Free Book 04 - Old Tin Sorrows by Glen Cook Page A

doing his morning workout. A year ago you wouldn’t have caught him dead out of bed this time of day.”
    You could have if there was enough money in it. “Wonders never cease, do they?”
    “He said come up. You want a refill?”
    “Why not? Fruit juice is the only thing here I can handle.”
    He winked. He wasn’t one of Morley’s converts. He topped off my mug. I took it up to Morley’s office, which is the barbican to his personal quarters. I’m about as close to a friend as he has, but I’ve never been past the office. My hair is too short and I don’t wear enough makeup.
    Dotes was doing sit-ups, chunking them out like a machine. My stomach hurt just watching.
    “You’re in pretty good shape for a guy your age,” I told him. I wasn’t sure what that was. It could be substantial. He’s part dark-elf. Elves can last a long time.
    “I take it you’re working again.” He said it while popping up and down. Like there was no strain to what he was doing.
    I told myself I had to start doing a few exercises. At my age, when you lose it, it’s hard to get back. “Why do you assume—”
    “You don’t come down here unless you want something.”
    “Not true. I used to bring Maya in all the time.” That was before she and I had gone our own ways.
    “You lost a gem there, Garrett.” He rolled over, started doing push-ups.
    His dark-elf blood doesn’t scream out. He looks like a short, slim, dark-haired man in good shape. He’s quick on his feet. There’s an air of the dangerous about him, but not one of menace. Maybe that’s why women find him irresistible.
    “Maybe. I do miss her, some. She was a good kid.”
    “Pretty, too. So you going on with Tinnie?”
    My friend Tinnie Tate, professional high-tempered redhead. Ours is an unpredictable relationship. “I see her. When she doesn’t think I deserve to be punished by not seeing her.”
    “Only smart thing you’ve done since I’ve known you is not tell her about Maya.” He completed fifty fast ones, jumped up. He wasn’t sweating. I felt like kicking his behind. “What’s up?”
    “You heard of General Stantnor?”
    “Used to be Marine Commandant?”
    “The same.”
    “What about him?”
    “A guy who works for him, my old company sergeant, called in a debt. He got me to do a job for the old boy.”
    “Don’t you ever work just to be working? I never saw anyone like you.”
    “I know. I’m a dog. You never see a dog do anything when he’s not hungry. If I’m not hungry, why work?”
    “What about the General? I do work when I’m not hungry. And I’ve got plenty of that here.”
    “The old boy is trying to die. My old sergeant thinks somebody is trying to kill him. Slowly, so it looks like a wasting disease.”
    “Is somebody?”
    “I don’t know. He’s been doing it a long time. You know a way to do that?”
    “What’s his color like?”
    “His color?”
    “Sure. There are poisons you could use in cumulative dosages. The color is the giveaway.”
    “He’s kind of a sickly yellow. His hair is falling out in clumps. And his skin has a translucent quality.”
    Morley frowned. “Not blue or gray?”
    “Yellow. Like pale butterscotch.”
    He shook his head. “Can’t tell you based on that.”
    “He has seizures, too.”
    “Crazies?”
    “Like heart tremors, or something.”
    “Doesn’t sound familiar. Maybe if I saw him.”
    “I’d like that. I don’t know if I can arrange it. They’re all paranoid about strangers.” I gave him a rundown on the players.
    “Sounds like a bughouse.”
    “Could be. All of them, except Jennifer and Cook, spent at least thirty years in the Marines, mostly in the Cantard.”
    He grinned. “I’m not going to say it.”
    “Good for you. We all make the world a little holier when we resist temptation. One more thing. The old man thinks he hired me to find out who’s stealing the silver and his old war trophies.” I produced the list. Morley started reading. “I’ll pay legwork fees for somebody to make the rounds and see if any of that is moving through the usual channels.”
    “Saucerhead needs