Neptune Road Volume IV Read Online Free Page A

goal and
performing various stretches. He can pick them out: The Wannabe
Professional, the Juggler, the Guy Who Fouls, the slight woman who
will have twice the speed of anyone else and score All The Goals.
He smiles and passes the ball around. He makes a mental note of
each person, silently evaluating who might have connections or
clues worth exploring. Probably all of them.
     
    After thirty minutes or so of play, the score is tied
1-1. Slight woman takes the ball down the side and centers it,
someone tries a header but it sails over the goal and bounces off
the safety net that encircles the entire roof.
     
    The elevator doors open and a boy rolls out in a
wheelchair. A man on the other team stops playing and walks over,
gives the kid a high-five. They come to the sideline.
     
    "You gonna play?" Coach barks at the boy.
     
    "I WILL BURN YOU DOWWWWWNNNNN," the boy yells at the
top of his lungs.
     
    "Yeah, but are you gonna play football?" Coach
asks.
     
    "Nah, I'll just watch," the boy replies.
     
    The game goes on a while longer. Edward/Caution Cone
strikes up conversations along the way. One woman is a performance
artist, another guy is here scouting apartments. Then he finds
somebody promising. It's the dad of the kid in the wheelchair. He's
a security guard, works for a private outfit.
     
    Good person to know, Edward thinks. He invites the
security guard for coffee the next day.

090 - An Arrest at Darby's

     
    "Woa! WOA!" Sam yells. "What the heck is this?"
     
    "Kindly unhand my patron, sir," Darby says, stepping
out from behind the bar. "This establishment is a no-fly zone for
aggression. You hear me?"
     
    "You don't understand," the enormous man says through
his teeth. "This here is a wanted fugitive. And a slippery one at
that. Can't let him go for one second." Enormous has pinned Sam to
the wall, upsetting a collection of beer glasses in the
process.
     
    Rebecca presses a gun into the neck of Enormous. "Lay
off, mister. This guy isn't your problem. I am." Enormous doesn't
budge. With one arm he holds Sam against the wall while he fishes a
paper out of his pocket. Sure enough, it's the same guy. Wanted. On
suspicion of murder.
     
    "Take - this - OUT." Darby says, to the side of
Rebecca's head. They all stand there, looking like a statue, for a
good few seconds.
     
    "Fine," Enormous says, and lets Sam down. He shoves
him from the back toward the new saloon doors. Rebecca backs off a
little but keeps her gun in her hand.
     
    "You fire that weapon in the vicinity, I'll give you
problems," Darby says to Rebecca. "We arrest people in our fashion
out this way." Rebecca gives him a look and follows the two men out
front. Her gun is still in her hand.
     
    Enormous retains a hold on the neck of Sam's jacket.
"I got good information that you're worth a nice sum, mister," he
says.
     
    "How about you just walk away, and you get to keep
your body parts," Rebecca says, raising her gun to point it at his
ear.
     
    Five more very large people materialize from the
crowd, surrounding them.
     
    "Brought some hired help," Enormous says. "Why don't
you just take your firearm there and put it away."
     
    "What is this, Sam?" Rebecca asks.
     
    "Not sure," Sam says. "Could be a number of things, I
suppose."
     
    "That's not helpful," Rebecca says.
     
    The group gather around Sam and begin to escort him
away with some force.
     
    "You said you're hired help? Arresting services?"
Rebecca asks.
     
    "Yep," one of them says over his shoulder.
     
    Rebecca walks back into Darby's.
     
    "Hello sir, you promised arrest for the discharge of
a firearm?"
     
    "I did," Darby replies.
     
    Rebecca points her gun at the ceiling and fires it.
Bits of plaster come down.
     
    "Guards!" Darby yells.
     
    One of the hired hands pokes his head over the saloon
doors. "You called?"
     
    "Arrest this woman," Darby says, "for menacing my
establishment with her firearm."
     
    "Right-o," the man says. Rebecca smiles as they head
off after Sam.

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