on the walls or stood on plain little pedestals that were elegant in themselves. Her files occupied a tiny box on top of the pristine, pale wood desktop. Usually she kept it cleared of everything but the box, her coffee cup, and Bytina, her PDA, or Perfectly Darling Assistant, a flat roundel of red metal about the size of her palm that kept her notes and sent letters for her.
Across from the desk were a sleek couch and a carved bloodwood chair with needlepoint cushions on the seat and back. Neither piece of furniture invited a long stay, to get clients to come to the point of their visit as swiftly as possible. Her partners weren't expected to use those. On meeting day, Bunny opened yet another hidden closet that she concealed our personal furniture, each item chosen especially by her for us. My chair, as comfortable as a hammock, was covered in a loosely woven cocoa-colored fabric that looked like old sacks but felt soft to the touch. Guido favored a seat that kept him upright, in case he had to spring into action. His chair, made of heavy wood, would have been a great weapon in a fight. It rolled on puffs of magik that allowed it to scoot across the floor. Nunzio liked shiny leather padding. His upholstered chair was the color of oxblood and smelled like money. Tananda's, like Tananda herself, was silken to the touch and tougher than it looked. She sat cradled in its gleaming, golden depths, like an emerald in a ring. I glanced around for the heavy, steel-framed seat with the shaggy brown cover favored by her brother, the Troll. It wasn't against the wall where it usually stood during meetings. 'Where's Chumley?' I asked.
'Big Brother's on a private assignment,' Tananda said, filing her nails. 'Where?' I asked.
The file paused. 'It's confidential,' Tananda admitted. 'He started the contract a long time before M.Y.T.H., Inc., went into operation.'
I didn't push further. When Chumley came back, I could always ask him. Some missions were only confidential throughout their duration. We'd often been called on to provide security for a wizard working on a new invention he didn't want to see duplicated all over the Bazaar or some other marketplace before he was finished with it.
'Pookie's not coming, either,' Bunny added. 'She and Spider are working for mercenaries in Dromolind.'
'Which side are they on?' Guido asked.
'The Dromoderries,' Bunny said.
Guido grunted. 'My sympathies for the other side. Should we send flowers to the losers?'
'I doubt they'd appreciate the gesture,' Bunny said. 'But it's sweet of you to suggest it.'
Guido's cheeks reddened.
Gleep didn't have a chair. He curled around mine and rested his head on my feet. Buttercup, my war unicorn, was also absent but voting.
'So, how'd the prisoner transfer go in Diberot?' Bunny asked Nunzio.
'It went fine, Miss Bunny,' Nunzio said, uneasily. 'Look, I know we agreed to do it, but isn't there a less
brutal way to make sure a guy shows up for his wedding?'
Bunny was not without sympathy. 'It was the sixth time he'd tried to leave Lady Tumult at the altar. She was just making sure. Guido, you checked in with the Merchants' Association for my uncle?'
The big man in the wide-shouldered, pin-striped suit straightened at her address. 'Yes, Miss Bunny. Everybody was reportin' no problems at all. I made the collection. Our cut has been deposited as accordin' to our usual custom. Nobody tried to stint us, so no one required any excess persuasion. It's all there.' Guido aimed a thumb at another delicate little box on a tiny shelf of black, polished wood. When you dropped pieces into it, they landed in our saferoom at the Gnome's Bank and Trust in Zoorik. This was another new change. While I had favored keeping our money in a strongbox here in the tent, Bunny had decided it was too much of a temptation to thieves. She let it be known that we only had expense money on hand.
Not that 'expense money' for us was a few coppers. My favorite old strongbox still stood about half full of gold, silver and jewels. It wasn't hard to find, either. At the moment it was propping up one end of the table in our atrium next to the mermaid fountain. If we needed money, we just needed to pry up the tabletop and take a handful of pieces.
Bunny smiled at me.
'Skeeve, what are you working on?'
'I'm between assignments,' I said. 'That Werewolf who wanted to talk to me at lunchtime didn't show up, so I went with Aahz this afternoon.'
Bunny turned to Aahz, who had kicked back in his reclining armchair. At his elbow was a specially made drink holder with a diameter the size of a dinner plate. It held a wine cup deeper than a well bucket. 'How'd it work out with Samwise? Should we take him on as a client?'
'Yes, I think so,' he replied. None of the enthusiasm he had shown in Ghordon registered in his voice. I gave him a puzzled glance, and he shot a look at me that told me to keep quiet. 'All the guy needs is someone to fix up the books and oversee the spending. And he's got some problems with on-the-job accidents.'
'A lot of them?' Guido inquired. He twined his fingers and extended his arms outward. His knuckles exploded with a loud crack! While working exclusively for Don Bruce, he and Nunzio had been called on to arrange similar 'accidents.'
'Plenty,' Aahz said. He waved a diffident hand. 'But I figure it's a disgruntled employee causing trouble. I'll find the guy and get him to knock it off.'
'You goin' to need some backup?' Guido cracked his knuckles deafeningly. 'I got some time free.'
'I've got the kid with me,' Aahz said, aiming a thumb my way. 'If we need some muscle, I can ring the bell.'
Bunny asked, 'What's your recommendation?'
'I say go for it. It's an interesting project. Massive construction, not quite unique but with the possibility of becoming historic. I think it'd be good to be connected with it. Samwise's business is slow at the moment, but if it picks up as I think it could, with a little expert guidance, we could be in for a nice profit. In fact,' he added, in a casual manner, 'I decided to invest in it myself.'
Bunny nodded, a question in her eyes. 'You believe in it that much?'
'I figure it makes it a little more worthwhile to me if I have a piece of the action,' Aahz said. That much was true. I always took more interest in businesses in which we had a share. The Even-Odds had become a frequent hangout for a friendly game of cards.1
'All right,' Bunny said. 'Since it's the only piece of new business at hand, let's take a vote on it. Everyone in favor of Aahz and Skeeve consulting for Samwise And Company, raise your hand.'
Without hesitation, I threw up my arm. Everybody else voted in the positive, including Bunny, though her hand went up more slowly than the others. Why?
'Carried,' Bunny said, tapping a bright red nail down on Bytina's surface. The little PDA warbled, indicating that it had made the note. 'So, what will you do next?'
'You know, fix up the books, help organize the finances, oversee the spending, and make sure M.Y.T.H., Inc., gets its cut.
'Find a solution to the accidents as early as you can. It might just be some people trying to get the day off.'
'Not the guys who almost got squashed by a stone. They'd be taking more than the day off. Or the Kobold who took a dive off the high platform,' Aahz pointed out.
Bunny raised her eyebrows. 'Industrial sabotage? Who else is interested in the site?'
The scales on Aahz's forehead went down. 'I already made a note to check around,' he snarled. 'I didn't get into this business yesterday.'
Bunny smiled sweetly. 'No one suggested you had. I assumed that was your first step. That would have been mine. But our styles are different. What will you do after that?'
Aahz grinned, the bad temper dissipating as swiftly as it had come. Bunny was a natural at managing people, even cranky Pervects.
'Depends on what I find out about Samwise's business rivals. The guy across the way, for example. He and the Imp seem to have split the Zyx Valley between them, but maybe Diksen wants the whole place to himself. I don't think it'll be that big a deal. The biggest problem will be convincing the employees that there's no curse on the place.' Aahz reached for his wine cup, or rather, bucket, and lifted it to his lips. The bottom fell out of it.
Wine gushed out all over his clothes. Aahz jumped up, swearing. Pervect cursing creates its own miasma.
