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caught four hours of sleep. I would have preferred it to be dreamless, but visions of Marit s death played
through my head again and again. I wrestled control of the dreams away from my unconscious mind and
directed them toward the happier, passionate moments we had known together, but whenever I got
caught up in eroticism, the dreams melted away, leaving me skeletal nightmares.
The person I had been for the vast majority of my life would have ignored the dreams, but I had
changed. I didn t know if I had truly loved Marit I don t know if I was capable of love before
knowing compassion but the new person I had become demanded I re-examine her death and my
part in it. Had I a choice in doing what I did? Did she really have to die?
I knew better than to fall into a guilt trap. Marit had betrayed Coyote, me and the rest. She had allied
herself with the creature Fiddleback had molded into Nerys Loring. She had sent other friends to their
deaths, and she had almost had me killed on at least one occasion. That she deserved to die was not a
question. What I did want to know was if there was any way I could have dealt with her treason without
killing her.
The fact that I had been trained as an assassin meant I had an understanding of almost all the
antipersonnel devices that had ever been created. I had manufactured the thing that killed Marit.
Examining the alternatives, I could find nothing that would have been 100% certain to neutralize her as a
threat. Anything less effective could not be trusted, nor could she.
She had given me no choice. She had gambled everything against a promise of immortality and eternal
youth. I fulfilled half that bargain, for she never got any older. I would have preferred it to be otherwise,
but in connecting thedots, I created a picture that excluded her.
I climbed out of bed, showered and dressed in sports slacks, a polo shirt baggy enough to hide the vest
I wore, and some running shoes. I placed a quick call to Bat, got a grunt of assent in return for my
requests, and called Lilith. She reported that she had begun to procure what I needed from her and that
all would be ready by dusk.
My call to Bat, among other things, had caused him to set up an appointment for me at noon in a tiny
Eclipse pawn shop that huddled up against the bulk ofCityCenter . When I walked in, it looked to me as
if nothing at all had changed since my first visit there months ago. The teenager behind the fenced-in
counter chuckled slightly as he read from A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. I smiled
slightly as he looked up and started to share something with me, but he just mumbled, Snuff is a killer,
and went back to his reading.
I threaded my way through shelves and shelves of the dust-laden detritus of civilization. I saw a whole
host of appliances that had been manufactured in theUnited States only a dozen years before, but
ignorance of how to affect the little repairs they might need meant that they rusted away to nothing while
people made do with inferior products from theRussianCommonwealth orMexico . People, by their
reluctance to learn how to make changes, just grew used to accepting less and less in their lives.
I reached a gateway in the back, and the kid behind the counter buzzed me through. Beyond it, down a
narrow corridor that went left and back right, put me in front of a steel door. A periscope built into the
panel above it swiveled around to study me, then the door slid open. Beyond it, I descended a spiral
staircase and entered a low ceiling s bunker that bristled with a wide selection of weapons.
A dwarf slapped the handles on the periscope up and it descended into the floor. Good afternoon. I
believe you were Tycho Caine when I met you last, but the television said you were Michael Loring when
you were all but killed a few weeks ago.
I shrugged and shook his hand. You cannot believe everything you hear on the television, I guess, Mr.
Joniak.
No. Bronislaw Joniak climbed up on a stool behind a counter. Luckily for you, Bat said you were
also known as Coyote. You don t look like the Coyote I knew, but you d not be wearing that name if it
had not been assigned to you. What do you need?
I looked around the dimly lit room, peeking at objects half hidden by the railroad tie pillars that held the
ceiling up. A Chrysler Combat Exoskeleton stood guard over the back half of the room, preventing
anyone from moving in toward the confusion of crates nestled there. Off to my right, in what passed for
the client waiting area, Joniak had a number of sample weapons mounted on a pegboard, and I studied it
before I began to place my order.
This will be very expensive, and I will need some trustworthy personnel to fill out my ranks.
Joniak made a note on the pad he held in his lap. I have contacts with an ex-Ranger company that
maintains a survivalist community nearNew River . They re clean and experienced. They re also
expensive.
Fine, contact them.One weeks work, with an option to extend for two more.Standard compensation
with signing bonuses and completion payments. I only want those who are night-combat trained, and I
have a special screening they will have to go through at the Sunburst Foundation. If they wash out during
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