The Demon was generally acknowledged to be the number-two man in the organization. The last time I had met with someone that high up was in the middle of a war with another Jhereg, and the council member I’d spoken to had let me know that I’d better find a way to get things settled, or he would. I have no pleasant memories of that meeting.
“What does he want?” I asked.
“He wants to meet with you.”
“Oh, crap. Double crap. Dragon dung. Any ideas why?”
“No. He did pick a meeting place in our territory, for whatever that’s worth.”
“It isn’t worth a whole lot,” I said. “Which place?”
“The Blue Flame restaurant,” said Kragar.
“The Blue Flame, eh? What does that bring to mind?”
“I seem to recall that you ‘worked’ there twice.”
“That’s right. It’s a real good place for killing someone. High booths, wide aisles, low lighting, and in an area where people like to mind their own business.”
“That’s the place. He set it up for two hours past noon, tomorrow.”
“After noon?”
Kragar looked puzzled. “That’s right. After noon. That means when most people have eaten lunch, but haven’t eaten supper yet. You must have come across the concept before.”
I ignored his sarcasm. “You’re missing the point,” I said, flipping a shuriken into the wall next to his ear.
“Funny, Vlad—”
“Quiet. Now, how do you go about killing an assassin? Especially someone who’s careful not to let his movements fall into any pattern?”
“Eh? You set up a meeting with him, just like the Demon is doing.”
“Right. And, of course, you do everything you can to make him suspicious, don’t you?”
“Uh, maybe you do. I don’t.”
“Damn right you don’t! You make it sound like a simple business meeting. And that means you arrange to buy the guy a meal. And that means you don’t arrange it for some time like two hours past noon.”
He was quiet for a while, as he tried to follow my somewhat convoluted logic. “Okay,” he said at last, “I agree that this is somewhat abnormal. Now, why?”
“I’m not sure. Tell you what; find out everything you can about him, bring it back here, and we’ll try to figure it out. It might not mean anything, but . . . ”
Kragar smiled and pulled a small notebook from inside his cloak. He began reading. “The Demon,” he said. “True name unknown. Young, probably under eight hundred. No one heard of him before the Interregnum. He emerged just after it by personally killing two of the three members of the old council who survived the destruction of the city of Dragaera and the plagues and invasions. He built an organization from what was left, and helped make the House profitable again. As a matter of fact, Vlad,” he said, looking up, “it seems that it was his idea to allow Easterners to buy titles in the Jhereg.”
“Now that’s interesting,” I said. “So I have him to thank for my father being able to squander the profits from forty years of work in order to be spat upon as a Jhereg, in addition to being spat upon as an Easterner. I’ll have to find some way to thank him for that.”
“I might point out,” said Kragar, “that if your father hadn’t bought that title, you wouldn’t have had the chance to join the business end of the House.”
“Maybe. But go on.”
“There isn’t much more to tell. He didn’t exactly make it to the top; it would be more accurate to say that he made it somewhere, and then declared the top to be where he was. You have to remember that things were pretty much a mess back then.
“And of course, he was tough enough, and good enough to make it stick. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t had any serious threats to his power since he got there. He has a habit of spotting potential challengers while they’re still weak, and getting rid of them. In fact—do you remember that fellow, Leonyar, we took out last year?”
I nodded.
“Well, I think that may have come indirectly from the Demon. We’ll never know for sure, of course, but as I said: he likes to get rid of potential problems early.”
“Yeah. Do you think he could see me as a ‘potential problem?’ ”
Kragar thought that over. “I suppose he might, but I don’t quite see why. You’ve been staying out of trouble, and, as I said before, you haven’t really been moving very fast since the first couple of years. The only time there’s been any problem was the business with Laris last year, and I think everyone knows that he forced it on you.”
“I hope so. Does the Demon do ‘work’?”
Kragar shrugged. “We can’t say for sure, but it looks like he does. We know that he used to. As I said, he took out those two council members personally, back when he was getting started.”
“Great. So in addition to whatever he could have set up, he might be planning to do the job himself.”
“I suppose he could.”
“But I still can’t figure out—look, Kragar, with someone like the Demon, something like this wouldn’t happen by accident, would it?”
“Something like—?”
“Like carefully arranging a meeting in just such a way as to arouse my suspicions.”
“No, I don’t think he—What is it?”
I guess he caught the look on my face, which must have been simply precious. I shook my head. “That’s it, of course.”
“What,” he asked, “is what?”
“Kragar, arrange for three bodyguards for me, okay?”
“Bodyguards? But—”
“Make them busboys or something. You won’t have any trouble; I own half interest in the place. Which, I might add, I’m sure the Demon is aware of.”
“Don’t you think he’ll catch on?”
“Of course he’ll catch on. That’s the point. He knows that I’m going to be nervous about meeting him, so he deliberately set up the meeting with an irregularity to make me suspicious, so I’ll have an excuse to have protection there. He’s going out of his way to say, ‘Go ahead and do what you have to, to feel safe, I won’t be offended.’ ”
I shook my head again. I was starting to get dizzy. “I hope I don’t ever have to go up against the son-of-a-bitch. He’s devious.”
“You’re devious, boss,” said Kragar. “I sometimes think you know Dragaerans better than other Dragaerans do.”
“I do,” I said flatly. “And that’s because I’m not one.”
He nodded. “Okay, three bodyguards. Our own people, or freelance?”
“Make one of them our own, and hire the other two. There isn’t any need to rub his nose in it, in case he recognizes our people.”
“Right.”
“You know, Kragar,” I said thoughtfully, “I’m not real happy about this. He must know me well enough to know that I’d figure out what he was doing, which means this could be a setup after all.” I held up my hand as he started to speak. “No, I’m not saying that I think it is, just that it could be.”
“Well, you could always tell him that you can’t make it?”
“Sure. Then, if he isn’t planning to kill me now, he’d be sure to after that.”
“Probably,” admitted Kragar. “But what else can you do?”
“I can bitch a lot and go meet with him. Okay, that’s tomorrow. Anything else going on?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Some Teckla got mugged the night before last, a couple of blocks from here.”
I cursed. “Hurt bad?”
Kragar shook his head. “A fractured jaw and a couple of bruises. Nothing serious, but I thought you’d like to know.”
“Right. Thanks. I take it you haven’t found the guy who did it?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, find him.”
“It’ll cost.”
“Screw the cost. It’ll cost more if all our customers get scared away. Find the guy and make an example of him.”