Book 10 - Angry Lead Skies Read Free Page A

under her hair. I
guess . . . not. There’re these dark,
bruise-looking patches down here, practically on the neck. Maybe
they do the same job.”
    That
was
weird. I couldn’t think of a race that
didn’t have ears of some kind. In fact, most races have ears
that make our human ones look like afterthoughts. Great hairy,
pointy, or dangly things all covered with scales and warts.
    “Old Bones, you’ve got to help us out here. Why
can’t Play draw what he really saw?”
    Grumpy atmospherics. Kip squeaked. The Dead Man observed,
Mr. Playmate appears to be reproducing what was actually in
front of him rather than what he believes he saw. It is possible he
was gulled by some illusion. The illustration does resemble the
boy’s recollections of his elven acquaintances.
    “Wonderful. Play, I’ll bet Colonel Block wishes he
had somebody who could draw pictures like this of the villains he
wants to catch.”
    “The Guard can go on wishing. You know I’m a simple
man, Garrett. Not greedy at all. But I do have to point out that a
second-rate stable operator like myself still makes a better living
than the best-paid honest policeman.”
    “Most everything pays better than being honest. You want
to work for Block and Relway, you’d better have a bone-deep
law and order calling. Now what?”
    Kip was making noises. He wasn’t as impressed with the
sketch as I was. “The eyes aren’t right,
Play.”
    “They wouldn’t be, would they?” Playmate
growled. “Since whenever they look straight at you they go
all smoky. And they aren’t eyes like ours, anyway. They
don’t have any eyelids.”
    “It’s not that. It’s their shape.
They’re bulgier . . . ”
    Garrett!
    The kid jumped, squealed, went paper pale in an instant,
scattered the documents on my desk. He moaned, “They’re
here! They’re trying to get into my head again!”
He tried to jump past Playmate.
    “Hang on to him!” I said. “That’s just
old Chuckles deciding to pick on me for a minute.”
    Old Chuckles demurred. He sent,
The young man is entirely
correct, Garrett. There is an unknown creature in the alleyway out
back trying to look into the house. I am confusing it and blocking
it but that is extremely difficult. The work requires most of the
attention of most of my minds.
    The Dead Man belongs to a rare species known as Loghyr. They
have that knack. Of having multiple minds capable of parallel and
independent function. I’ve heard that some develop multiple
personalities. I can’t imagine. Old Bones is a complete
horror show being just one of himself.
    Simultaneous shrieks sounded upstairs and in the small front
room. I don’t know what Katie’s problem was but it was
audibly obvious that the Goddamn Parrot had decided to focus his
powers of persuasion on convincing the world that he was about as
sane as a drunken butterfly.
    The creature is now confused by what I have done. Which is
to connect it to a couple of marginally sensitive but completely
empty minds. Perhaps it will become equally lost.
    “That’s no way to talk about my
girlfriend.”
    The Dead Man was able to make the air sneer. And I suppose he
had a point. Nature endowed Katie with countless delicious
attributes. At first glance excessive intellect doesn’t
appear to be one of those. But, actually, bimbo is a survival
strategy that she has let get out of control.
    The kid began babbling soft nonsense not unlike that of yon
inebriated megamouth. It sounded suspiciously like some of the
nonsense Katie whispered when she was about half-asleep and
purring. I asked Playmate, “Kip have a history with booze or
drugs?” The kid was now not speaking any form of Karentine I
recognized. My place isn’t the neighborhood ranting ground
for any of those cults that specialize in speaking in tongues.
    Even so, soon every fourth word out of Kip’s mouth sounded
vaguely familiar. They may even have been real
words—completely out of context.
    “No. Never. He doesn’t have that