A Gathering of Widowmakers (The Widowmaker #4) Read Online Free Page B

aside."
    "One way or another I'm taking him back. There's paper on him and it's my job."
    " He turned you loose before you'd learned all your lessons," said Newman. "Killing innocent men isn't what you were created for."
    "It's not my job to judge them," repeated Jeff stubbornly. "Someone else has already done that. I just bring them in."
    "Not this time."
    "Don't make me do this."
    "You don't have to do anything," said Newman. "Just turn around and go home." He paused. "Ask yourself what the real Widowmaker would do."
    "I am the real Widowmaker," said Jeff angrily. "Don't make me prove it."
    "You're going to have to."
    "I'll try not to kill you," said Jeff. "You're me —a version of me, anyway."
    "Not any more—or do I look like a foolish and pigheaded young man?"
    As if by mutual consent they went for their weapons. Jeff's burner ripped through Newman's torso, melted his prosthetic hand, and incinerated most of his left ear. Newman, the tiniest fraction of a second slower, fired a blast of solid sound into the air as his screecher flew out of his hand.
    Kinoshita raced forward and dropped to one knee to examine Newman. He was alive, his breathing and pulse erratic, the trunk of his body covered with third-degree burns, an unknown amount of damage to his internal organs, blood seeping out through the cauterized flesh on what remained of his ear.
    "You son of a bitch!" roared Pickett, picking up Newman's sonic pistol and aiming it at Jeff. The young man was too fast and too accurate, and an instant later Jubal Pickett fell to the ground, dead.
    "Shit!" muttered Jeff disgustedly. "None of this was necessary! He knew he couldn't beat me. And the old man . . ." He shook his head and shrugged, then walked over and hefted Pickett's corpse to his shoulder. "We might as well get back to the spaceport with him and drop him off at the bounty station on Binder X." He paused and stared at the badly-wounded clone. "Newman will keep. I'll put in a call for an ambulance on the way to the ship." Kinoshita remained kneeling beside Newman. "Are you coming or not?"
    "Not," said Kinoshita.
    "If I leave, I'm not coming back for you."
    "I don't expect you to."
    Jeff stared at him. "I'm sorry it has to end like this. I'll miss you."
    Kinoshita looked up at the young man. "I'll miss you too," he said sincerely.
    "I thought you were sworn to serve the Widowmaker."
    I am, thought Kinoshita. And after I get Newman to the hospital or the cemetery, that's what I plan to do.

4.

    The still-attractive middle-aged woman stood above Nighthawk as he knelt in the dirt.
    "Why don't you just give up?" she asked.
    "It's not my nature to give up," he replied.
    "Every expert you've spoken to has told you that roses won't grow on Goldenhue."
    "If I paid attention to what people said I could and couldn't do, I'd have died a century and a half ago."
    "You've been working all morning," she said. "Won't you at least come in for a beer?"
    He considered it, then rose slowly to his feet. "Yeah, I think I will. I'm getting a little old for all this kneeling." Nighthawk stretched to loosen the knotted muscles in his back, then stared ruefully at the drooping leaves and branches. "One of these days they're going to blossom."
    "Why don't you take the afternoon off?" she suggested.
    "Do I look that tired?" asked Nighthawk.
    "You don't look tired at all. You look frustrated."
    "I am," he replied. "Stupid roses."
    "How stupid can they be?" she asked with a smile. "After all, they're winning."
    "You know, you're the only person I've ever met who can talk to me like that." Suddenly he returned her smile. "That's probably why I let you stick around."
    "Stick around?" she repeated sardonically. "That's as interesting a euphemism for marriage as I've heard."
    He followed her past the bird feeders that were scattered around the yard, then into the house. They went to the kitchen where she opened two canisters and handed one to him.
    "Thanks," he said. "It was probably time to knock