“A living mystery,” said Candi. “Soon to be a dead one. Or maybe something quite a bit worse.” She jerked her head and the blondes crouched, moving in on the woman in gray at the center. The cat suddenly sprang, banking off one of the blondes to swipe at another. The woman in gray bent in half, one leg planted, one leg kicking up like a switchblade to catch a blonde under the chin. Before the blonde fell, the woman in gray caught her, using her as a shield against the punches the blond women rained down. Then she thrust the blonde away. Coat swirling, she took out one blonde with a spinning backfist and the next with a roundhouse kick. The remaining blondes toppled like the rows of dominoes Tess and Theo used to set up around their old apartment.

The woman in gray stopped, stilled, not even winded. “Is that all you’ve got?”

Candi sighed. “You can’t get good help these days.”

“You haven’t figured out that you’re still the help,” said the woman in gray, glancing down at the man in the cowboy hat. “You think you’ll take his place but you won’t. Another man will. And another after that. You think you’re indispensable, but you’re not. You think you have real power, but you don’t.”

“Oh, I have power all right,” said Candi, her face twisting up into a snarl. “Would you like to see?”

“Show me,” said the woman in gray.

Candi jumped, rearing back her fist and then catching the woman in gray in the cheek. She absorbed the blow and then head-butted Candi, rocking the blonde on her feet. The silvery coat swirled like a cape as the woman swept Candi’s legs out from under her. Candi kicked out with both legs and managed to push the woman back, but only a foot or two.

As the two women fought, the big cat ran to Tess, circled all around her, rubbing and purring and explaining herself: “Mrrow, mrrow, mrrow.”

“Nine! I knew it was you. Where have you been?”

Nine gnawed at the rope binding Tess’s hands together, biting and sawing until she’d shredded them. She left Tess to untie her own feet while she went to work on Theo’s bindings. Tess freed her feet and then went to Jaime. But Jaime had help already. Ono. One of his little arms had split into a pair of scissors. It chopped through the ropes that held Jaime’s feet. Tess undid Jaime’s wrists.