Lathe nodded back and left the table, Skyler falling into step beside him. "What do you think?" the big man murmured.
"Rusty but willing," Lathe told him. "Let's hope his comsquare is equally tired of being a hired thug."
The little man and his two cohorts were nowhere in sight as the blackcollars crossed into the anteroom. The coatcheck woman was still at her window, though, and she looked up as they approached. "I saw Mr. Kanai come in a short time ago," she said.
"We had our talk," Lathe nodded.
She smiled. "I hope it was productive."
Something about the way she said that... and abruptly Lathe realized what it was. "I hope so, too," he said. "You work here every night?"
"Five nights a week, till three a.m."
"You handle anything besides coats?" he asked with a wink.
She seemed taken aback. "Sometimes they need an extra waitress."
"I was thinking more on the personal level." Lathe shrugged. "Never mind. We can go elsewhere for female companionship."
A look that was almost disgust crossed her face before she could cover it. "Good night, sir," she said, dropping her eyes from his gaze.
They left the building and headed west across the mall. Though it was nearly eleven o'clock, most of the stores lining the area were still open, and the pedestrian traffic was correspondingly heavy.
"Interesting," Skyler murmured, nodding to one of the shops. "High-class places, notice—jewelry stores, restaurants, import shops. You suppose the Shandygaff's a common meeting place because each of these places is owned by a different boss?"
"So that if anyone starts trouble, one of his own places is likely to get trashed in the process?" Lathe shrugged. "Makes sense. We'll ask Kanai about it sometime."
"Yeah." Skyler cleared his throat. "Incidentally, you mind telling me what that business with the coatcheck lady was all about?"
"Not at all. You notice anything out of character about her?"
"Aside from not mentioning her other second job is backup gun in case of trouble?" Skyler shrugged. "I don't know. She seemed maybe a shade too nosy about our talk with Kanai, but maybe she backs up the little guy in that post, too."
"Possibly. But I'm referring more to the fact that she's just about the first regular person we've met in this town who wasn't scared spitless of us."
"Mm. Interesting. Of course, she sees a lot of Kanai and his friends... but so does Mr. Charm, and he folded as fast as Reger's harmers did. Implication is she knows more about blackcollars generally than can be learned from the local representatives?"
"That was my thought. Hence the leering-soldier-in-search-of-random-female gambit."
"Totally out of character for you."
"For me and most blackcollars I've known, too," Lathe said. "And you saw how she reacted."
"Surprised," the other said thoughtfully. "Almost disillusioned, even. So you're right—she does know a fair amount about blackcollars. Government spy?"
"Could be. Laissez-faire attitude or not, I can't see them or the Ryqril failing to keep an eye on such an obvious meeting place as the Shandygaff. But she could just as easily be a war veteran who worked with the Aegis Mountain blackcollar contingent." He shrugged. "Or even a member of Torch."
"You think they're still around?"
"I don't believe in fanatics deciding overnight to roll over and quit. Beyond that I haven't even got a guess as to what they've done with themselves. But any way you slice it, that woman bears watching."
Skyler nodded. "Agreed."
They'd reached the edge of the mall now and the quiet business-section street where they'd parked their car. They got in and waited, and a few minutes later Mordecai joined them. "Well?" Lathe inquired.
"Just one," the small man said indifferently. "Big harmer in fancy dress. Not very professional."
"Probably never had to tail blackcollars before," Skyler said dryly, starting the engine.
Pulling away from the curb, they headed off into the night.
Chapter 13
Caine had expected Security to make another snatch at them before they finished tracing the carefully convoluted route to their new hideout house; failing that, the next most likely scenario was that the enemy would launch a predawn raid. He was therefore more than a little surprised to awake the next morning with sunlight streaming in through the dirty windows and not a single Security man in sight outside them.
"Now what?" Braune asked when they'd breakfasted as best they could on what rations they'd had in their emergency packs.
"First step is to try and replace the stuff we lost with the car," Caine told them. "We still have one diamond left, so buying food and clothes should be easy enough. The more specialized equipment, unfortunately, is going to be another problem entirely. The bug stomper alone is probably irreplaceable now, and the spare weapons and explosives aren't going to be a lot easier."
"What exactly were we going to use the explosives for, if it's not still a secret?" Alamzad asked. "We certainly weren't going to blast our way into Aegis Mountain with those firecrackers."
"No, of course not," Caine said. "But at this point it would be nice to attract Torch's attention. To do that we need to make some noise, and to do that properly we need explosives."
"Okay." Colvin shrugged. "So who around here would have explosives on hand?"
"And who wouldn't also have six layers of security wrapped around it," Pittman added dryly.
"That's the real problem," Caine agreed. "Any suggestions?"
"Construction companies," Braune said promptly. "With the rate of growth Denver shows, there's bound to be a lot of building and demolition work going on around here."
"We could presumably follow a construction truck back to its headquarters from a site," Pittman said. "Of course, that would mean tailing in broad daylight in a car that Security may have a good ident on."
"So what we'd really like is a night worker who's at least marginally connected with explosives,"
Caine said, an idea clicking into place. "That remind you of anyone?"
There was a short pause. "You mean Geoff Dupre?" Colvin hazarded. "But he works for the city water department, doesn't he?"
"For the city water retrieval network, specifically," Alamzad corrected him. "And any system that has that much underground piping will use a hell of a lot of explosives."
"Only if they're constantly upgrading or expanding the system," Braune said doubtfully. "Routine maintenance wouldn't require anything big."
"We don't need anything big, either, if all we're looking for is noisemakers," Caine pointed out.
"Besides, it occurs to me that there's another good reason to check out the retrieval network. The majority of the pipelines were presumably laid before the war, and some of them may travel under Athena. If so, the government's cozy little fortress city may not be quite as secure as they think."
Colvin smiled, almost wickedly. "What an intriguing thought. I hope you're right."
"We'll find out tonight," Caine told him. "Right now, we'll concentrate on replacing our lost living supplies and getting caught up on our rest. This may be our last chance to take it easy for a long time."
—
With the attempted tailing from the Shandygaff in mind, Lathe elected to take a cautious, roundabout route to Reger's estate, and it was therefore after nine in the morning by the time he drove down the long road to the main gate. The guards passed him with considerably more respect than those the previous day had shown, and a few minutes later he was at the house.
Reger—in the flesh this time—was waiting for him just inside the door. "Comsquare Lathe," he said in greeting, his voice barely audible over the din of hammers, saws, and drills that seemed to fill the house. "I think I may have some news for you about your missing companions. If you'll come with me...?"
They set off through a maze of drop cloths, scaffolding, and busy men. Directing the whole operation was Jensen; exchanging "all's well" hand signals with him, Lathe continued on. Reger, it appeared, was deadly serious about transforming his estate into a fortress.