Conversation · Ruby, the Instigator

There was a longing in her for some sort of denouement, but it's unlikely that it was this... turning prematurely grey while being escorted from interrogation room to interrogation room...

"But Klaasje couldn't have known I was here. How did you?"

"Your first guess wasn't entirely off..."

"Titus and his boys, ma'am. They told us you were on the coast."

Even now, Kim is a paragon of professionalism: he's trying to make a clean cut of telling her she was betrayed.

She pauses, taking it in. "Well, fuck. And those guys liked me -- I know it. If this is what happens to people whom people like..."

A dull despair is creeping into her voice.

"...how the fuck do the rest of you get by?"

Does she mean that you're not a person whom other people like?

"Honestly, I don't know how I do it... I just stumbled in here. Can you... please explain this shit to me?"

"What shit?" She adjusts her grip on her gun. "I told you I didn't do it. Sounds pretty simple to me."

A strong moral compass. She still wants the opportunity to make a case for herself.

"Wait, wasn't it... you who called me the human can opener? It's not personal. I... opened them up."

"I did, didn't I. And now you've come for me." She scoffs. "But fuck them all the same."

That did make her forgive them -- a little.

"I do it by... asking questions. And I have some for you."

"Like what?" She adjusts her grip on her gun. "I already told you I didn't do it."

"Your... own boys told us you were on the coast."

"My boys?"

"Yeah, the ones you poached from Titus. And Titus himself."

She looks at you incredulously. "What is this? I thought Titus and I had a decent collegial relationship..."

"Oh, it doesn't even matter. How can they be my boys when they're not even my friends. And those guys liked me -- I know it. If this is what happens to people whom people like..."

"Ruby boys... Formerly the Hardie boys."

She looks at you incredulously. "What? I don't even understand what you're trying to get at here."

"Okay, call them the Hardie boys, then."

"Titus told me. It took some convincing..."

"Aw, fuck. Took some convincing my ass. And those guys liked me -- I know it. If this is what happens to people whom people like..."

"It didn't help her. She was a... fugitive. We took her in."

"I'm sad to hear that. The girl was playing some dangerous games, but even with what she did to me... I wouldn't have wished that upon her."

Say nothing.

"But she couldn't have known I was on the coast. How did you find me?"

"When I threatened to arrest her, Klaasje broke... she told me everything."

"It was your girlfriend. She cracked."

She smiles bitterly. "Nah, she didn't crack. She's a survivor. If she told you anything, it was to save herself..."

"Your friend Klaasje really threw you to the wolves... said you shot Lely."

"Oh." She smiles sadly. "I knew the kitten had claws, but not like this..."

"You're right. Klaasje was the first... to share her suspicions."

"Who killed the merc... if it wasn't you?"

"How should I know? As I keep saying, he already had a bullet in his head when I got to him, and there hasn't been any useful gossip over the radio..."

Those rings around her eyes, her tired voice -- she's been staying up late listening in on the conversations criss-crossing Martinaise.

"Police radio? You've been... following the case?"

"Who hasn't?" She shrugs. "You know, I can still see him there, in Klaasje's room, lying on his side."

"He was still warm, but the blueish light coming through the broken window made him look as though he'd been dead for a good long while..."

Klaasje didn't want to turn the lamp on. She was afraid of another shot.

"How did you know we were coming?"

"I heard you in the passages. And I've been preparing for quite a while."

"By hiding bullets under floorboards?"

"So you found my shack, huh? I'm not surprised."

Her tone is bitter. She thinks she's been betrayed.

"Preparing for a... shoot-out? That why you're hiding ammo?

"I was. Before I caught you in the pale latitude compressor. I'm fine now."

That's her admitting the bullet was an emergency exit.

It was dark in the shack. The waves outside had calmed down. She looked at the loaded gun, then she cracked the barrel open and took the bullet out. Not today.

"She didn't rat you out, by the way -- the washerwoman."

"So nice." She smiles a little smile. "That's one knife I didn't want to find in my back."

As opposed to the other knives she's finding there now. Hardie, for one.

"Why... hide the bullet, though?"

"This could've turned out pretty bad for me if you hadn't walked right into 25 bands of ultra-high frequencies."

"Preparing for the... worst?"

"You're... desperate, aren't you?"