‘I don’t suggest we wait for them to come. I figure we should try and get them first.’
Monk shook his head.
‘You got to be crazy.’
Nancy planted her hands on her hips and looked down at him.
‘There’s a credit card in it for the one who gets Ho, a card of his own.’
Everyone began to talk at once. A credit card meant reinstatement in full. It was the only kind of prize that might tempt anyone to tackle a professional assassin. Monk grinned.
‘What do the others get?’
‘A month’s credit. That’s for each man who joins us. There’s nothing else to tell. Who’s going to join us?’
The men all looked at each other. A couple shook their heads and sheepishly left. The remainder stayed put. Monk stood up.
‘Looks like you got your team. All we need is weapons.’
Nancy nodded towards a pile of gift-wrapped packages in the corner.
‘We stopped at the gun store on the way up here. There’s a half dozen riot guns, ammunition, some hand guns and grenades. We’ve got enough weapons.’
Monk grinned.
‘You think of everything.’
Then Nancy got down to the final details. The team was split into two groups. One would stay at the Leader and guard A.A. Catto, the other would move out into the city and start circulating the description of Ho to the beggars, winos and hustlers. Once he’d been located they’d move in for the kill. Billy found himself drafted into the hotel group. He wasn’t really concentrating on the planning. While it was going on he moved close to Reave, and spoke to him in a low voice.
‘I know who the other guy is. Ho’s partner.’
Reave looked at him in surprise.
‘Who?’
‘The Minstrel Boy.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘I’m not, I saw him when they came here looking for A.A. Catto.’
‘Did he see you?’
Billy shook his head.
‘I ducked into the lift. I didn’t want him to see me. I guess I was ashamed or something.’
Reave said nothing. Billy looked at him urgently.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘We can’t let him kill A.A. Catto.’
‘But we can’t let him be gunned down. He got us out of real trouble a couple of limes.’
Reave ran his fingers through his hair.
‘I don’t know what we can do except wait and see. If we tell anyone now, it could put us in a real awkward position.’
Billy glanced at A.A. Catto.
‘But you’re with her. She won’t let anything happen to you.’
Reave avoided his eyes.
‘I wouldn’t altogether count on that.’
Billy nodded unhappily.
‘I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.’
***
The Minstrel Boy was drunk. He wasn’t quite at the point of falling over, but he was certainly having trouble getting up the steps of the Club 93. He leaned heavily on the girl beside him. Although he couldn’t quite remember her name, he was happier than he’d been since Jeb Stuart Ho had rudely dragged him from his comfortable tank at Wainscote. It was his first day of living it up on Ho’s credit, and he was making the most of it. He grinned at the girl.
‘Think we should make it back to my hotel, honey?’ The first thing the Minstrel Boy had done after he’d left Ho was to check into the Albert Speer. The Albert Speer was generally considered to be the best hotel in Litz. The girl looked up at him with a quick professional smile.
‘I don’t think you’re capable of much else.’
The Minstrel Boy’s grin widened.
‘You’d be surprised what I’m capable of.’
‘I’m surprised you’re still capable of standing up.’
Still holding him steady, she signalled to the 93’s doorman to get them a cab. While they were waiting for it, he took the opportunity to have a better look at her. The pick-up had been so fast he hadn’t really had a chance to study her. She’d made a beeline for him almost immediately he staggered into the club and started tossing his credit about. She’d seemed okay in the dim light of the club, but up on the street, the blemishes were inclined to show.
In fact, she stood up to the examination very well. Her growth had been halted around fourteen or fifteen. She had the turned-up nose, large eyes and cute features of the most popular clone hostess model, although from the way she moved and talked, he knew she was a normal human. Her skin was done in a pleasant rainbow blend of light pastel shades. Her hair was a mass of waist-length, dark blue ringlets that matched her short tight tube dress and lace-up boots. The Minstrel Boy congratulated himself. He’d really done rather well for one so drunk.
The cab pulled up, and it took both the girl and the doorman to get him safely inside. If the Minstrel Boy hadn’t suffered so much difficulty in negotiating himself into the back of the cab, he might have noticed the beggar who took one look at him, started, jumped up from his pitch on the kerb and hurried off down the street.
The cab ride took longer than originally intended. Halfway to the Albert Speer, the Minstrel Boy decided that he needed a bunch of duramene to burn off some of the alcohol in his brain, and he made the driver make a detour to a drugstore. Once they got there, he suffered an attack of paranoia and refused to get out of the cab. He’d convinced himself that if anyone saw him buying anything as expensive as duramene he was quite likely to be mugged as he walked back to the cab. After some haggling, the driver was persuaded to go.
They started back to the hotel once again, but after they’d only gone a couple of blocks he stopped the cab again. He’d decided he needed a shot to help himself get across the hotel foyer. As he fumbled the ampoule into the injection unit, the girl began to exhibit noticeable signs of impatience, but when he offered her a shot for herself, they quickly receded. By the time they reached the hotel they were laughing and talkative. The Minstrel Boy was hardly any more coherent, but the duramene had made him a good deal more mobile.
They stopped for a moment and stared up to the soaring baroque facade of black and red glass. The girl squeezed the Minstrel Boy’s arm.
‘You really like to live well, don’t you?’
The Minstrel Boy grinned and nodded. He was still hoping he would find out her name without having to ask.
‘You’d better believe it.’
They crossed the foyer, stepped into the lift, and rode up to the Minstrel Boy’s thirty-seventh-floor suite without any difficulty. Immediately they were inside the girl grabbed the Minstrel Boy and kissed him very hard. She thrust the whole length of her body against him, squirming slightly and darting her tongue in and out of his mouth. When she suddenly released him, he took a step back and dropped into a chair.
‘Unh.’
The girl looked down at him.
‘What’s the matter with you? Don’t you like me?’
The Minstrel Boy shrugged.
‘How should I know? I only met you a while ago, and ain’t been able to see straight most of the time.’
The girl began to look angry.
‘You don’t take a lot of trouble to be charming.’
‘That’s true.’
‘I expect you can’t even remember my name.’
‘That’s true too.’
‘You’re goddamn impossible.’
The Minstrel Boy nodded.
‘Impossible.’
The girl went red.
‘Well fuck you, Jack.’
She turned on her heel and began heading for the door. The Minstrel Boy turned in his chair, and called after her.
‘Hey!’
She turned in front of the door.
‘What?’
‘I’d really like to fuck you.’
The girl leaned back against the door and gave a half smile.
‘You would, would you?’
‘Sure.’
‘Am I supposed to be flattered?’