AUTHOR'S NOTES: A long, kind of talky chapter, and the first part may seem like filler...and maybe it is. I wasn't trying to pad out my word count (I don't need help doing that)-I wanted to give Jinxy some characterization, some background to this world's Red Prince, and have at least a somewhat lighthearted break to what has been (and what will be) a very intense story. We can't have Weiss hitting herself in the head with a rock or falling down a pit, so this will have to do. The payoff is at the end.

This chapter was supposed to end in a big action scene, but it was getting pretty long, so I ended it where I did. Next chapter the action starts ramping up in a big way.

Wioska Myszy, Poland

11 September 2001

Dr. Strazinski looked over Weiss. The IV was out, and though she was still sniffling, she was feeling better. "All right, Hauptmann Schnee." He had finally started using their ranks the day before. "You can get dressed." She pulled up her flight suit: she and Ruby's flight suits had been thoroughly washed, and now gave off almost no radiation at all. That left Blake and Yang without theirs, still somewhere in their cave in the blowdown zone, but they were wearing local clothes.

"How do I look?"

"Good. No burns or redness—you did the smart thing by building that shelter. You still managed to get about one Gray, and your sinus infection, but barring a relapse that I think is very doubtful, you should make a full recovery." Strazinski shook his head. "I would prefer you remained one or two more days, but I understand your wish to get back to your own lines."

Weiss zipped up her flight suit. "Won't you come with us, Doctor?"

Strazinski smiled. "I'd love to—I miss my ICU—but Miss Rataj will give birth any day now, and this village is as good as any to spend the winter." He followed her through the partition.

"We'll send helicopters when we get back," Weiss told him. "I promise. We'll evacuate the whole village."

"That's not a bad idea, Hauptmann," Strazinski replied, "but you heard Jan the other day. They won't leave. They might change their mind after they start getting hungry, but for now, they're just waiting for the outside radiation to die down, and then they'll be out there, ripping up the topsoil." Neither said what they were thinking: unless Poland enjoyed a late winter, there would be no time to put in much of a crop. "It is what it is," he finished.

Weiss thanked the doctor and went over to the bunker's one table. Jinxy had a map of Poland spread out, watched by Ruby, Blake, Yang, Jan, and Little. The raccoon Faunus ran a finger north to south. "Hi, Miss Schnee," he greeted her. "I was just saying that we have to take back roads the whole way. That'll help us avoid that blowdown area. Normally, from here to Nysa is a little over two hours, but we have to avoid Wroclaw and Opole, so it's going to take us about six."

"Why?" Jan asked.

"Wroclaw's a madhouse. Not everyone was able to catch a ride out, so they're fighting there—sometimes literally—for homes and food to get through the winter. Too much chance we'll be jumped. Besides, south of Wroclaw, the roads are all torn to crap—that was the way the 1st Armored Division fell back, and those M1s tore the hell out of the roads. As far as Opole, this Salem person has been running patrols that far west. They usually don't bother anyone, but I don't want them stopping us. They've been using BTRs to move around, and my poor beater won't survive running into one of those." His finger tapped a spot on the map: Olesnica. "We can gas up here. I know a guy there. He's safe, as long as we cross his palms with some of those gold coins."

Jinxy moved his finger furthed down to Nysa. "Once we get here, I'll trade the stuff I've got for passage over the mountains. We'll head west and cross into Czech land just south of Paczkow. That should put us well away from the Red Prince."

"Red Prince?" Ruby wanted to know.

"I've heard of him…a little," Weiss said. "Isn't he like a baron that runs the area around Ostrava like its some medieval fiefdom? My father had dealings with him for something or another." Weiss sniffed a laugh. "Probably something illegal, knowing him."

"It might have been the current Prince's father. They called him the Red King," Jinxy explained. "He was all right; a little strange, but he treated his people decently. His son, however…" He winced. "The Red Prince is crazier than a shithouse rat. He's about, oh, a little older than you, I guess," Jinxy said, looking at Weiss. "Too much money, too much power, and nobody to tell him no. The Red King died about two years ago—supposedly from natural causes, but you never know. His mama's been dead for years. I hear the Red King wanted the people to hold elections after he died, maybe rejoin the Czech Republic, but the Prince wasn't having any of that."

"What did he do?" Blake asked.

"Shot about fifty people. They hate his guts, but he has an army and they don't. Nobody cares enough to do anything about him. Sooner or later, his own army will probably kill him, and God alone knows what happens after that. I don't care, because I'll be far away from there." He straightened up. "And we should be too. If we run into any of his patrols, we can bribe our way out." Jinxy laughed. "Like I said, the Red Prince is crazy. He'll order his guards to accept cold hard cash one day, and the next, the toll will be something like their best and worst memory or something. A friend of mine, she bought passage through his land last year by giving him an old Napoleonic musket. He paid her for it!"

"Where does he get his money from?" This from Weiss.

