Yendi Read Free

"Clean it up."
    "Laris, eh boss?" said Kragar a bit later. "One of our next-door neighbors. He controls about ten square blocks. He only has a couple of operations that face our territory, so far."
    I put my feet up on my desk. "More than twice as much area as I have," I mused.
    "It looked like he was expecting trouble, didn't it?"
    I nodded. "So, is he just testing us, or is he really trying to move in on me?" Kragar shrugged. "Hard to say for sure, but I think he wants to move in."
    "Okay," I said, sounding a lot calmer than I felt. "Can we talk him out of it, or is it war?"
    "Are we up to a war?"
    "Of course not," I snapped. "I've only had my own area for half a year. We should have been expecting something like this. Damn."
    He nodded.
    I took a deep breath. "Okay, how many enforcers do we have on our payroll?"
    "Six, not counting the ones who are permanently assigned to someplace."
    "How are our finances?"
    "Excellent."
    "Then that's something, anyway. Suggestions?"
    He looked uncomfortable. "I don't know, Vlad. Would it do any good to talk to him?"
    "How should I know? We don't know enough about him."
    "So that," he said, "ought to be our first step. Find out everything we can."
    "If he gives us time," I said.
    Kragar nodded.
    " We have another problem, boss. "
    " What's that, Loiosh? "
    " I'll bet you're really horny, now. "
    " Oh, shut up. "

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    "I'm going to want protection."
    When I entered the organization, some three years before, I was working for a guy named Nielar as what we call a "muscle." He controlled a small gambling operation on North Garshos Street. He paid his dues to Welok the Blade.
    Welok was a sort of mid-level boss. His area went from Potter's Market Street in the north to Millennial in the south, and from Prance in the west to One-Claw in the east. All of these areas were pretty tentative and, when I went to work for Nielar, the northern edge, along Potter's, was very tentative. The first time I "worked," and the third, were to further the Blade's desire to make this border more certain. His northern neighbor was a peaceable kind of guy named Rolaan, who was trying to negotiate with Welok because he wanted Potter's but didn't want a war. Rolaan became more peaceable after he fell from his third-floor office one day. His lieutenant, Feet Charno, was even more peaceable, so the problem was resolved nicely. I've always suspected Feet of arranging Rolaan's death, because otherwise I can't account for Welok's leaving Charno alone, but I never found out for sure.
    That was three years ago. About then I stopped working for Nielar, and went to work for the Blade himself. The Blade's boss was Toronnan, who ran things from the docks in the east to the "Little Deathsgate" area in the west, and from the river in the south to Issola Street in the north.
    About a year and a half after Rolaan took the trip to Deathsgate Falls, Welok had a dispute with someone in the Left Hand of the Jhereg. I think the someone was working in the same territory as Welok (our interests don't usually overlap), but I don't know exactly what the problem was. One day Welok just vanished, and his spot was filled by one of his lieutenants--a guy named Tagichatn, whose name I still can't pronounce right.
    I'd been working as a troubleshooter for the Blade, but this new guy didn't think much of Easterners. My first day, I walked into his office, a little place on Copper Lane between Garshos and Malak Circle. I explained what I'd been doing for Welok, and asked him if he wanted to be called "lord," or "boss," or if I should try to figure out how to say his name. He said, "Call me God-boss," and we were off.
    Inside of a week I loathed him. Inside of a month, another ex-lieutenant of Welok's broke away and started running his own territory right in the middle of Tagichatn's. This was Laris.
    Two months of "God-boss" was all I could take. Many of us who worked for him noticed that he made no move against