Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

certainly haven’t grown up with the superstition. They might slow down and be a little hesitant, but I wouldn’t even bet on that.”

They all followed Cooper to the ambush site and chose vantage points. Birt and Dailen were off to each side, in case someone opted to try to flank Cooper, while Rukle and Spen found spots where they could send an arrow past Cooper and along the path he’d be using. It wasn’t ideal, but everyone could see at least one other Guild member from where they’d be standing. Cooper gave them each a wave and turned east to revisit the Waterfront.

Chapter 17

A faint glow from the receding sun remained along the western horizon. Depending on the orders they’d received, the four Assassins would think that Cooper showing himself at dusk, alone, on the Waterfront, was some kind of gift. So naturally, they’d be suspicious. Cooper was still trying to sort out the facts. It didn’t make sense to send four Assassins to kill only him, unless the client knew about his ability to Channel. As far as he knew, maybe five people in the world knew about that. Maybe more depending on how many University mages had been told. The University! That could explain the Assassins! They would’ve hired Assassins from a different city! Not only because the local Guild had been destroyed, but also because foreign Assassins might not realize, not at first anyway, that they were hunting one of their own. This made Cooper wonder what the team of Assassins were thinking now. They’d already accepted the contract, but it didn’t mean that they couldn’t refund it and refuse to fulfill it. Cooper knew better than to try and explain any of this to them. He’d be dead before he could even manage introductions.

Dusk was perhaps both the best and the worst time for hunting. It would be just as difficult for him to identify them as it would be for them to spot him. Did they even hunt for him at night? He should’ve spent some time hunting them, learning their patterns, finding where they stayed, but there just wasn’t time for that. Too many other activities demanded his attention. The simple fact was, he was already falling behind if he intended to accomplish everything that was needed within the forecasted forty days. Once this situation with the Assassins got resolved, he’d sit down with Spen, Mister Ysel, and perhaps Birt, and go through everything from start to finish. Having more than one person thinking it all through would help make sure no details had been overlooked.

Cooper looked around the boardwalk, bringing all his awareness back to the task at hand. Before worrying about events still forty days away, he needed to concentrate on simply surviving the ‘here-and-now’.

For the last several weeks, he’d been watching and reporting on the Apex peddlers. The Assassins would know this. They’d have positioned themselves somewhere near the Lukasi agents. Cooper still couldn’t rule out the possibility that they had been brought or hired by Lukasi, as a measure of protection from all the recent attacks against them. The Assassins could have spotted him as he followed the men from Lukasi to the house in the Dregs.

It didn’t take long to find a team of drug peddlers. They’d adjusted their methods due to the increases in City Watch patrols and stationary posts, but they still had drugs to sell and they couldn’t stay in business if prospective clients couldn’t find them. He found an unobtrusive spot where he could observe them, knowing that if the Assassins were around, they’d be watching this spot, and probably a few other nearby places like this one.

By now it was getting dark enough that details were quickly obscured by distance, but he noticed a few others moving around. A few tavern patrons leaving their seats to either return home or simply to get their mugs refilled. A few people on the streets glanced in his direction, but once they’d determined that he posed no threat to them, they ignored him and continued along their way. Still, there were a few occasions where the attention seemed to linger but there could be dozens of reasons for that, some innocent and others far less so.

Cooper shifted his position, convinced that by now, he’d either been spotted or the Assassins simply weren’t watching. He walked southwest along the boardwalk, watching to see if anyone took notice of movement. One man stepped out and walked to the northeast, in the direction from where he’d just come from. The man stopped, leaned out from under an awning to look further to the north and his posture suddenly tightened. He was close enough that Cooper could hear the snarled curse as the man started to look in his direction but held his movement. Cooper turned to look behind him, in the direction the man was looking and was in time to see a dark figure drop from the roof above where he’d been standing a few minutes earlier. The knowledge that he’d managed to find his prey made him feel a grim satisfaction but it was heavily outweighed by the thought that the entire time he’d been waiting, he hadn’t heard a single whisper of noise above him.

Cooper had only glanced, but it was enough to know that they’d taken the bait. Now he needed to make it feel like he was trying to evade them yet again, while allowing them to remain close enough that they didn’t lose him. He increased his pace to the south while he passed the next five buildings then turned straight west, as if to flee into Batter’s Field. If he were leading the pursuit, he’d try to get at least two or three of his team close behind him as quickly as possible, leaving one to weave east parallel to him, to keep him from doubling back and trying to slip