The House That Jack Built by Robert Asprin & Linda Evans

“Skeeter,” Kit said gently, ticking off the points on his fingers. “One, that boy never rolled an ‘eighty-sixer. Never. And if you’d think about it, you’d figure out why. Two, he hasn’t been the same ever since that gawd-awful wager of his with Goldie went sour and Marcus ended up in chains down the Porta Romae. Three, Ianira trusted him implicitly. And Ianira Cassondra is no fool.” Kit ran a hand through his thinning hair, unable to hide the grief mere thought of Ianira and her missing family brought. “That boy has damn near killed himself looking for them. Lost the only two honest jobs he could find on station doing it, too. And even then, he still didn’t go back to picking pockets. The down-timers have been feeding him, Robert, because he hasn’t had enough cash to buy a hot dog. So what’s he been doing? Looking for a job nobody’ll give him, tracking down terrorists in Shangri-La’s basement, and arresting thirty-one small-time crooks in a single week. Without anybody asking him or paying him to do it. So yesterday, when he pulled Rachel Eisenstein out of that disaster at Primary, I decided it was high time somebody around here gave that kid a fair break. He’s earned it. Especially with Caddrick likely to press charges for assaulting him, for God’s sake. After what Caddrick did, roughing him up, that boy is gonna need all the help he can get.”

Robert Li closed his mouth. Blinked. “Good God,” the antiquarian said softly. Then, slowly, “All right, I’ll concede a point when I’ve been wrong. But you’ve gotta admit, it’s unlikely as hell.”