getting me a little respect!" the other countered.

The latter comment came from Guido, senior of my

two bodyguards. If anything, he's bigger and nastier

than his cousin Nunzio.

The former contribution came from Aahz. Aahz is

my partner. He's also a demon, a Pervect to be exact,

and even though he's slightly shorter than I am, he's

easily twice as nasty as my two bodyguards put together.

My strategy had worked in that I now had their an-

noyance focused on me instead of each other. Now,

realizing the potential devastation of their respective

8 Robert Asprin

temperaments individually, much less collectively, I had

cause to doubt the wisdom of my strategy.

"What seems to be the trouble?"

"The trouble," Aahz snarled, "is that your ace ;

bodyguard here just lost us a couple of clients."

My heart sank. I mentioned earlier that Aahz and I

have more money than we know what to do with, but

old habits die hard. Aahz is the tightest being I've ever

met when it comes to money, and, living at the Bazaar |

at Deva, that's saying something! If Guido had really :

lost a potential customer, we'd be hearing about it for a i

long time. I

"Ease up a minute, partner," I said more to stall for

time than anything else. "I just got here, remember?

Could you fill me in on a few of the details?"

Aahz favored Guido with one more dark stare. I

"There's not all that much to tell," he said. "I was in

the middle of breakfast..."

"He was drinking another meal," Guido translated

scornfully.

"... when mush-f or-brains here bellows up that there

are some customers waiting downstairs in reception. I