find."
"If I might point out," her husband replied, "we've
barely met these people. We don't really owe them an
explanation, much less any help. Besides, you still have
a deadline to meet and...."
"Drahcir!" Idnew interrupted. "It could get real
lonely sleeping in the old kennel while I work day and
night on a deadline, if you catch my meaning."
"Now, dear," Drahcir said, sidling up to his wife,
"before you go getting into a snit, hear me out. I've
been thinking it over and I think there's a way we can
provide assistance without biting into our own sched-
ules. I mean, we do have a friend... one who lives a
little north of here... who's temporarily between as-
signments and could use the work. I'm sure he'd be will-
ing to do a little tracking for them at a fraction of the
fee that we'd charge for the same service."
He was obviously talking in the veiled references part-
ners use to communicate or check ideas in front of
strangers, as his words went completely over my head,
but drew an immediate reaction from Idnew.
"Oh, Drahcir!" she exclaimed excitedly, all trace of
her earlier anger gone. "That's perfect! And he'll just
love Massha."
"There's still the question of whether or not we can
get him here in time," her husband cautioned. "And of
course I'll want a percentage off the top as a finder's
fee...."
"WHAT! "I exclaimed.
"I agree," Idnew said firmly. "A finder's fee is to-
tally. ..."
"No! Before that," I urged. "What did you say
88 Robert Asprin
about there not being enough time? I thought the execu-
tion wasn't scheduled until the end of the week!"
"That's right," Drahcir said. "But the end of the
week is tomorrow. Your friend is slated to be executed
at high midnight."
"C'mon, Massha," I ordered, heading for the door.
"We're heading back to Blut."
"What for?" she demanded. "What can we do with-
out a tracker?"
"We've tried being nice about this, and it isn't work-
ing," I responded grimly. "Now we do it the other way.
You wanted action, apprentice? How do you feel about
giving me a hand with a little jailbreak?"
Chapter Ten:
"What's wrong with a little harmless crime
once in a while?"
—M. BLAISE
"BUT I'm telling you, Boss, jailbreak is a bad rap. With
you operating at only half power in the magic depart-
ment, there's no tellin' what can go wrong, and
then...."
"Before we get all worked up about what can go
wrong, Guido," I said, trying to salvage something con-
structive out of the conversation, "could you give me a
little information on exactly how hard it is to break
someone out of jail? Or haven't you been involved in
any jailbreaks, either?"
"Of course I've been along on some jailbreaks," the
bodyguard declared, drawing himself up proudly. "I've
been an accomplice on three jailbreaks. What kind of
Mob member do you take me for, anyway?"
With a heroic effort I resisted the temptation to an-
swer that particular rhetorical question.
"Okay. So how about a few pointers? This is my first
jailbreak, and I want it to go right."
89
90 Robert Asprin MYTH-ING PERSONS 91
I was all set to settle in for a fairly lengthy lecture, but
instead of launching into the subject, Guido looked a bit
uncomfortable.
"Umm... actually, Boss, I don't think you'd want
to use any of the plans I followed. You see, all three of
'em were busts. None of 'em worked, and in two of the
capers, the guy we were tryin' to save got killed. That's
how I know about what a bad rap a jailbreak is, know
what I mean?"
"Oh, swell! Just swell! Tell me. Mister bodyguard,
with your allergies and zero-for-three record at jail-
break, did you ever do anything for the Mob that
worked?"
A gentle hand fell on my shoulder from behind.
"Hey! Ease up a little. High Roller," Massha said
softly. "I know you're worried about your partner, but
don't take it out on Guido ... or me, either, for that
matter. We may not be much, but we're here and trying
to help as best we can when we'd both just as soon be
bac.k at the Bazaar. You're in a bad enough spot with-
out starting a two-front war by turning on your allies."
I started to snap at her, but caught myself in time.
Instead, I drew a long ragged breath and blew it out
slowly. She was right. My nerves were stretched to the
breaking point....hich served me right for not follow-
ing my own advice.
We were currently holed up at the Dispatcher's, the
only place I could think of for an in-town base of
operations, and as soon as we had arrived, I had insisted
that both Massha and Guido grab a bit of sleep. We had
been going nonstop ever since stepping through the door
into Limbo, and I figured that the troops would need all
the rest they could get before we tried to spring Aahz.
Of course, once I had convinced them of the necessity of
racking out, I promptly ignored my own wisdom and
stayed up thinking for the duration.
The rationalization I used for this insane action was
that I wanted some extra time uninterrupted to recharge
my internal batteries, so whatever minimal magic I had
at my disposal would be ready for our efforts. In ac-
tuality, what I did was worry. While I had indeed taken
part in several criminal activities since teaming up with
Aahz, they had all been planned by either Aahz or Tan-
anda. This was my first time to get involved in master-
minding a caper, and the stakes were high. Not only
Aahz's but Massha's and Guide's futures were riding on
my successful debut, and my confidence level was at an
all-time low. After much pondering, I had decided to
swallow my pride and lean heavily on Guide's expertise,
which was why it hit me so hard when I discovered that
he knew even less about successful jailbreaks than I.
"Sorry, Guido," I said, trying to restructure my
thinking. "I guess I'm more tired than I realized. Didn't
mean to snap at you."
"Don't worry. Boss," the bodyguard grinned. "I've
been expectin' it. All the big operators I've worked with
get a little crabby when the heat's on. If anything, your
temper gettin' short is the best thing I've seen since we
started this caper. That's why I've been so jumpy my-
self. I wasn't sure if you weren't taking the job seri-
ously, or if you were just too dumb to know the kind of
odds we were up against. Now that you're acting normal
for the situation, I feel a lot better about how it's goin'
to come out in the end."
Terrific! Now that I was at the end of my rope, our
eternal pessimist thought things were going great.
"Okay," I said, rubbing my forehead with one fin-
ger, "we haven't got much information to go on, and