Pantheon 00 - Age of Godpunk Read Online Free Page A

to marry him, she should agree to it quickly, before one of her rivals hauled the oh-so-eligible bachelor off and claimed him for herself.
    Unfortunately – and there’s almost always an ‘unfortunately,’ in any Anansi story – Anansi’s eight animal friends happened to pull on the ropes at the same time, and with all their might. The result was that Anansi was suddenly and violently yanked in eight directions at once, and his legs, which had been short and stubby, were stretched out like toffee. And that is why all spiders have thin, spindly legs.
    But the good news as far as Anansi was concerned was that Aso laughed at the sight of him being hauled in different directions and stretched like a piece of chewing gum. She laughed so hard that she found herself falling in love with him, and next thing she knew, she was consenting to be his bride.
    It was a decision she would come to regret, for Anansi was famously unfaithful, and all his cunning schemes seemed to come to nothing, and he often made himself and his family a laughing-stock. In legend, Aso has become synonymous with the exasperated, long-suffering wife.
    My lie, at any rate, gained traction and ran. The Law Society made discreet enquiries, as it was duty-bound to do. It found no evidence of impropriety, but the very fact that it was investigating the firm at all caused ructions and sparked rumours. Word got around that the affair I’d conjured up out of thin air might actually have happened. Gossip spreads fast in legal circles, as it does in any close-knit vocational community. The dash of miscegenation added extra flavour to the already spicy broth of workplace adultery. The world of lawyering in Britain is not as progressive and race-blind as it would like to think it is. Nor is it in any sense liberal.
    In no time the girl was seeking employment elsewhere. Her departure was heralded as a spontaneous act, one born of the desire to seek new pastures and fresh challenges, and was given the blessing of her superiors. She received a severance package she wasn’t, strictly speaking, entitled to, and she didn’t have to serve out her notice.
    But a sacking is still a sacking, however gilded the circumstances, however gently it’s handled.
    Bravo , said Anansi. Well played. Couldn’t have done better myself .
    Was I ashamed? Not for a moment. You do not fuck with Dion Yeboah. The girl had learned that to her cost. Others would too.
     
     
    F OR THREE, FOUR months, I was golden. Nothing could touch me. Nothing could stop me. More and more cases came my way that, on face value, looked like lost causes. Few other barristers would touch them with a bargepole. I, and Anansi, tackled them with relish.
    You may have read in the newspapers about the BBC higher-up accused of taking bribes in return for insisting that a certain mobile phone company’s latest product feature prominently in several drama serials he commissioned, in direct contravention of the terms of the Corporation’s charter. I was able to get the charges dismissed on the grounds that the items in question were so desirable, so up-to-the-minute, so lusted after by those who love technology and progress, that the BBC would have been remiss in its duties as the Voice of the Nation if it hadn’t shown them regularly on our TV screens.
    You may also be familiar with the plight of a Member of Parliament who chose to claim the cost of a visit to a massage parlour in Pimlico on expenses. Remember the tabloid headlines? “We Pay So He Can Get His End Away”? It wasn’t difficult for me to rescue him from ignominy by drawing attention to the stresses and the long working hours that his job entailed. I implied that the use of parliamentary allowances to reimburse him for this particular form of relaxation was in fact a wise investment of public funds. A rested, revitalised politician was apt to make calm and clear-headed decisions, was he not? Certainly more so than a tense, frustrated one.
    And what of