'Good boy,' said Hawk. He looked about him, and the clerks shrank down behind
their desks. Hawk smiled coldly. 'My partner and I are going upstairs to have a
nice little chat with Short Tom. Just carry on as normal. And by the way, if
anyone was to come up after us and interrupt our little chat, I will be most
upset. Is that clear?'
The clerks nodded quickly, and did their best to look as though the idea had
never entered their heads. Hawk and Burns strolled casually between the desks
and up the stairway at the back of the room. Burns watched the clerks' faces out
of the corner of his eye. They'd all recognized Hawk by now, and there was real
terror in their faces, and not a little awe. Burns frowned thoughtfully. He'd
heard stories about Hawk—everyone had—but he'd never really believed them. Until
now.
They found Short Tom in his office, right at the top of the stairs. It was a
nice little place, neat and tidy and almost cosy, with thick rugs on the floor,
comfortable furniture, and attractive watercolor landscapes on the walls. Short
Tom looked up as they entered, and his face fell. Not surprisingly, given his
name, he was a dwarf, with stubby arms and legs and a large head. He wore the
very latest fashion, and it was a credit to his tailor that he didn't look any
more ridiculous than anybody else. He was sitting at a normal-sized desk, on a
custom-made chair, and he pushed it back slightly as he reached for a desk
drawer.
'I wouldn't,' said Hawk. 'I really wouldn't.'
Short Tom nodded glumly, and took his hand away from the drawer. 'Captain Hawk.
How nice to see you again. Absolutely marvelous. What do you want?'
'Just a little chat,' said Hawk. 'I've got a problem I thought you might be able
to help me with.'
'I'm clean,' said Short Tom immediately. 'One hundred per cent. I'm entirely
legitimate these days.'
'Of course you are,' said Hawk. 'In which case, you won't mind my bringing in
the tax inspectors to go through all your invoices, will you?'
Short Tom sighed heavily. 'What can I do for you, Captain?'
'Morgan's got a small mountain of drugs on his hands that he has to move in a
hurry.'
'He hasn't contacted me. I swear he hasn't.'
'I know he hasn't. You're not big enough for this. But you can give me some
names. With a deal this urgent, there's bound to have been talk already.'
'I've heard about your run-in with Morgan,' said Short Tom carefully, 'and I
can't afford to get involved. I'm just a small-time operator, dealing in
whatever odds and ends the big boys can't be bothered with. As long as I know my
place, no one bothers me. If I start talking out of turn, Morgan will send some
of his heavies round to shut me up permanently. You'll have to find your help
somewhere else.'
'Thousands of people could die if we don't stop this drug hitting the street.'
'That's not my problem.'
Hawk raised his axe above his head and brought it sweeping down in one swift,
savage movement. The axe-head buried itself in Short Tom's desk, splitting the
polished desktop apart. Hawk yanked the axe free and struck the desk again,
putting all his strength into it. The desk caved in, sheared almost in two.
Splinters flew on the air, and papers fluttered to the floor like wounded birds.
Short Tom sat very still, looking down at the wreckage of his desk. He raised
his eyes and looked at Hawk, standing before him with his axe at the ready.
'On the other hand,' said Short Tom very politely, 'I've always believed in
cooperating with the forces of law and order whenever possible.'
He came up with four names and addresses, all of which Hawk recognized. He
nodded his thanks, and left. Burns hurried after him, having almost missed his
cue. His last glimpse was of Short Tom staring glumly at what was left of his
desk. Burns followed Hawk down the stairs and back through the rows of clerks,
all of whom were careful to keep their eyes glued to their work as the Guards
passed. Hawk and Burns stepped out into the street again, and Burns winced as
the bitter cold hit him hard after the comfortable warmth of the offices. He
stubbed his toe on something, and looked down to find the two bravos who'd
guarded the front door still lying where they'd fallen. Only now they were
stark-naked, having been stripped of everything they owned. Their flesh was a
rather pleasant pale blue, set against the dirty grey of the snow. Hawk
chuckled.
'That's the Northside for you.'
'We can't just leave them like this,' protested Burns. 'They'll freeze to
death.'
'Yeah, I know. Give me a hand and we'll dump them back in the offices. Short Tom
will take care of them. But let this be a lesson to you, Burns. Never give a
Northsider an opening, or he'll steal you blind. And the odds are there's not
one person in this crowd who would have lifted a finger to help these two
bravos. They'd have just left them there to freeze. In the Northside, people
learn from an early age not to care for anyone but themselves.'
'Is that where you learned it?' said Burns.
Hawk looked at him, and Burns had to fight down an urge to look away from the
glare of the single cold eye. When Hawk finally spoke, his voice was calm and
unhurried.
'I think we're going to get on a lot better if you stop acting like a character
from a religious pamphlet. I don't know how you've managed to survive this long
in Haven; I can only assume they've had a hot flush of civilization in the
Westside since I was last there.
'Look, Burns, let's get this clear once and for all. I'm only as hard as I need
to be to get the job done. I take no pleasure in violence, but I don't shrink
from it either, if I decide it's necessary. I didn't see you holding back when
we were fighting for our lives in Morgan's factory.'
'That was different!'
'No, it wasn't. We're fighting a war here in the Northside, against some of the
most evil and corrupt sons of bitches this city has produced, and we're losing.
For every villain we put away, there are ten more queuing up to take his place.
The only satisfaction we get out of this job is knowing that things would be
even worse without us. Now, am I going to have any more problems with you?'
'No,' said Burns. 'You've made yourself very clear.'
'Good. Now help me get these two bravos inside before they freeze their nuts
off.'
It didn't take long to discover that none of the distributors knew anything
about Morgan's super-chacal. The word from every one of them was that Morgan had
gone to ground after his release from custody, and no one had heard anything
about him since. Hawk gave them all his best, menacing glare, but they stuck to
