The Minstrel Boy nodded painfully.
‘Sure.’
‘And you guided him here?’
‘Right.’
‘So where is he?’
The Minstrel Boy shook his head.
‘I just don’t know.’
Monk turned savagely to his three sidekicks.
‘Work him over for a while. He might remember something.’
The Minstrel Boy began to struggle as they moved towards him. His voice almost reached a scream.
‘Hold it, hold it.’
Monk looked down at him. He motioned to the other two.
‘Wait a bit. Maybe he’s going to tell us something.’
The Minstrel Boy sagged in the chair.
‘I don’t know exactly where he is, but I might be able to find out.’
‘How?’
‘How do I know you won’t kill me once I’ve found out what you want to know?’
Monk grinned.
‘You don’t.’
‘So why should I do it for you?’
Monk gestured to the other three hoods. They started towards the Minstrel Boy. Monk held up his hand and they halted. His smile was ugly.
‘You can do it the easy way, or you can do it the hard way. It’s your choice.’
The Minstrel Boy nodded.
‘I’ve always preferred the easy way.’
‘Okay. How do we find him?’
‘Do I have to stay tied up?’
‘How do we find him?’
‘You don’t find him.’
Monk drew back his fist. The Minstrel Boy went quickly on.
‘I find him.’
Monk’s eyes narrowed.
‘What are you trying to pull?’
‘I’ve got a credit card on his account. The bank will know the last location he used his card.’
‘So where’s the card?’
The Minstrel Boy shook his head.
‘It’s not as easy as that. They’ll want to be able to identify me on a vision link before they give out the information. I’m the only one who can do it. You’ll have to untie me, and clean me up a bit.’
The Minstrel Boy even managed a lopsided bruised grin.
‘You’ll even have to take me down to the lobby.’
He nodded towards the service phone with its ripped out handset.
‘Your gorillas don’t think ahead.’
Monk looked at the other three. They all said nothing for a while. Then he shrugged reluctantly.
‘Maybe he’s telling the truth.’
The one with the scar looked sideways at the Minstrel Boy.
‘And maybe he’s just playing for time. I figure we should work him over a bit more - just so we can be sure.’
‘That’s what you figure, Wormo?’
The hood with the scar nodded. Monk grabbed him by the front of his jacket.
‘Leave the figuring to me, okay? When you start trying to figure, your nasty inclinations usually get in the way.’
He pushed him away.
‘Now untie him, and take him into the bathroom and get him cleaned up.’
Wormo reluctantly did as he was told. When the Minstrel Boy emerged from the bathroom, Monk pointed the needle gun at his chest.
‘We’re going down to the lobby now.’
He snapped his fingers at Wormo.
‘Give me that coat off the bed.’
Wormo picked up a fur coat off a chair. It was one that the Minstrel Boy had bought during his spending spree. Monk draped it over his arm so it hid the gun.
‘This’ll be pointed at your back all the time. If you try anything I’ll cut you in half.’
The Minstrel Boy nodded. They started towards the door. Wormo was the only one who hesitated. Monk half turned.
‘What’s your problem?’
‘What about the girl and the bellhop?’
‘Leave them. The cleaners’ll find them.’
Wormo licked his lips.
‘Can’t I have them? The girl at least. I’ll take care of her and catch up with you later.’
He looked at Monk expectantly.
Monk shrugged.
‘Stay here and do what you want. You’ll be finished with the job, that’s all.’
Wormo looked disappointedly back at Liza, hesitated for a moment and then reluctantly followed the others. He spotted the Minstrel Boy’s belt of knives. He picked them up.
‘Can I take these?’
Monk nodded impatiently.
‘Take what you want but grab it fast.’
The Minstrel Boy’s eyes narrowed but he said nothing. With Monk right behind him he started walking towards the lift.
In one corner of the hotel foyer were a cluster of com-booths. The Minstrel Boy and his escort came out of the lift. Nobody seemed to pay them any attention. They crossed the foyer, threading their way between the flowering plants, glass tables and Bauhaus chairs. They attracted no interest at all. The Minstrel Boy looked round. He wondered what would happen if he tried to run. Monk was right behind him. He imagined the stream of steel needles slicing into his back. His skin crawled and he felt sick. He kept on walking.
The Minstrel Boy seated himself in one of the plastic blisters. Monk positioned himself in the entrance so he could see and hear everything. The gun under the coat was still pointed at him. The Minstrel Boy took the credit card from his pocket. He punched out the coordinates of the bank. A stiff-collared clerk appeared on the screen.
‘Can I help you?’
‘I wish to know the location of Jeb Stuart Ho. I hold a temporary card on his account.’
‘Place the card in the transmission slot and your hand on the scanner.’
The Minstrel Boy did as he was told and the screen clouded. Monk leaned over and hissed at him.
‘What’s going on? Is this some kind of double cross?’
The Minstrel Boy shook his head.
‘Just wait.’
The screen cleared and the card dropped from the receiver slot. The clerk smiled a thin smile.
‘You’re in luck, sir. Brother Ho has just paid for a meal at Fidel’s Burgers on Authority Plaza.’
The screen went blank. The Minstrel Boy looked up at Monk.
‘There’s your man.’
Monk nodded grimly.
‘That only leaves the question of what we do with you.’
***
Jeb Stuart Ho took one bite out of the Vegie-Wonder and put it down. The brotherhood were not meat eaters. He had passed Fidel’s Regular, Super and the Triple Deck Scrumbo, and picked out the Vegie-Wonder. It was advertised in the menu as a ‘non-meat vegetarian whole-food delight’. It was nasty. The so-called vegetables were sheets of recycled cellulose, die-stamped into crude leaf shapes and dyed a garish green. Jeb Stuart Ho suspected that the burgers were made of the same material, only dyed brown.
He pushed away his meal and looked through the plate glass front of Fidel’s Burgers. He had walked through to Authority Plaza after going to the Orchid House. The guardians had told him A.A. Catto had left. He had been hungry, but the main reason he had come into the place was to attempt to think about his next move. Even this was denied him. Hard metallic music blared from speakers all over the hamburger joint, and jagged patterns of light danced on the walls. The other customers in the place seemed to be munching contentedly.
Jeb Stuart Ho shook his head and took his credit card from the pay slot. He stood up and made his way out of Fidel’s Burgers. The pavement was almost deserted. In the centre of the square was a particularly ugly fountain. Lit by searchlights, stylized heroic figures supported a huge marble bowl from which water cascaded over them. The only thing Jeb Stuart Ho could imagine it symbolized was blind stupidity. Apart from a few drunks who staggered round the statue’s base, the centre of the square was equally quiet. It seemed an ideal place to stop and think.
He stepped off the kerb and dodged the ground traffic until he reached the central island. There he walked slowly towards the fountain. He stopped at its rim and stared down into the water. A.A. Catto had eluded him. He couldn’t afford just to roam Litz and hope for another lead. That would undoubtedly give her time to leave the city altogether. There was even a chance that she had done that already. His best action might be to contact Bannion, to see if he had any information on her whereabouts. His other alternative might be to get hold of the Minstrel Boy and find out if he had any more contacts that could be valuable.