Free Kim Oh 3: Real Dangerous People (The Kim Oh Thrillers) by K. W. Jeter Page B

girls? Even an old guy like this Foley putz. I would’ve thought he’d be more old-school than this. Instead, he dished out this back-stabbing crap like he’s on some junior varsity cheerleader squad, instead of a crew of hit men bodyguards.
     
    I blame it on that whole bit about men getting in touch with their feminine sides. Even hit men. Instead of getting in touch with something inside them that was like, say, Mother Theresa or Amelia Earhart or Eleanor Roosevelt, no, they gotta channel that bitchy girl you remember from high school, who always gave you that sweetie smile and then went around telling everybody what a tramp you were.
     
    “Is that right? Her and Curt, huh?” Like I said, Elton fell for it. “I would never have figured that.”
     
    Right, Einstein.
     
    “Then when she screwed up in Albany,” Foley went on, “and Falcon fired her cute little butt, there wasn’t squat that Curt could do about it. Unless he wanted to get bounced, too.”
     
    “Huh.” Elton frowned. “Well, I’ll be damned. So how come nobody told me all this ancient history before now?”
     
    “Come on. Curt’s personal business – you don’t talk about another man’s shit like that.”
     
    Spare me.
     
    “But you’re talking about it now.”
     
    Thank you.
     
    “Well, yeah,” said Foley. “Because I don’t feel like getting killed, just ’cause Curt wants to make his girlfriend the next crew leader.”
     
    “You think he’s trying to do that?”
     
    “Figure it out. Why else would he talk Falcon into bringing her back?
     
    “Maybe he thinks she can do the job?”
     
    “Gimme a break.” Foley looked away in disgust, then came back to Elton. “This isn’t some desk job we’re talking about. Where she files something wrong, no biggie. If she’s running the crew and she screws up like she screwed up before, we’re all dead.”
     
    “If you say so.”
     
    “Buddy, I know so.”
     
    “Okay,” said Elton. “So what’re you going to do about it?”
     
    Foley looked around the place to make sure nobody was listening in, then came in forehead-to-forehead with Elton again.
     
    “We need a new crew leader. Now. And not that Kim broad.”
     
    “Really?” Elton leaned back and regarded Foley. “And who’d that new leader be?”
     
    Now they were getting down to it.
     
    “Who do you think? Earl can’t do it. He’s not the leader type. Plus, he’s tight with Curt. He’d never feel right about taking over. So it has to be me.”
     
    “You?”
     
    Foley nodded. “That’s what I said.”
     
    “Yeah, I heard you.”
     
    Gazing off in front of himself, Elton sipped his beer and slowly nodded his head, as if mulling it all over. He turned back to Foley.
     
    “And why not me?”
     
    Foley stared back at him. “What?”
     
    “You heard me. Why shouldn’t I run the crew?”
     
    “Are you joking?”
     
    Elton shook his head. “No.”
     
    “For Christ’s sake! Elton, you can’t run the crew.”
     
    “Why not?”
     
    “You’re crazy. Frickin’ miracle you’re on the crew to begin with. Now you want Curt’s job? Get real.”
     
    “I am,” said Elton. “If anybody’s going to take over this crew, it should be me.”
     
    “Look, man, I know how you feel –”
     
    “Do you?”
     
    “Seriously.” Foley spread his hands wide. “If it were up to me, I’d say sure, give you a shot. But you gotta think of the organization. What would everyone else who works for Falcon say if you got the top job?”
     
    “I don’t know. Maybe I deserved it?”
     
    “Believe me – that’s not what they’d say. They’d go nuts.”
     
    “Yeah, well, maybe you and all the rest of those old guys working for Falcon better get over it.”
     
    “What?”
     
    Some of the others in the bar turned and looked as the men’s voices rose.
     
    “You know that stuff that Falcon’s always talking about?” Elton’s hand tightened around his beer. “About listening to the