A Gathering of Widowmakers (The Widowmaker #4) Read Free Page B

lived long enough to get that reputation."
    They took an aircar to the ship, picked up what they needed, and came back to the hotel. The woman at the registration desk stared at them when they returned, but didn't say a word.
    Kinoshita went to his own room, and Jeff entered the suite, activated the room's computer, had it bring up maps, building permits, tax records, anything it could find that might help him figure out where Pickett was staying. When he was finally satisfied that he'd learned all he could, he went to sleep.
    He was up with the yellow-orange sun the next morning. After he'd shaved and showered he stopped by Kinoshita's room, waited a few minutes for him to finish his ablutions, and then they went to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast.
    "Have you got any idea where he is?" asked Kinoshita as he finished his coffee.
    Jeff nodded. "Yeah, I think so. There's an unimpressive little house about six miles east of town, not near anything. Gets its water from a well. I think that's where we'll find him."
    "Any particular reason why?"
    "Yeah," said Jeff. "A house like that on a world like this can't be worth much than twenty or twenty-five thousand credits."
    "So?"
    "I checked the real estate tax rolls. It's being taxed on an estimated value of four hundred thousand credits."
    "Maybe it's sitting on a couple of square miles," suggested Kinoshita.
    "It's on three barren acres," said Jeff. "That means most of it is hidden from view. The guy has built himself a luxury home for when he's here, and he obviously doesn't want certain people to know. Now, the locals are aware of how much he's worth, because he donated a wing of the hospital, so it's obviously not an attempt to mislead them. Put it all together and you've got someone with a pile of money who doesn't want any off-worlders to figure out he's living there."
    "Not bad," said Kinoshita, visibly impressed.
    "You ready?"
    "Yes, I suppose so. I just keep wondering if the desk clerk warned him. She's not here this morning."
    "Just how many hours a day do you want her to work?"
    "You're not worried about it?"
    "Would worrying help?" asked Jeff.
    Kinoshita sighed deeply, feeling out of his depth, as usual. "Let's go."
    They walked out the front door and summoned an aircar. Jeff gave it the coordinates—the place was too far out of town to have an address—and then they sat back and rode in silence across the brown, empty countryside until the vehicle approached the house.
    "Stop here," said Jeff when they were eighty yards away.
    The aircar stopped and hovered above the ground while Jeff and Kinoshita got out.
    "Wait for us," Jeff ordered the aircar, then turned back to the house. He stood perfectly still for a long moment, then began walking. "Okay, I don't see any booby traps. It sure doesn't look like much of a house, does it? If I didn't know how much of it was hidden under the ground, I'd say a team of robots built it in less than a day."
    When he was fifty feet from the house a lean, well-muscled man, his hair starting to turn gray at the sides, stepped out of the house and stood on the sparse grass, facing them.
    "Stop right there," he said, "and tell me why you're here."
    "I'm looking for Jubal Pickett," answered Jeff.
    "You don't want him."
    "I'll be the judge of that," said Jeff.
    "Then let me put it another way," said the man. "You can't have him."
    Where have I heard that voice? thought Kinoshita. I know it from somewhere.
    "There's paper on him, dead or alive," said Jeff. "He can save a lot of wear and tear on all of us if he'll surrender—but one way or another I'm taking him back with me."
    "Don't believe everything you read or hear," said the man. "Jubal Pickett has never killed anyone in his life."
    "Of course he did," said Jeff. "Along with everything else he's wanted for, he killed two lawmen and a bounty hunter who were after him."
    "No he didn't."
    Jeff stared at the man. " You did," he said at last. "Who are you?"
    "My name is Jason Newman,"