Angua threw caution to the wind and herself over Colon's attacker, causing all three of them to come crashing to the ground in a great, big pile. She thrashed around wildly, trying to get a grip on the attacker, but Colon had landed partly on top of her, effectively pinning her to the dusty ground with his massive weight.

A sharp pain in her side told her that she had probably broken a couple of ribs when his chest plate slammed into her, but adrenaline made it possible to bite down the agony. She saw Colon's would-be strangler get up on unsteady legs and stumble away. Angua groaned with pain and fury. Without changing into her wolf-shape she didn't know if she'd be able to throw him off, and in the meantime the Donkey might have a chance to disappear.

She couldn't allow that to happen!

But changing shape in front of people had always been a taboo to Angua, and so with strength born in desperation she pushed the bulk that was Sergeant Colon off her torso.

She got to her feet, wincing with pain, and looked around wildly for the attacker while Colon scrambled away from her on his hands and knees. The "woman" was still there, standing only a couple of steps away, chest heaving and arms and hands raised, like a tiger waiting to pounce.

"You! Don't you dare to move!" Angua snarled, as she faced "her".

Angua steeled herself for the attack of the madman, but when it came she was still completely thrown by it

-----

"What the Hells do you think you're doing, you slut?!" It was a muted screech, hissed at Angua and dripping with hate like venom. But something was wrong with it, Angua realised. It was altogether too light to be a man's voice. "Find your own customer!!"

"Er . . . What?"

Angua, dumbstruck, did a double take of the situation. She stared back and forth between the two persons in front of her – Colon in a huddle on the ground, still shuddering in shock, and the person who she up until a moment ago had been so sure was the Donkey still staring aggressively at her.

Grimacing as she felt her ribs grinding against one another, she assessed the scene one more time. Her acute hearing picked up the sound of the other watchmen getting nearer, fast. Realising she would have to act quickly if she was to be able to prevent her cover from being blown, she decided to back down a little.

"I'm sorry," she said simply to her adversary, "I thought someone was being attacked – the Donkey has got me all jittery. You know what it's like."

The woman – and now Angua could both see and smell that it was indeed a woman and nothing else – continued to stare at her like a pit bull for a moment, but then she seemed to decide to give Angua the benefit of the doubt.

"Honey, that tub of lard over there couldn't have hurt me even if he wanted to!" she said scornfully, indicating Colon with a tilt of her head.

"I didn't mea—", said Angua, and then thought better of it. "What happened then, exactly? Who screamed?"

"I just thought Blubber here would be easy money," said the Seamstress, who Angua now realised that she had seen around in the neighbourhood several times during the last couple of weeks.

"So I'm sweet-talking him, like," she continued unabashedly, "And I'm just checking on progress a little, if you know what I mean, pinching his banger, like, and the next thing I know he lets off this godsallmighty holler."

Angua nodded slowly, looking at the still shaken face of her colleague, sitting on the ground, licking the jam from the crushed donut from his jowls, and sighed inwardly. Poor Fred clearly wasn't used to the kind of direct approach to love favoured by the denizens of the Shades.

"I see," she said.

-----

The sound of sandals on cobbles was loud enough for the other two to hear it as well now, Angua realised, and suddenly several watchmen burst onto the scene, batons at hand and out of breath from the run. Angua saw the lumbering frame of Sergeant Detritus first, and then Carrot as a good second, followed by Constables Ping, Glodsnephew, Visit, Gimletsson and Moraine in rapid succession.

"Where is der Donkey?!," asked Detritus, waving his baton over his head in an agitated manner. The rest of them, apart from Carrot, shrunk back instinctively1.

"Did he get away?" he asked her, with a look of incredulity on his craggy face.

Angua lowered her head and turned around to where the girl had been, but she had slunk away in the shadows already.

"It's . . . eh . . ."

She looked at her assembled colleagues again, and noticed something. The only one who she was sure should have been here; the only one she was certain would have been close enough to hear her whistle was conspicuous by his absence.

Nobby.

There was only one possible reason why he wasn't here with the rest of them, and that realisation made her hairs stand on edge.

She started to back away, retreating from their questions as she began running towards where they had parted their ways. No time to waste! Their worried faces meant nothing to her now. All that mattered was getting to Nobby in time to prevent another tragedy – and it might already be too late!

"It's all a terrible mistake," she called to them, as she began ripping off what little clothes she was wearing, "Sergeant Colon will explain everything to you!"

The last thing she heard as she disappeared down the alleys again was Colon's voice, trying to deal with his ordeal.

1He had had great difficulties with the standard-issue batons, which looked like toothpicks in his hands. Instead he had crafted a more suitable baton out of one of the hefty wooden poles that were normally used for sword practice, and the resulting club was thicker than Carrot's thigh.