Of course, he’d done nothing but bodyguard John Fortune since they’d arrived for the premier of Peregrine’s latest documentary at the Vegas Film Festival. Vegas, after all, presented a carefully groomed environment that encouraged visitors to relax, have fun, and spend as much money as humanly possible. Peregrine’s paranoia was rubbing off on him. “There’s always a first time for everything,” he said. “Siegfried and Ralph have been performing in Vegas for more than twenty years and no one in their audience has been eaten yet.” “Not much danger of that,” the kid said confidently.
John Fortune grinned as they went down the aisle to their seats. I guess I’ll have to just throw myself in front of you if a hungry tiger tries to make you his early evening snack.” The irony, Jerry thought, was that John Fortune’s biggest danger was his own genes, and neither Jerry nor anyone else in the world could protect him from that. Actually, from even the remote possibility of danger. Peregrine had retained the Agency for nearly sixteen years to help shield her son from danger. John Fortune knew him by his real first name, but as Lon Creighton he was Jay Ackroyd’s partner in the Ackroyd and Creighton Detective Agency. Nobody, had almost as many names as faces. When she wasn’t able to watch over him personally, she hired men like Jerry for the task.
His mother, the beautiful winged ace Peregrine, had watched over him nearly every second of his existence. John Fortune had been closely protected, too closely in Jerry’s opinion, all his life. Jerry could see the look of disgust on the kid’s face, and forestalled further complaint by holding up his hand. The author gratefully acknowledges his obvious debts to all Wild Card writers over the many years and many books, without whose contributions this novel would have clearly been impossible. In memory of Mookie, beloved and loyal companion for almost fifteen years, and for faithful companions everywhere. New York, NY ibooks printing January 2006 Martin’s Wild Cards XVII, Death Drarws Five Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The ibooks colophon is a pending trademark of
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