Chapters (4)
I told Tracker, "Go stand in the doorway. Don't let anybody out." He had no trouble understanding that. I released One-Eye. I had to keep reminding myself the arachnids were illusions.
Some illusions. I felt the little creepies… Belatedly, I realized One-Eye's legions were marching on Goblin. "Damn it, One-Eye! Grow up!" The son-of-a-bitch wasn't satisfied to bluff the imperials. He had to play games with Goblin, too. I wheeled on Goblin. "If you do one damned thing to get involved in this, I'll see you never leave the Hole again. Colonel Sweet. I can't say I've enjoyed your hospitality. If you and your men will come over here? We'll just be on our way."
Reluctantly, Sweet gestured. Half of his men refused to move toward the spiders. "One-Eye. Game time is over. It's get-out-alive time. Would you mind?"
One-Eye gestured. His eight-legged troops rushed into the shadows behind the rack, where they vanished into that mad oblivion from which such things spring. One-Eye strutted over to stand by Tracker. He was cocky now. For weeks we would hear about how he had saved us. If we lived to get away tonight.
I shooed Goblin over, then joined them myself. I told Goblin and One-Eye, "I want no sound to escape this room. And I want that door sealed like it was part of the wall. Then I want to know where we find this character Corbie."
"You got it," One-Eye said. Eye twinkling, he added, "So long, Colonel. It was fun."
Sweet forebore making threats. Sensible man.
Fixing the room took the wizards ten minutes, which I found inordinately long. I became mildly suspicious, but forgot that notion when they said they were done and that the man we wanted was in another building nearby.
I should have harkened to my suspicions.
Five minutes later we stood in the doorway of the building where Corbie was supposed to be. We had encountered no difficulty getting there. "One second, Croaker," One-Eye said. He faced the building we had vacated, snapped his fingers.
The whole damned place fell in. ,
"You bastard," I whispered. "What did you do that for?"
"Now there's nobody who knows who we are."
"Whose fault was it they did know?"
"Chopped off the head of the snake, too. Be so much confusion we could walk off with the Lady's jewelry if we wanted."
"Yeah?" There would be those who knew we were brought in. They would wonder some if they saw us wandering around. "Tell me, O genius. Did you locate the documents I want before you tumbled the place down? Jf they're in there, you're the gent who's going to dig them out."
His face dropped.
Yes. I expected that. Because that is my kind of luck. And that is the way One-Eye is. He never thinks things through.
"We'll worry about Corbie first," I said. "Inside."
As we pushed through the door we encountered Case coming to investigate the uproar.