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Ames, that man you wanted to answer your questions who wouldn’t? Well, at first he wouldn’t. He must still be carrying the scar you gave him, unless he’s had a plastic job done. I catch on quickly, Matt; it only takes me five years or so to take a hint. So I cut the pretty one out of the herd and pistol-whipped her a little, following in the footsteps of the master.”
    She was waiting for something, perhaps shocked disapproval. I said, “I had a hunch it was going to turn out to be all my fault.”
    “Well, whose else? You shouldn’t have set me such a brutal example, back when I was weak and impressionable. And you shouldn’t have put me through that lethal course and then sent a bunch of wet-nosed kids after me. It didn’t take much to make the little bitch talk, just one good taste of the gun sight. I left her blubbering about her lousy face. To hell with her face, it’s my lousy life she and her friends are wrecking, damn it. What little of it I managed to save out of that other wreck!” She drew a long, shuddering breath. “Give me another drink, damn you!"
    I took her glass away, refilled it, and returned it to her. She drank and sat for a moment staring into the glass.
    “If you think I’m sorry for spoiling the stupid brat’s looks, think again! I’d happily mangle the whole lot of them. I didn’t fight back last time. I let them humiliate me and walk all over me and give me a farcical trial and call me a traitor to my country and lock me away; but this time it’s going to be different. Last time I was a starry-eyed young lawyer and I was naive enough to trust the law to protect me, ha! Well, I’m still a lawyer, because it’s the only way I know how to make a decent living, but I'm not starry-eyed and naive any longer. This time I know where the real protection is, right here!” She slapped the purse in her lap and lifted her head to look at me. “You see? You see what you’ve done? I was almost civilized again, almost human. I’d almost forgotten the gutless, prideless slob who crawled out of prison and the savage fighting beast you and your trainers and weapons instructors made of her. I’d almost forgotten about killing two men to save your life. But it’s coming back to me, darling! Nobody’ll ever put me behind bars again. They may kill me, but I promise you I won’t die alone, and if the bastards I take with me are wearing police badges or government IDs, so much the better. They still owe me for the years they cost me—‘Oops, just a slight mistake, ma’am, but it wasn’t really our fault, ma’am, we hear so many perpetrators claim they've been framed, sorry about that, ma’am.’ Well, this time, damn it, I’ll make them regret their little mistakes in spades, and that goes for you, too, Matt, if you’re trying to use me for something tricky!”
    “Sounds like a threat,” I said mildly.
    She glared at me. “Are you laughing at me? Oh, I know you’re tough and trained and experienced, and undoubtedly armed to the teeth, and all I have to work with is one crummy little pistol and a quickie course in mayhem that’s five years old, but don’t fool yourself that I’m going to be such an easy patsy a second time—”
    “Nobody’s laughing,” I said. “Come on, let me show you something.”
    “Matt, damn you—”
    “Come on!” I rose and took her reluctant hand to help her out of her chair. ‘ ‘We’ll go out the back way through the bedroom.”
    She started to protest further, but checked herself and allowed herself to be guided out of the living room and past the big double bed to the French doors opening onto the patio at the rear of the house. Happy, who spends most of his time in the front yard—perhaps he enjoys listening to the cars going by in the street outside—came charging around the comer to greet us as if he hadn’t seen us for a week.
    I coped with his enthusiasm and said, “This way.”
    The lot is a narrow one, leaving only room for a