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Vimes laid the papers down and put the piece of metal on top of them

Then he reached in his pocket and produced a couple of oyle had said

Vimes looked at the sketch It looked, as Cuddy had noted, like the stock of a crossboith a pipe on the top of it There were a few sketches of strange side it, and a couple of the little six-pipe things The whole drawing looked like a doodle So a book about fireworks and had scribbled in the ins

Fireworks

Wellfireworks? But fireworks weren't a weapon Crackers went bang Rockets went up,was the sky

Hammerhock was noted for his skill with mechanisht it was, but it wasn't They were skilled with ood swords and jewellery, but they weren't too technical when it cas Ham there was a weapon Supposing there was so

No, that couldn't be it It'd either end up all over the place, or it'd be destroyed It wouldn't end up in the Assassins' s that hadn't worked, or had got lost, or ought to be re our firework on show?

There had been a lot of locks on the door Sonot a h-up Assassin, and one day one of the Guild leaders'd take you down there at dead, hah, of night, and sayand say

For some reason the face of the Patrician looain Vi

'Where'd he go? Where'd he go?'

There was a ainst a wall and fought for breath

'There he go!' shouted Detritus 'Along Whalebone Lane!'

He lumbered off in pursuit

Vimes put down his coffee cup

Whoever had shot those lead balls at him had been very accurate across several hundred yards, and had got off six shots faster than anyone could fire an arrow

Vimes picked up the pipes Six little pipes, six shots And you could carry a pocketful of these things You could shoot further, faster, more accurately than anyone else with any other kind of weapon

So A new type of weapon Much, much faster than a bow The Assassins wouldn't like that They wouldn't like that at all They weren't even keen on bows The Assassins preferred to kill up close

So they'd put thethe gonne safely under lock and key The gods alone kne they'd come by it in the first place And a few senior Assassins would know about it They'd pass on the secret: beware of things like this

'Down there! He went into Grope Alley!'

'Slon! Slon!'

'Why?' said Detritus

'It's a dead end'

The two Watchmen lumbered to a halt

Cuddy knew that he was currently the brains of the partnership, even though Detritus was presently counting, his face bea with pride, the stones in the wall beside him

Why had they chased someone halfway across the dry ? Because they'd run away No-one ran away from the Watch Thieves just flashed their licences Unlicensed thieves had nothing to fear from the Watch, since they'd saved up all their fear for the Thieves' Guild Assassins always obeyed the letter of the law And honestaway froin of Grope Alley's name was fortunately lost in the celebrated mists of time, but it had come to be deserved It had turned into a kind of tunnel as upper storeys were built out and over it, leaving a few inches of sky

Cuddy peered around the corner, into the gloom

Click Click

It came from deep in the darkness

'Detritus?'

'Yeah?'

'Did he have any weapons?'

'Just a stick One stick'

'OnlyI smell fireworks'

Cuddy pulled his head back, very carefully

There had been the smell of fireworks in Ha hole in his chest And a sense of na than na over Cuddy It was sih stakes garins and you realize that you don't know all the rules but you do know you'll be lucky to get out of this with, if you are very fortunate, your shirt

On the other handhe could picture Sergeant Colon's face We chased this e, and then we came away

He drew his sword

'Lance-Constable Detritus?'

'Yes, Lance-Constable Cuddy?'

'Followwas made of metal, wasn't it? Ten minutes in a hot crucible and that'd be the end of the probleet rid of it? Why keep it?

But that wasn't hu to destroy

He looked at the strange ether, sealed firmly at one end There was a small hole in the top side of each of the pipes

Vimes slowly picked up one of the lumps of lead

The alley twisted once or twice, but there were no other alleys or doors off it There was one at the far end It was larger than a normal door, and heavily constructed

'Where are hispered Cuddy

'Don't know,' said Detritus 'Back of the docks somewhere'

Cuddy pushed open the door with his sword

'Cuddy?'

'Yeah?'

'We walked seven-ty-nine steps!'

'That's nice'

Cold air rushed past them

'Meat store,' whispered Cuddy 'Soh and into a high, glooe as a teht crept through the high, ice-covered s Fro meat carcasses

They were semi-transparent and so very cold Cuddy's breath turned to crystals in the air

'Oh, my,' said Detritus 'I think this the pork futures warehouse in Morpork Road'

'What?'

'Used to work here,' said the troll 'Used to work everywhere Go away, you stupid troll, you too thick,' he added, gloomily