Tonight, however, it was packed to capacity. Apparently Tananda had rounded up the whole household, including Markie and Bunny, before locating Massha and me, and everyone was already seated as we walked in.
“Can we get started now?” Aahz asked caustically. “I do have other things to do, you know.”
“Really?” Chumley sneered. “Like what?”
“Like talking to the Geek about that invitation,” my partner shot back.
“Without talking to your partner first?”
“I didn’t say I was going to refuse or accept. I just want to talk to him about…”
“Can we table the argument for the moment?” I interrupted. “I want to hear what Tananda has to say.”
“Thanks, Skeeve,” she said, flashing me a quick smile before dropping back into her solemn manner. “I guess you all know I was moving out of here. Well, poking around the Bazaar, I heard a rumor that’s changed my mind. If it’s true, we’re all going to have our hands full dealing with it.”
She paused, but no one else said anything. For a change, we were all giving her our undivided attention.
“I guess I should drop the shoe first, then we can all go on from there. The talk on the street is that someone’s hired the Ax to do a number on Skeeve.”
There was a few heartbeats of silence; then the room exploded.
“Why should anyone…”
“Who’s hired the Ax?”
“Where did you hear…”
“Hold it! HOLD IT!” Tananda shouted, holding up her hands for silence. “I can only answer one question at a time . . . but I’ll warn you in advance, I don’t have that many answers to start with.”