The Pliable Animal by Harry Harrison

Author:Harry Harrison [Harrison, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

even transportation

” One-finger didn’t even hear the threats, he was frightened enough already.

“Try money,” Petion suggested. “I’ll supply whatever funds are needed.”

Langrup slowly stacked high-denomination coins on the table, and as the pile mounted One-finger began to shiver, pulling away. But his eyes never left the money.

“Here,” Langrup murmured, sliding the money slowly across the table, “look at this. There’s more here than you can make in a year of hard work. It’s yours. Just tell us

”

“I don’t know who did it!” One-finger shouted hoarsely, falling forward across the coins, clutching them with his arms. “I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you something

” He gasped for breath and squeezed the words out. “It was no one

from the city.”

“That’s not enough!” Langrup shouted, standing and shaking the man so that the tempered glass coins sprayed down and rattled in all directions. One-finger’s face was wide-eyed with fear, but he said no more.

“Leave him,” Petion said quietly. “You’re not going to get any more out of him. And he’s told us what we want to know.” Not satisfied, Langrup slowly let go of the man who dropped back into his chair as limply as if the bones had been dissolved from his body. They left him there and made their way back down the stairs.

“That’s an awful lot to pay for so little,” Langrup said, not trying to disguise his dissatisfaction.

“It’s enough,” Petion told him. “It is really more than I expected to find out here. I would appreciate it if you would go back now and tell the Commander that I would like to meet with both of you, in his office, in about two hours time.”

“But I can’t leave you alone here,” Captain Langrup said, shocked.

“I’m not alone as you see,” Petion told him. He had thumbed a message on his ring as soon as they had left the building, so he expected the squat figure that sidled up to them out of the darkness. Langrup gave a start. “I assure you that Kai and I will be able to take care of ourselves,” Petion said.

“Can you find the square where the murder took place?” Petion asked after the Intelligence officer had gone.

“With my eyes shut,” Kai scored, and led the way into an alley. “What did you find out?”

“A little—or a lot. I don’t know yet. The whole thing is still simmering in my head. There is just one more thing I would like to find out before reaching any conclusions.” They entered a square and he looked around. “This is it, isn’t it?”

“Crossroad of the Carved-up Corpse,” Kai agreed.

Petion looked around at the black doorways. He pointed. “There’s the one we saw open earlier. I don’t like to rely on coincidences, but they do occur. It also happens to be the one nearest the palace and we should look there first. Now’s your chance to lean on it—but quietly.”

There was just enough light in the square to catch the white shine of Kai’s grin. Climbing

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