Free Book 07 - Deadly Quicksilver Lies by Glen Cook

that staff removed the dead quickly. So, how to use that
in a scam the staff hadn’t seen before?
    I gave the notion of a riot a look. Feeble. If I was the Bledsoe
staff, I’d just let everybody starve till the fuss
stopped.
    “How are you doing? I’m Ivy.”
    My act wasn’t fooling Ivy. I considered putting him out of
his misery.
    Which gave me an idea. A twist on the riot scheme. I went
looking for the big guy. I found him seated against the far wall. I
planted the reverse side of my lap on the hardwood, grunted.
“I got about enough splinters.”
    “Send out for a chair.”
    A wise guy. “How come it’s so quiet?”
    “Maybe on account of it’s the middle of the goddamn
night.” Eloquent verbal stylings, too.
    “I mean, we only had one screamer.” Not counting
him. Nobody was yelling at the moment. “I heard there was
lots of screamers. Mostly guys who can’t handle what they
remember about the Cantard.”
    His face darkened. “Yeah. There’s some of them. They
get drugged if they get too bad. Like they get each other
going.”
    Interesting. “Know any way to set one of them off
now?”
    He studied me narrowly. “What you up to, Slick?” He
thought there had better be a damned good reason for pulling a
stunt like that.
    “Up to getting out of here.”
    “Can’t do that.”
    “Maybe not. But they didn’t empty out my pockets
before they dumped me in here. You game to try?”
    He thought about that. His face grew darker.
“Yeah. Yeah! I got business out there. Yeah. You get the
damned door open, I’ll go.”
    “You figure any of these guys would help?”
    “Plenty would go if the walls fell down. I don’t
know how many would help make them fall.”
    “So could you get some guy screaming as the first
step?”
    “Sure.” He got up, strolled to the far end, messed
with somebody a minute, headed back. Plenty of inmates watched him.
The man he’d visited started screaming. Chills slithered all
over me. He was one of the lost souls.
    The big man asked, “Good enough?”
    “Perfect. Now try to round up some guys willing to help
out.”
    He went away again.
    I went into my act. “Shut up down there! I’m trying
to sleep.”
    The guy didn’t stop screaming. I’d been afraid he
would. I glanced at the observation windows. Someone was up there,
but the racket didn’t interest him. Were they that
indifferent? I needed to be seen.
    I yelled at the screamer. Somebody yelled back at me. I yelled
at him. Some genius yelled at both of us like that would shut us
up. The racket picked up. We were like a troop of monkeys. Some of
the men started moving around, just shuffling numbly, without
purpose.
    The uproar finally caught the ear of whoever was on duty. He
looked down but didn’t seem concerned.
    I screamed louder than the screamer, threatening mayhem if he
didn’t shut it up.
    “How are you doing? I’m Ivy.”
    “Pack your trunk, Ivy. We’re checking out of this
cuckoo inn.”
    The big guy came by. “I got a dozen guys willing, Slick.
You want more?”
    “That’s plenty. Now I need everybody back away from
the door. It’s going to get nasty there when they come
in.” I hoped. If I hadn’t been suckered too bad.
    “They’ll figure we’re up to something, Slick.
They only look dumb.”
    “I don’t care. That won’t matter. I just need
the door open.”
    He sneered, confident I was on a fool’s quest.
    I screamed some more at the screamers.
    There were several people at the observation windows
now—including she of the glorious gams.
    I chuckled, sure I was on my way out. No woman would work the
Bledsoe unless she had a giant soft spot. I roared, bounded over
pallets, started strangling the loudest screamer.
    The big guy came by and pretended to drag me off. I gave him
further instructions, then ran him off. He wasn’t a bad
actor.
    Me, I was a master. I made it look real good. To my surprise,
none of my fellow patients tried to stop me.
    I only strangled my victim a little, enough