Hard Luck Hank: Delovoa & Early Years by Steven Campbell Page A

said.
    “Delovoa is helpful—sometimes,” I said.
“Besides, it’s not this specific thing that’s the issue. It’s the fact he might
do it at all. If it’s not nerve toxin, it could just as well be something else,
Delovoa or not.”
    “I agree,” Leeny said.
    “I think we need to remove Monhsendary,”
Sonidara stated, thumbing a fertility statue on her desk.
    “How?” I asked.
    “How do you kill anyone? A gun will work,”
Tamshius said.
    “They’ll gas us for sure if we blow the brains
out of an Adjunct Overwatch,” Leeny added.
    “We could hire an assassin,” Sonidara offered.
    The rest of us groaned.
    Belvaille was a violent place. But it
was…family violence. Violence with character. As low as we were, we still
considered ourselves miles above assassins.
    “You get those people here and they’ll never
leave,” Leeny said.
    “Yeah, you guys think of your next gang war
once assassins are in play. Think of how things would change—and not for the
better,” I said.
    Assassins tend to make negotiators superfluous,
so that was another reason I didn’t want them here.
    “So then what do we do?” Sonidara asked.
    “It seems to me they sent Monhsendary to
Belvaille for a reason. Either the Colmarian Navy thinks this city is useful or
he personally does. In either case, that is a dangerous belief in terms of
Belvaille’s continued survival. We need to make them think this station is as
lousy as they used to think it was,” I said.
    “We’re all ears,” Tamshius said.
    “I think the Adjunct Overwatch should have an
accident. A big, spectacular, Belvaille-really-sucks accident.”
     
    Leeny, Tamshius, and I exited the warehouse
with the goal of working out the details later, after speaking to some of the
other bosses and getting the required resources.
    “Get on the ground!” A guard screamed.
    There were three of them across the street with
guns drawn. They had clearly been waiting for us because two were crouched and
aiming. They must have followed someone to the meeting.
    “If they arrest me and check my record, I’m in
a lot of trouble,” Leeny whispered.
    “I as well,” Tamshius agreed.
    I sighed.
    “Fine. But you two will owe me after this. Run
when they start shooting,” I said.
    “What?” Leeny asked, alarmed.
    I took a few steps toward the soldiers.
    “Do you all still love your mothers? Even after
they did that to you?” I said, indicating their bodies.
    “Stop there!” A guard yelled.
    “I’m not sure what you used to make yourself so
stupid, but congratulations on its success,” I said.
    The soldiers were clearly confused. Didn’t they
have guns?
    “Get on the ground now!”
    I walked forward.
    “You all are so stupid when you were children I
bet you were scared of the light.”
    The soldiers actually exchanged glances at
that.
    “We will fire if you continue,” a guard warned,
though he didn’t shout it.
    “Does your ass ever get jealous of how much
crap comes out your mouth?” I asked.
    They fired.
    Blam! Blam! Blam!
    I convulsed as if I had been semi-mortally
wounded. I heard Tamshius and Leeny running away behind me. I lurched forward a
few more steps.
    “What’s the difference between a Therezian
penis and a joke? Your mother can’t take a joke.”
    Blam! Blam! Blam!
    “Argh!” I exclaimed with lousy thespian skills.
    Two more steps.
    “You look like lobotomy patients—”
    Blam! Blam! Blam!
    “Whose faces caught on fire—”
    Blam! Blam! Blam!
    “And someone tried to put them out with a rusty
chainsaw.”
    Blam! Blam! Blam!
    I was directly in front of the soldiers now and
they seemed quite unsure what to do. I checked to see that Leeny and Tamshius
were nowhere in sight.
    I stood up straight, no longer pretending to be
grievously injured.
    “Hey, no hard feelings guys.”
     
    “Drown him?” Delovoa asked.
    “In what? His kitchen sink?” I answered.
    “Poison?”
    “That’s hardly indication that the city is in
trouble.”
    “An