We arrived as it broke up. Most of the thunder lizards and half the thugs were out of action. But the effort put out by the airborne guys cost them, too. An athletic lizard caught one with a flying leap and dragged him down. The other, with about twenty missiles stuck in his armor, shot off like a comet going the wrong way.

Crask and Sadler noticed their boss. They came over as fast as they could limp.

Chodo told them, "Gentlemen, I"m angry." He didn"t sound it. He"s one of those guys who is at his nastiest when he seems his coolest. "There will be no more surprises."

The house and grounds shuddered. A scarlet fog belched through the spine of the house and dispersed in the breeze.

A diminished thunderhead went off with the last sky walker. And the sun peeked over the horizon, checking to see if it was safe to come out.

Chodo told his boys, "Find those people. Kill them." What a sweetheart. He looked at me and Morley. "Have someone drive these men home." He seemed blind to the fact that Crask and Sadler had been knocked around like shuttlec.o.c.ks. "Here come Cage and Fletcher. Get their reports. Then move."

Two thugs were coming up the drive, their chins dragging on the ground.

30.

I dropped out of the coach in front of my place and thought I"d keep dropping. "Getting too old for this," I muttered. This thing had become too deadly. I barely had time for a cleanup and maybe an hour nap before I started tracking Jill down.

If I could decide where to start.

I was sure she hadn"t gone back to her apartment, though I"d check. She"d have more savvy.

Dean let me in. He fed me. I told him what had happened so my useless boarder could listen in. Dean was properly appalled, though he thought I"d exaggerated an incident into a whopper. Afterwards I went upstairs, stretched out, and continued to worry the problem I"d badgered all the way home.

Was I becoming identified with the kingpin?

People were getting killed and people were trying to kill me and all I could think about was the chance that my reputation for independence might be sullied.

That rat Dean let me snore for four hours. I yelled at him. He just smiled. I didn"t yell too much. Chances are his reasoning was sounder than mine. Rested I was less likely to do something stupidly fatal.

I jumped up, did a quick change and cleanup, a quicker meal, and hit the street. My first stop was Jill"s apartment. I had no problem getting inside. At first glance nothing had changed. But I felt a change. I looked around until I caught it.

The coin drawer was empty. Anybody could have gotten to that. But a battered old rag doll had disappeared too. I was willing to bet n.o.body but Hester Podegill would bother taking that.

So she"d risked coming back, if only for a moment. Just to grab a doll and some change? I didn"t think so, not the ice maiden. It felt like a by-product of a more desperate mission. So I tossed the place again. And I didn"t find another thing added or taken away.

I wasn"t pleased as I slipped out. There should have been something...I eyeballed the doorway across the hall.

Why not look?

The door swung quietly as I pushed it inward. n.o.body stampeded over me. I went inside. And there it was, lying in plain sight on a small writing table.

Darling: The key is safe. I have to disappear. They are getting desperate. Be careful.Love.

Marigold.

Marigold? The handwriting matched that in a note written to me by one Hester Podegill. Did she have a different name for every person she knew? That would make her hard to find. No one would know who I was talking about.

She was an actress. Suppose she became a different person each time she donned a different name? She"d really be hard to find then.

I had to get to know who Jill had been before I looked for the Jill who existed now. That was a technique Pokey had used when he was after someone who was voluntarily missing. He talked to relatives, friends, enemies, neighbors, acquaintances, seducing them into talking however he had to, until he knew the missing person better than anyone else alive-until he was able to think like his quarry.

But that took time, and time was at a premium.

My best bet was Maya and the Doom. They were handy. And I owed Maya that apology.

I hit the street, troubled by a vague certainty that I"d overlooked something critical. But what? Nothing came. I moved slowly, checked my surroundings. Yep. The boys were out there.

They"d picked me up as I"d left my place. I"d spotted three of them coming over. They weren"t getting close. They didn"t seem inclined to get in the way. Nor did they work real hard at staying out of sight. I couldn"t get a close look but they didn"t have the lean, impoverished look I"d seen in my recent enemies.

If they were going to keep their distance I"d worry about them when the time came.

I was a block from the Doom"s lair when I realized those guys weren"t the only folks stalking me. The Sisters of Doom were on me, too.

People don"t pay enough attention to kids, especially youngish girls not showing colors. I didn"t get it until I realized I"d seen the same faces several times. Then I paid enough attention to pick out a couple I"d seen before.

Now what?

They closed in as I neared their hideout. I must have hurt Maya"s feelings more than I"d thought.

She always was touchy and unpredictable.

If there was a confrontation it would come off better in the open, where I"d have some choice about which way I"d run.

I sat down on a tenement stoop.

That threw them, which was the plan. I expected them to get Maya and she"d come explain what a horse"s a.s.s I am.

It didn"t work that way.

After a few minutes the girls understood that I was calling. They moved in. Some electric sense of trouble flooded the street. Everybody who wasn"t part of it disappeared, though n.o.body ran and n.o.body hollered. The girls edged toward me with the group confidence of pack animals. I slid a hand into a pocket and toyed with one of Peridont"s gifts.

I picked a sixteen-year-old I recognized, looked her in the eye and said, "Maya is overreacting, Tey. Tell her to get her tail out here and talk before somebody gets hurt."

The girls looked at each other, confused. But the one I"d spoken to didn"t let an antique baffle her with bulls.h.i.t. "Where is she, Garrett? What did you do with her?"

The gang was in close now, feeling nastier. And those guys that I"d noticed before were moving in behind the girls. There were five of them and I knew two, Saucerhead Tharpe and a slugger named Coltrain.