Necessity I understand. Necessity I won't condemn. The despicable are those who sell their sisters and daughters and wives because that saves them having to work. "Bear with me, Morley."
"I do, Garrett. And with all your kind. Like it or not, you're the present and future of the world. The rest of us are going to have to find what niches we can. Otherwise, time will pass us by."
"Bravo!" I clapped. "You've got the vision. Get yourself appointed to the city board of aldermen."
"I'm not human enough. And I wouldn't have time."
I boggled for an instant. My facetious remark had been heard seriously. Interesting. Morley Dotes, bone-breaker and lifetaker, your alderman and mine?
Actually, that could be an idea whose time had arrived. The Goddamned Parrot could do as well as the crooks and incompetents and senile halfwits running things now.
TunFaire is a human city in the human kingdom of Karenta. This is established by numerous treaties. It means human rule prevails except in such ways as may be modified by treaty in particular regards or areas. TunFaire is also an "open city," meaning any race with a treaty can come and go freely, essentially with the same rights and privileges as Karentine subjects. And, in theory, the same obligations.
In practice, all races come and go, treaty or no, and a lot of nonhumans evade their civil obligations. Centaurs are the outstanding example. All treaties with centaurs perished when the tribes went over to Glory Mooncalled. Legally, they're enemy aliens. But they've been flooding into city and kingdom as Mooncalled's republic fades and nobody except extremists seems to object.
Guest workers and resident nonhumans make up half of TunFaire's population. With the war winding down and ever more folks realizing that society is headed for dramatic changes a lot of resentment is building.
Shouldn't be long before the nonhuman question becomes a central fact of politics. It is now for splinters like the Call. You won't find any euphemism or circumlocution in the message of the Call. Their strategy is kill nonhumans till the survivors flee.
Gods, I didn't want this mess of mine to lead me into the snakepit of racial politics. Lords Above or Below, render me outside politics of any stink.
Morley and I pressed on. We searched high and low, right and left, north, south, east, and west. We placed special emphasis on the suite supposedly belonging to Justine Jenn. Morley opined, "Nobody lived here, Garrett. It was stage-dressed."
I agreed.
"Think there's anything else to find?" he asked.
"I doubt it. Want to try the basement?"
"Do you?"
"I remember the last time we did a basement. I'm more inclined to go shopping."
"Wixon and White. The hens' teeth salesmen. They actually knew the girl?"
"A girl," I grumped, identities being so shifty lately.
"Good point. But it's a start. Mind if I tag along? I haven't been out that way for a while."
"Gee. I'm psychic." I'd just known he would want to go. "Wasn't for those buccaneers, I'd have serious doubts that the girl exists."
"A girl. Like you said. What say let's don't just hit the street?"
"Good thinking." We checked for observers. Winger and a ferocious pirate type were holding down the alley, pretending they couldn't see each other. "Nice to see folks get along."
"Makes the world run smoother. Crack that view slit up front and check the genius out there."
The front face of the house wasn't as featureless as it had looked from the street. I peeked.
The pro had decided we would walk out the front door like we lived there. Which he'd have done himself. He had done and admirable job of fading into the background. Nobody looking for him was going to miss him, though.
There was no sign of the inept guy. Curious.
Chuckling, Morley asked, "How long will they wait if they don't know we're not in here anymore?"
"How?"
"The rooftops."
I chuckled right back. "Sounds like an experiment worth making. Let's do it."
"We could even sic the brunos on them after we're clear."
"No, no. That's too much. I don't want to spend the rest of my life watching over my shoulder for some of Winger's paybacks."
"Good point. Let's go."
We went. It was easy. The roofs were all flat. The only hitch we encountered was getting down.
40
We tried three downspouts. None would support me. "Need some home repairs in these parts," I grumbled. "People ought to show some pride. Ought to keep up their property."
"Or we could start a weight loss program at the Garrett dump." Morley, the little weasel, could have gone down any of the spouts.
Worse, last try we had caught the eyes of some prematurely cynical kids who'd jumped to the conclusion we were up to no good. Just because we were running around on the roofs. We could have been roofers shopping for work.
No more fun. The patrol would be along soon.
Morley bent over the edge, tried another downspout. A herd of preadolescents watched from the street. I made faces, but they didn't scare. Morley said, "This will have to do."
I shook it myself. Not that I didn't trust him. He was right. It would have to do. It was more solid.
Still...
"We have to get down now, Garrett."
"I'm not worried about getting down. What concerns me is how many pieces of me there're going to be after I get there."
Morley went over the side, abandoning me to my fate. I gave him a head start, then followed, my weight taken by different supports. I had descended about eight feet when furious elvish cursing broke out below me. For a second, I thought I had stepped on his fingers.
"What?" I demanded.
"I'm hung up."
I leaned out so I could see. Sure enough. His shirt was out and tangled in one of the supports that anchored the downspout to the building. He tried to climb a little to get loose. For reasons known only to the gods who engineer these things that only made things worse. I heard cloth tear. Morley started cursing all over again. He let go with one hand and tried to work his shirt loose.
It would not yield. But he was being awfully damned delicate about it.
Down below, some kid came up with the notion that it would be fun to throw rocks at us. First shot he got Morley on the knuckles of the hand he was using to hang on.
Only thing that saved him was that his shirt was hung up.
The gods give and the gods take away.
Morley's shirt tore a little more.
Morley's temper ripped. He invented new curses.
"Cut it loose!" I yelled.
"It's a new shirt. First time I ever wore it." He continued fighting with it.
Stones peppered the wall. A racket from up the street gave warning of the patrol. "You'd better do something. In a couple of minutes, you're going to have people throwing more than rocks at you."
"I am?"
"You am. I'm going to climb down over you and leave you hanging."
He started to say something testy, but a small stone hit him in the back of the head.
Blur of steel. Pretty cloth flying. Morley down that spout like a squirrel as kids shrieked and scattered. I caught up while he was trying to decide which kid to run down. "Let's go." The patrol were damn near in spear-chucking range.
Morley looked like he'd rather stay and fight. He wanted to hurt somebody. He rubbed the back of his head and got set.
"Come on!" I commenced the old high-speed heel and toe work.
Morley opted not to take on the world alone.
41
Even Morley was puffing before we shook the pursuit. Staggering, I gasped, "It was torn already. And you've got another shirt. I've seen it."