Kylee leaned forward, took a swig of the beer. “So, give. What do I have to do to keep you from fucking with Dek? What does dear old papa Claudio want? If you give it to me straight, maybe I can help you. If you’re here to fuck Dek over, and I find out, I will kill you. Dead. On the spot. That’s where it stands between the two of us.”

A genuine amusement flickered behind the woman’s gem-like eyes. “Kill me? Really? Child, I don’t think you have any idea who you’re dealing with.”

“Yeah, you’re the Taglioni assassin and dirty tricks master.” Kylee grinned, cut another piece off of her steak. “This is what Kalico calls a ‘dick swinging match’, but I saw you laid out cold in the street last night. Didn’t exactly inspire the kind of fear that would shiver my bones.”

“That was the whiskey. The whiskey you bought.”

“Sure, we’ll go with that if it makes you feel better. But, assassin lady? You’re on my ground. Just an example, wearing those shoes you had on last night? I could have walked you through a puddle down at the Mine Gate, and by now you’d have fifteen slugs eating their way up your leg.”

Falise seemed to consider. Then she said, “Derek really owns a half a metric ton of rhodium?”

Kylee leaned back. “You’re not just interested in his plunder.”

Falise stared thoughtfully at the length of her new knife, the polished blade shining in the tavern lights. “The nuance of this might be beyond you, but there’s an Inspector General sticking his nose into all kinds of things on the planet.”

“Damn it! Does it have to be nuance? I’ve always been pretty short on that given that I’m just a stupid Wild One with a bad reputation when it comes to quetzals. Simple as I am, I couldn’t possibly understand, but there’s a good chance Soukup will try to replace Kalico. Right?”

Kylee ran her long thin fingers down the smooth barrel of Falise’s new rifle where it lay on the table beside them. “By the way, when it comes to replacements, you’re in last place. That guy Cinque has been learning everything he can from Tal. Bad Bart? He’s spending his time quizzing Shig and Yvette on how things work here. You’ve been stumbling around in really weird shoes watching your people getting eaten.”

Falise tensed, seemed to talk herself out of whatever she’d been about to say. “How do I catch up?”

“We have a saying here. It goes something to the effect that stupidity—”

“Is a death sentence. Yes, child, I’ve heard it. How do I stop being stupid?”

“You afraid of dying?”

“Until last night, I would have told you I wasn’t. What happened to Ednund . . .” She lowered her gaze.