Everyone piles into Richter's sedan and screeches off in a cloud of tire smoke, minutes ahead of the cops. There were a dozen eyewitnesses, but everything they saw can plausibly be claimed as self-defense.
"And after all, they can't send you to prison for what you INTENDED to do." Richter says.
"Yes they can," says Christine Tane. "It's called conspiracy."
"Oh, right," says Richter.
"You're not the law," she says. "For one thing, they don't use women on rough jobs. So, am I your prisoner?"
Richter grins on one side of his mouth.
"You want to get out? I grant you, if the Imperium has more than a Shadow Guard squad, a carload of gangsters, and a tattoo-covered whatever-he-is ... if they have more than that in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the United States is pretty near washed up. But ... they were trying to grab you, and they weren't gentle about it. They killed your pals. We'd rather they didn't do that, and we'll stand between you and them as long as there's blood left in our bodies!"
He visibly calms himself.
"Would you really rather take a chance with the law?" he says more evenly.
Christine Tane doesn't need long to consider.
"No," she says, shaking her blond head. "No, I never had much use for the law anyway ... ooh, I shouldn't have shaken my head no. No, I'll string along with you for a while. You Sky's boss?"
Richter looks up at Sky in the rear-view mirror, smiling at the notion.
"We're associates," he says instead.
The Packard drives for half an hour to a farm outside of town. Richter cuts the headlights and guides the car between overhanging trees, following the road by some eerie sixth sense. Once, the car hits a shallow gutter, and Richter snarls at something invisible above him and to his left. There's no trouble after that.
Richter hustles everyone into the house, although he doesn't lay a hand on the ladies, of course.
"There's coffee and ham in the pantry," he says, "but the icebox hasn't been filled. Why doesn't everyone fill each other in on what happened, while I check in with Mr. B."
He takes a bag of sugar into a small bedroom and closes the door.
Christine claps her hands in front of herself and tries to look bright.
"So!" she says. "Who's first?"
Belle drawls, "Don't worry, Miss Tane, these are the good guys."
ReplyDeleteJanet sits down with a sigh and places her knife and gun on the table to check them, and says "Perhaps since Sky was the first one in he'd like to go first? I think the most the rest of use came in after we heard a gun shot. Personally, I came in through the kitchen wall."
ReplyDeleteKaze Fades into the building. She has the Russian in her arms. Sets him down near her gently, Very gently for someone who has just stuck a fork in someone else's brain.
ReplyDeleteShe pulls out a package wrapped in plum-coloured silk, the edges stained with crimson.
"The man covered in kanji--tattoos. He Travelled to the upper room where I had put the winged girl--for safety, I had thought. Away from the bullet streams."
"As we came in, he was finishing... draining her life... and power unto him. He said, 'Silly Power! What have you made now?'"
"Later, black wings sprung from his shoulders."
"He called out 'Armor' before he was shot. 'Lightning' before using it and 'Travel' before doing so."
"When... Su-nai attacked him, he remarked that it was excellent to fight a Boomer. Perhaps he wishes that power as well."
She pauses, delicately. A bit reminiscent of a cat considering its kill. She glances at the silk package and its spreading stain.
"Before he could travel, I... impeded his ability to do so."
"He left this in the chimney."
She unwraps the silk, displaying a crudely butched leg festooned with kanji. Her face expressionless.
Sonny-boy looks at the leg, "Great, now Ah'm even more likely to have nightmares tonight." He mumbles while blinking sleepily.
ReplyDeleteSky says, "Miss Tane, I have never before heard of a talent that lets someone see some other joker's talent, nor one where growing wings outta your back is copacetic. Seeing as these Imperials are hunting your head, and we all saved your bacon, what say you give us the low down straight up?"
ReplyDelete