"Kuso-jitsugyoka," Piper snarled.
Farris looked at her, gaping, and then shrieked.
Piper pointed the auto at Farris' face and squeezed down on the trigger, but them something brushed her side and bumped her back. A huge hand swept along the outside of her arm, encompassed her forearm and tugged it upward, lifting her right off her feet.
"You fragging bent?" Shank growled.
He tugged the gun from her hand.
Dangling above the floor, Piper cursed at him wrath-fully in Japanese.
Then Rico was there in the doorway, looking from her to Farris and back again. Piper stopped, stopped struggling, stopped cursing. Contained herself. Completely. hank lowered her to the floor. She rubbed her aching arm and glanced at Rico, but could not meet his eyes.
"What's this?" Rico said.
Piper shook her head, said nothing.
"What the frag's going on?"
"It was necessary."
Rico glared and curtly motioned her out of the room.
As Piper stepped into the main room, Dok looked up from the couch, met her eyes and said, "Filly punched out."
Piper couldn't help but be moved by the emotion in his face and voice. Despite her most immediate difficulty.
Despite Rico's anger. She had known Filly for several years, almost as long as she had known Dok. She regarded them as friends. She knew how close the couple that been. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "Very sorry. I'll pray for her. Pray that the kami are kind to her spirit."
Dok nodded, looked away.
In that moment, Thorvin came into the room, hopping forward on one leg. Blood was dripping from the engineer's boot on his left foot. He paused and leaned against the wall. "Freaking slug came right through the door!" he growled. "Musta found a gap in the freaking armor."
Suddenly everything seemed to be going wrong.
They must have offended the kami.
She most of all.
Dok was hit, but no worse than anybody else-of them that survived the meet. They'd all been blooded, all except Bandit, who had the devil's own luck.
Getting Dok to tend the wounded took some work. He kept staring into space like he was in a trance or something. He kept forgetting the names of things he needed out of his kit. He made such a mess of one bandage he tried putting around Shank's arm that he had to pull it off and start over. He wasn't all there. Rico could understand that, but he also understood that none of them could afford an infected wound or the loss of any more blood than they had already shed.
Once the team was patched, Rico drew Dok into the bedroom to check on Marena Farris. She was on one of the sleeping rolls, sitting up and free of the cuffs. She looked anxious, upset. Rico didn't blame her. He'd be upset too if somebody pointed a gun in his face.
Dok checked her out. One side of her mouth was a little puffy. Nothing to worry about. Nothing for Dok or Farris to worry about.
Rico remembered the trickle of red he'd seen coursing down from the corner of her mouth. She hadn't got that lying on the floor. She'd been in the other room when the team left for the meet and her hands had been cuffed in front, not behind her back. The obvious conclusion was that, for whatever reason, Piper had gotten a little rough. If Rico hadn't seen her pointing an Ares at Farris' face literally as he came through the door, he probably wouldn't have believed it.
But for the swelling by the mouth, Farris' stylishly contoured face was otherwise unmarked. The worst Piper could've done was slap her, maybe slap her a couple of good ones. That wasn't the point, though. The point had to do with what was right and what was wrong, what he could let pass and what he couldn't tolerate. He had serious problems with any woman getting beaten or abused, especially one like Farris, who obviously presented no real physical threat to anyone. The fact that another woman had done the beating made no difference. The fact that Farris had been cuffed and totally helpless only made the matter worse.
It made him want to throw up.
Once Dok stepped out of the room, Rico said, "What happened here won't happen again. You can take that for a promise."
Farris nodded, looking troubled. "What happens now? To me, I mean."
"That ain't decided."
Farris hesitated, then said, "Have you spoken to your woman?"
"What woman?"
"The Asian woman. I don't know your names."
"Who said she's my woman?"
Farris seemed disturbed by the edge that slipped into Rico's voice. "I'm sorry," she said in a hushed voice. "I just assumed…"
"Don't assume nothing."
"Yes, of course. Excuse me. But you should still speak to her. There are things you should know. We talked."
"We'll get to that later."
"There's something you have to tell me?"
Rico nodded. "The meet didn't go too good."
"How is Ansell?"
"He didn't make it."
"You mean he's dead?"
Rico nodded again.
Farris looked more than just saddened by the news. How much more Rico couldn't tell. Farris lowered her head. She wiped at her eyes. "Could I be alone, please?" she said. "This is… I'm afraid I'm getting rather upset…"
"If you want anything, just ask."
She shook her head, her hair falling forward, shielding her face.
Rico left her and went into the front room where he found Piper waiting. The look on her face was getting familiar: embarrassment, shame. Rico nodded toward the alley door. She preceded him up the hall and out into the alley. Rico spent a moment glancing around, checking that the alley was clear, then turned to Piper and said, "You wanna tell me what you thought you were doing in there?"
"It would be very difficult," Piper replied, looking everywhere but at him.
"Do it anyway."
She took a while getting to it. "I wasn't really thinking," she said in a whisper. "I saw that the meet had gone bad, jefe. I saw you were wounded. I saw Filly lying there in the van. I realized she was dead. I felt I had to do something. I felt it was my duty."
"Murdering Marena Farris."
"She is a corporate. Corporates are our enemies."
"Yeah? Let's talk about duty. You had a duty to me to watch out for Farris. You had a duty to the team."
Piper's face turned a dark shade of red.
She covered it with her hands.
"Please…," she moaned.
Rico turned and walked away a few steps, then lit a cheroot. It was that or bust a gut, or get violent. The frustration was almost too much. The way he felt now, Piper seemed like a complete stranger, a total mystery, a disaster waiting to happen, a slight against his honor that he didn't even want to consider. She was as gentle as a dove in bed. How the hell could she attempt cold-blooded murder? Did her hatred of corps run that deep?
Maybe the old saying was true.
Never trust an elf…
In a voice that wavered with emotion, Piper said, "I am shamed. It is my way, jefe. I have always been shamed. From the moment of my conception. I am kawaruhito. You cannot imagine… In Japan, all metahumans are vile. Reviled. They are hated. I was sent to Jigoku-To-Shi. That is Hell City. That is its name, jefe. It is a horrible place. I escaped. I found a way to Seattle, UCAS. I had heard of the promised land. The land of promise. Tir Tairngire. But they would not let me in. My own people. Elves like me. Like my father, they rejected me. So I am doubly shamed."