They did the same routine for two more days, watching Anna/Joru. All except for Gregory, who was teaching the class. “This is fucking Groundhog Day,” said Wraith under her breath to herself, about the movie where a man repeated the same day of his life over and over. “At least Bill Murray learned to play the piano at the end.”

She looked with her tiny binoculars for the umpteenth time. She analyzed all of Gregory’s workers, then did a search for organizations that truly needed his help. She found an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles with a lot of clients that did Vegas shows. She found several high-class businessmen that did a lot of work in Vegas. She found people with network and other security issues in Vegas, including not one (but two) credit reporting agencies. She put them all in the “Possible Business” file. She cleaned up errors and duplicates and created “deep” files for things Bannon or Gregory wanted to keep secret from the rest of the company.

Lunch was a frozen chicken and rice meal that tasted like sawdust. She ground her way through the data. Some Iron Knights showed up to take the class. She was delighted. They would find out more about their bikes, and they would also be packing weapons. The Valkyries had lovers and even husbands among them; they knew about Joru. They went indoors for class, in the heat of the day, then came back out to practice.

Wraith saw something that shouldn’t be there. Something wrong. The class was in back, their Harleys roaring. Bonnie and her ladies were slowly reassembling the Fat Boy, part by part, with replacement parts. The angles were…

Wraith moved forward and got in her own blind. She looked through her scope. The ladies were moving around, circling. She turned on her mic, slid open the window, checked the wind speed.

Where was the something-wrong? Was it a reflection? Something moving that shouldn’t be moving? She sent a text to Sigrun, on the ground. Sigrun deliberately walked in front of Joru to look at it, then the reflection came again, to the left. Something that shouldn’t be there. Wraith lined up the shot, and squeezed, just as Sigrun threw Joru on the ground and laid over her. Two shots hit, one into the Harley Fat Boy, and one into the dust just in front of where Sigrun had been. Bonnie threw her wrench in the direction of the shot.

Staff Sargeant Tori Kym had her gun out, pointing in the direction of Bonnie’s wrench. Bonnie had another wrench in her hand. Sigrun had a gun in one hand, a knife in the other. Bikes buzzed like angry bees as the Iron Knights rode toward the sounds of a war. Wraith sighted, squeezed again. Something went pfft past her hair. Her distinctive platinum blonde hair. She grabbed a cap, put it on, sighted again. Tori and the Iron Knights put down suppressive fire as Wraith sighted again. She waited until she found the empty space inside her head, pulled, and then felt something slam into her chest. She held up her hand, grateful for her shooting glasses, as the glass shattered. She went flying back, the gun clattering down. She laid there, gasping, unable to see. Something pounded up the stairs.

Henry came bursting into the room, gun up. He waved, and someone else was breathing on her cheek. “Wraith, baby,” said Gregory, as he grabbed her arm and dragged her from the room.

She had time to see Henry holster the gun and pick up the sniper rifle. She cried out, wiped blood from her face with her good hand. He had her bad one. She gasped, in, out, in, out, remembering how to breathe.

“Fucking woman,” Gregory said.

“Not you,” she said, tongue thick in her mouth. “Already got… husband and wife.”

“You fucked with my database,” he said. “Now it looks like some sort of Matrix movie in there, without all the green stuff scrolling around.” He knelt, took her pulse. “What were you thinking?”

“I... was thinking… would do an awesome job… get hired.” She felt him wipe blood from her cheek.

“You’re hired,” said Gregory. “Our stuff is compressed, backed up, firewalled. We’ve got appointments all day long that aren’t back to back, and we’ve got better clients. You got us out of the ‘dirty dozen’ that were too much trouble to keep.” He used his hands to check her body. She gasped, nearly clawed his hand off, pushing it away. “You’ve been shot,” he said, completely unnecessarily. He picked her up.

Wraith heard the pfft of the gun firing, then another pfft. Gregory had a gun in one hand, and his other hand on her shoulder.

“We’ve got to get you out of here. Don’t know if we’re still pinned, but we can get you down the stairs and out the back.”

“Do. It,” said Wraith.

Her breath came in shallow gasps. Her feet were sweating in the athletic socks in her boots. She focused on her feet, her hands. Not her middle, where it felt like a very small elephant was sitting on her. She bit her lip as he lifted her, and carried her into the elevator. She tried to grasp him, to hold on, but her fingers weren’t working.

Sigrun was at the bottom. “Got her out. Damn near killed us, but we got her out. Tori’s up, checking out the nest. Bonnie’s spitting mad. Wife, you die, then I will personally go to Valhalla and kick your ass.”

“I. Hate. Hospitals.” Wraith focused on Sigrun, her tiny fingers, with paint still in the nail bed —blue and green. Her mouth was pink, in a thin line, now filled with rage and fear.

“Do I look like I care?” asked Sigrun. “Bus is around the corner.” They went out the back door, and Tad of the Iron Knights was there, gun drawn. Sigrun still had a knife in one hand, a gun in the other. She took the rear, eyes swiveling like they were on stalks.

“Fuck,” said Tad. “Hearing that monster got away.”

“Find. It. Kill. It.” Sigrun tried to not let her head loll.

The pounding of their feet made her head pound deep inside. Another shot rang out. Gregory took a knee, and Sigrun and Tad opened fire. Sigrun breathed through the fire in her chest and the chung-pop of the firing, repeating. She felt a knife pressed into her hands.

“Baby,” said Sigrun. “If I go down…”

Wraith managed to flop her arm onto her belly. She held the knife, point down, pointing it at her bellybutton. She heard more fire, then the world went completely black.