“Got a weapon.”
“Weapon is a good start. The rest I can provide…for a fee. So.” He smiled for the first time, showing startlingly white teeth. “The most important question of all. Got any money?”
The fee wasn’t quite as high as Lorn feared; he was able to agree to it and still had enough—barely—for one of Abby’s spartan rooms. Since the noise from downstairs didn’t abate until shortly before the light returned the next morning, and he had a few suspicious itchy red spots when he rose that suggested he had been sharing his bed with unseen companions, Lorn thought one night in the Jumpdown Turnaround was all he could stand to enjoy anyway.
He’d arranged to meet Ekwansi on the far side of the bridge that spanned the sluggish green river. Beyond that, the jungle began in earnest, and he and
