Free Teckla by Steven Brust Page B

gangs."
    "Gangs?"
    "Yes. Around here there isn't much of anything for kids to do, so—"
    "How old kids?"
    "Oh, you know, eleven to sixteen."
    "Okay."
    "So they formed gangs, just to have something to do. And they'd wander around and make trouble, break up stores, that kind of thing. Your Phoenix Guards couldn't care less about what they do, as long as they stay in our area."
    "They aren't my Phoenix Guards."
    "Whatever. There have been gangs around here for longer than I've been alive. A lot of them get involved in pimping because it's about the only way to make money when you don't have any money to start with. They also terrorize a lot of the small shopkeepers into paying them, and steal a little, but there just isn't that much to steal and no one to sell it to."
    I suddenly thought about Noish-pa, but no, they wouldn't mess around with a witch. I said, "Okay, so some of them got into pimping."
    "Yes."
    "How did you get rid of them?"
    "Kelly says that most of the kids in the gangs are in because they don't have any hope of things being better for them. He says that their only real hope is revolution, so—"
    "Fine," I said. "How did you get rid of them?"
    "We broke up most of the gangs."
    "How?"
    "We taught them to read, for one thing. Once you can read it's harder to remain ignorant. And when they saw we were serious about destroying the despots, many of them joined us."
    "Just like that?"
    For the first time she glared at me. "It's taken us ten years of work to get this far, and we still have a long way to go. Ten years. It wasn't
    'just like that.' And not all of them stayed in the movement, either. But, so far, most of the gangs are gone and haven't come back."
    "And when the gangs broke up, the pimps left?"
    "They needed the gangs to back them up."
    "This all fits."
    She asked, "Why?"
    I said, "The pimps worked for Herth."
    "How do you know that?"
    "I know Herth."
    "Oh."
    "Have you been involved for ten years?"
    She nodded.
    "How did you—"
    She shook her head. We sipped our klava for a while. Then she sighed and said, "I got involved when I was looking for something to do after my pimp was run out of the neighborhood."
    I said, "Oh."
    "Couldn't you tell I used to be a whore?" She was looking hard at me, and trying to make her voice sound tough and streetwise.
    I shook my head and answered the thought behind the words. "It's different among Dragaerans. Prostitution isn't thought of as something to be ashamed of."
    She stared at me, but I couldn't tell if she was showing disbelief or contempt. I realized that if I kept this up, I'd start to question the Dragaeran attitude too, and I didn't need any more things to question. I cleared my throat. "When did the pimps leave?"
    "We've been chasing them out gradually over the last few years. We haven't seen any around this neighborhood for months."
    "Ah ha."
    "You said that already."
    "Things are starting to make sense."
    "You think that was why Franz was murdered?"
    "All the pimps gave some portion of their income to Herth. That's how these things work."
    "I see."
    "Was Franz involved in breaking up the gangs?"
    "He was involved in everything."
    "Was he especially involved in that?"
    "He was involved in everything."
    "I see."
    I drank some more klava. Now I could hold the glass, but the klava was cold. Stupid Easterners. The waiter came over, replaced the glass, filled it.
    I said, "Herth is going to try to put the pimps back in business."
    "You think so?"
    "Yes. He'll think that he's warned you now, so you should know better."
    "We'll drive them out again. They are agents of repression."
    "Agents of repression?"
    "Yes."
    "Okay. If you drive them out again, he'll get even nastier." I saw something flicker behind her eyes, but her voice didn't change.
    "We'll fight him," she said. I guess she saw some look on my face at that, because she started looking angry again. "Do you think we don't know how to fight? What do you think was involved in breaking up the gangs in the first