“Your friends wouldn’t run … or if they did, they wouldn’t stay gone once they heard you were in trouble. That’s when I started to have second thoughts about this assignment. I mean, there are some careers that shouldn’t be scuttled, and I think yours is one of them. You can take that as a compliment . . . it’s meant as one. That’s why I was about to call it quits anyway. I realized my heart just wasn’t in my work this time around.”
She set down her wine and stood up.
“Well, I guess that’s that. I’ll go upstairs and pack now. Make you a deal. If you all promise not to tell anyone who the famous Ax is, I’ll spread the word that you’re so invincible that even the Ax couldn’t trip you up. Okay?”
Watching her leave the room, I realized with some surprise that I would miss her. Despite what Aahz had said, it had been kind of nice having a kid around the place.
“That’s it?” my partner frowned. “You’re just going to let her walk?”
“I was the target. I figure it was my call. Besides, she didn’t do any real damage. As Chumley pointed out a second ago, we’re further ahead than we were when she arrived.”
“Of course, there’s the matter of the damages we had to pay for her little magic display at the Bazaar.”
For once, I was ahead of my partner when it came to money.
“I haven’t forgotten that, Aahz. I just figure to recoup the loss from another source. You see, what finally tipped me off was … wait. Here they are now.”
Nunzio was just coming into the room, dragging the Geek with him.
“Hello, Skeeve,” the Deveel said, squirming in my bodyguard’s grasp. “Your … ah, associate here says you wanted to see me?”