Read A Gathering of Widowmakers (The Widowmaker #4) for Free Online Page B

shares my DNA."
    Nighthawk was silent for a long minute. Finally he spoke. "I sent him out too soon. I've got to find him."
    "And teach him to look for shades of gray?" suggested Kinoshita.
    "There are no shades of gray when you're the Widowmaker," said Nighthawk.
    "Then I don't understand," said Kinoshita.
    "He's not going after the kid because he killed an innocent man," said Newman. "We've probably both killed innocent men along the way."
    Kinoshita looked bewildered. "If that's not the reason . . . ?" he began.
    "He shot a Jefferson Nighthawk," said Nighthawk. "Whether Jubal Pickett was guilty or not, he had a price on his head and the first three bounty hunters to go after him were dead. That was a judgment call, plain and simple. But right or wrong, you don't shoot another version of yourself. I made this kid the single most efficient killing machine in the galaxy. If he'll shoot his fellow clone, then the day will come when he'll shoot anybody." He paused. "I can't allow that. I'm going to have to find him and make sure he understands."
    "And find a way to stop him if he doesn't want to learn," added Newman.
    "It shouldn't come to that. He's like a son to me—more than a son. He knows I'm not his enemy. He has no reason not to listen, or to assume I'm misleading him."
    "He's been on his own for a couple of years now," said Newman. "That's time enough to form his own opinions."
    "He was created to take exactly the kind of man Jubal Pickett was supposed to be," said Nighthawk. "The Inner Frontier still needs the Widowmaker. I just have to make a few adjustments to the current model."
    "You're making it sound easier than it's going to be," said Newman. "If you wait a couple of weeks, I'll go with you."
    "A couple of weeks?" exclaimed Kinoshita disbelievingly. "You'll be lucky to be out of here in six months!"
    Newman looked at Nighthawk. "He's wrong. You know how fast we recover and how much pain we can live with."
    "Yeah, he's wrong," agreed Nighthawk. "But it's going to take them more than two weeks to grow you a new liver and spleen. Besides, it doesn't make any difference. I can't let the kid get any farther ahead of me if I'm going to catch up with him before he makes more mistakes. Two weeks, six months, it's all the same. I've got to leave today."
    "If you haven't found him by the time I'm out of here . . ."
    "I promise," said Nighthawk.
    Newman turned to Kinoshita. "Cassandra's on Murchison III—"
    "I'll send her a subspace message the second we get back to the ship," said Kinoshita.
    "Let me finish," said Newman, his words starting to slur, his eyelids drooping. "Tell the hospital where she is, and have them contact her after I'm off the pain medication. No sense her coming all this way if all I'm going to do is sleep."
    "I'll see to it," said Kinoshita.
    "Thanks." He turned to Nighthawk. "I'm glad we finally met."
    "So am I."
    "When you find the kid, tell him . . ." Newman lost consciousness, his sentence unfinished.
    "Tell him what, I wonder?" said Kinoshita.
    "Probably that Jefferson Nighthawks don't shoot each other."
    Kinoshita decided not to mention that that was precisely what Nighthawk was going to have to do if reason didn't work.

6.

    "So how do we track him down?" asked Kinoshita as their ship left orbit and sped out of the Giancola system at light speeds. "Always assuming you're talking to me again," he added.
    Nighthawk chose to ignore the remark about his anger. "You've been traveling with him for the better part of two years," he replied, walking to the galley and ordering the ship to serve him a beer. "You must know something about the way his mind words. Will he go after the biggest target or the closest?"
    "Beats the hell out of me," answered Kinoshita, joining him in the galley. "There's no rhyme or reason to it. He goes after whichever one excites his imagination."
    "And what excites it?"
    "It's your imagination," answered Kinoshita defensively. "You tell me."
    The older man stared at