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  The otter pushed open the door, and for the first time Franny faced the woman behind all of this madness.

  She was a small, wizened figure, her dyed red hair shockingly bright against the stacked pillows. She seemed fragile until she lifted heavy eyelids, and gave Franny a piercing look out of the coldest, most calculating gray eyes he had ever seen.

  He was pushed inexorably forward until he stood at the side of the bed. The two guards backed away. Baba Yaga’s wrinkled lips worked.

  Baba Yaga spoke. “So, this is the hero,” she said, in English. Franny stared at her wondering what Berman had meant about furniture and footstools? “Stupid, stupid, boy,” the old woman went on. “You have no idea what you have done. He is waking. And we are all dead now.”

  Franny swallowed. “We?” he said. “Who, we?”

  Baba Yaga laughed and pointed at Franny. “You.” She touched her breast. “Me. Them.” Her gesture encompassed the otter and the cops and set the gem-encrusted rings to flashing. “Talas. Kazakhstan. Eventually … the world.”

  Somewhere far off, in a distant part of the hospital, people began screaming.

  The Wild Cards Series

  Wild Cards

  Aces High

  Jokers Wild

  Aces Abroad

  Down and Dirty

  Ace in the Hole

  Dead Man’s Hand

  One-Eyed Jacks

  Jokertown Shuffle

  Double Solitaire

  Dealer’s Choice

  Turn of the Cards

  Card Sharks

  Marked Cards

  Black Trump

  Deuces Down

  Death Draws Five

  Inside Straight

  Busted Flush

  Suicide Kings

  Fort Freak

  Lowball

  About the Editors

  GEORGE R. R. MARTIN is the author of the international bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire, which is the basis for the award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones. Martin has won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards for his numerous novels and short stories.

  georgerrmartin.com

  MELINDA M. SNODGRASS studied opera in Austria, graduated from University of New Mexico with a degree in history, and went on to law school. In 1988 she accepted a job on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and she has since worked on staff on numerous shows in Hollywood. She has also written pilots and feature films. In addition to being coeditor of Wild Cards, she also writes urban fantasy under the name Phillipa Bornikova.

  melindasnodgrass.com

  Copyright Acknowledgments

  “The Big Bleed” copyright © 2014 by St. Croix Production.

  “Those About to Die” copyright © 2014 by David Anthony Durham.

  “Galahad in Blue” copyright 2014 © by Lumina Enterprises, LLC.

  “Ties That Bind” copyright 2014 © by Mary Anne Mohanraj.

  “Cry Wolf” copyright © 2014 by David D. Levine.

  “Road Kill” copyright © 2014 by Walter Jon Williams.

  “Once More, for Old Times’ Sake” copyright © 2014 by Carrie Vaughn.

  “No Parking…” copyright © 2014 by Ian Tregillis.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these stories are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.

  LOWBALL

  Copyright © 2014 by George R.R. Martin and the Wild Cards Trust

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by Michael Komarck

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

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  New York, NY 10010

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  Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-0-7653-3195-3 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4299-5641-3 (e-book)

  e-ISBN 9781429956413

  First Edition: November 2014

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