Read Down Among the Dead Men for Free Online

doesn't think he could stand hearing any more from Ninja the Whinger.
    Noone and a couple of people come through the double doors of Maxie's and stand for a moment on the corner.
    Niall and Jason slide back into the shadows of a small cut-through between two buildings. Niall stubs his cigarette out on a wall.
    'It's deffo him, lad!' Jason's all excited now, the desire for weed momentarily forgotten. 'Fucken sweet!'
    The couple Noone is talking to turn away from him and move down the street. Noone immediately heads directly across the road towards the alleyway.
    'Fuck. He's comin'.'
    Niall grabs Jason and the two of them shuffle along the alley and squat behind a stinking pile of semi-rotted cardboard boxes and fuck knows what else.
    'Jesus Christ, la', this fucken stinks!'
    'Quiet, Jase.'
    Big Niall can't even risk looking. He pulls his head into his collar.
    And then looks anyway.
    He's just in time to see Noone veer left and head down the street towards the river. Niall stands and, followed closely by Jason, lumbers towards the neck of the alley. Forty metres away Noone hunches into the breeze from the river. He's moving quickly.
    'This is ace!' Jason's at Niall's shoulder, his rat eyes shining. 'Fucken
CSI
, la'!'
    'Come on.' Niall waits as long as he thinks he can and then, staying close to the building line, follows the American. Negotiating the geography of the city is as natural as breathing to Niall and Jason. Which makes the job simple, even through the late-evening club crowds.
    Noone moves with purpose, weaving between the swarm of drunken neanderthals hurrying towards the next booze station.
    From behind, Niall notices there is never any contact between Noone and those he passes, not even the brush of a nylon sleeve against his leather jacket. "When one plodding cow waddles into his path in her too-short white Lycra skirt the American arcs his back and twists sideways to avoid her.
    'Where's he goin'?'
    'How the fuck do I know, man?' Niall's no Einstein but he's got the edge on Jason. 'That's what we're fucken followin' the cunt for.'
    'He's walkin' miles, man. And I thought Dean said to have a word with him.'
    Niall shakes his head. 'C'mon, dickhead. We got to wait for somewhere nice and quiet.'
    'We goin' to fuck him up, man?' Jason perks up. 'Nice one!'
    'Jesus, Jase. Deano said just to follow. We're not goin' to do anything.'
    Niall shakes his head. Fucking Jason. Niall's never seen him fuck anyone up, other than mentally.
    Three minutes later, they've lost Noone.
    One minute he was crossing the street up ahead, the next, gone.
    'What happened?' says Jason. 'Where'd he go?'
    'Don't you know?' spits Niall. 'You're fucken Ghost Ninja, aren't you?'
    'Don't blame me, man. He probably went home. Didn't Dean say he lived round here?'
    Niall doesn't know. He thinks so. He hadn't been listening properly. All he'd heard from his cuz was fifty more notes. Fifty he'd already spent in his head.
    'Shit.' Niall spins around, up on his toes, scanning the traffic on King Edward Street. As a line of cars move off from the lights he spots something heading down Great Howard Street.
    'There!' Niall points.
    Jason cranes his head, exposing a raw red spot on his neck. 'You sure? Why's he goin' that way?'
    'It's him,' says Niall, already moving. 'How the fuck do I know where he's goin'?'
    With one eye on the traffic he crosses to the central reservation and then darts across. Behind him he hears horns blaring as Jason, less decisive than Niall, comes within an inch of the bumper of a black cab.
    'Dickhead!' yells Jason as he arrives on the pavement.
    'For fuck's sake, bro! Why don't you set off some fireworks while yer at it? Give the feller some proper warnin', like?'
    'Sorry, mate,' says Jason, still flicking Vs at the cabbie. 'Forgot.'
    Jason peers ahead. On the left side of Great Howard Street he can see a figure silhouetted in the oncoming lights from the passing traffic.
    'You sure that's him?'
    Niall's already moving. 'It's