"You called it, Miss Schnee—if it's illegal, the Red Prince is involved. Hell, his dad was no saint—used to run Faunus slaves back in the day." Blake's ears flattened back at that. "He got too scared of the White Fang to keep that up, but everything else—drugs, girls, weapons, diamonds, hell, even pistachios—the Red Prince has his fat little fingers in it." Jinxy shrugged. "Like I said, it don't matter, because we're not going anywhere near Ostrava." He bent over the map. "We cut south, then west, and once we reach Pardubice, we're home free. You ladies get to go back to saving the world, and I get a little richer." No one noticed Ruby's saddened expression at saving the world; she covered it quickly enough.

"When do we leave?" Yang leaned over the map, trying to memorize it, which wasn't easy because it was upside down to her.

Jinxy grinned. "Hell, Miss Xiao Long, we can leave right now. Unless you need to pack some things."

Yang grinned back, running her hands down the farmer's clothing. "I think I got everything."

"Not yet," Jan put in. He motioned Ruby Flight to follow him. Jinxy rolled up the map and stuck it in a pocket, smiled at Little, and followed Jan as well. Little looked at the now empty table, closed her eyes, nodded, and went to find her parents.

In the end, it took another hour to get ready. As Jan said, no one left Wioska Myszy hungry. Despite Ruby Flight's protests that the villagers would need all the food they could get, a heroic picnic basket was filled with sandwiches, pastries, a thermos of fresh coffee, and three bottles of wine. For armament, the pilots still had Ruby's Beretta, Yang's Colt Python, Weiss' PPK, and an AK-47 the villagers gave them; Blake's pistol had disappeared somewhere along the line. Ruby tried to pay them, but Jan simply folded her hand over the gold coins. "You defend us when no one else wanted to," he told her. "And you got Poles out. Ask Ludwik what that means, if you don't know." He hugged Ruby. "May God protect you, Ruby Rose."

"We won't forget you," Ruby replied, her voice cracking. "We'll come back for you."

Jan waved it off. "The land is ours," he said simply.

They quickly loaded the HMMWV. "Shotgun," Yang called, and climbed into the front passenger seat. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all sighed, and squeezed into the back seats.

"Where am I going to sit?" They all turned and looked at Little, who stood next to the HMMWV. She wore her best clothes and a backpack filled to the brim.

"Nowhere," Jinxy told her, climbing into the driver's seat. "You're not going."

"I am going," Little insisted.

"Little," Ruby said, as gently as she could, "you have to stay here. As soon as we get back to our lines, we'll send someone for you."

Little shook her head. "I talked to Mother. She wants me to go." She turned and looked back towards the old school. "Remember? My uncle lives in Miami. Mother says I will be safer there." Tears appeared in Little's eyes, and Ruby knew that suddenly the mouse girl was realizing that she might not see her parents or her village again. Then she visibly steeled herself and faced Ruby directly. "So I will go. I'm your trusty guide, remember?"

Ruby still hesitated, but finally Blake just smiled. "Hop in. We can squeeze you in between Jinxy's trade items." It was a tight fit, and Jinxy grumbled as he was forced to tie a few things to the back bumper rather than keep inside—luckily items sealed in wooden boxes—but they managed. From where she lay, Little could not look back. That was likely a good thing, Ruby mused.

They left, the villagers braving the fading radiation to wave them along, and suddenly, Ruby Flight was on the move again. Jinxy left the village, headed east for a few minutes, then turned south on the road that would take them to Olesnica.

The road wasn't very wide, but there also wasn't anyone else driving. Yang looked out of the windscreen. It was a beautiful Tuesday morning. "This is super weird," she commented. "This feels like a road trip."

"It kind of is," Blake replied. She was leaning into one corner of the HMMWV, her feet between the front seats; Ruby was suddenly glad she was short. Weiss curled up on her side and had her eyes closed, while Little was soon out, sleeping peacefully, wedged in between baskets and packs.

"Yeah, but it's like…you know, it's like there's not even a war on or anything." Yang motioned to the road. "I mean, the woods look nice, the road's clear, it's a pretty day—" She stopped as she noticed three dead deer alongside the road. They hadn't been hit by cars; there was not a visible mark on them.

Jinxy saw them too. "Ayuh, well, don't roll down the window. At least not until we reach Olesnica. We should be clear of the rads by then."

Yang sighed, then snapped her real fingers. "I know what this is missing!"

"Yang, I'm trying to sleep," Weiss yawned.

She was ignored. "We need some road tunes!"

Jinxy laughed. "Oh, I wish! This thing needs a CD player. I've been trying to find one for weeks—my last one broke." He pointed to the glove compartment. "I've got a ton of CDs in there."

Yang opened the compartment and took out a few, spreading them on the dashboard. "Let's see…Chicago, Hall and Oates, the Doors, Neil Diamond…this what my dad listens to."

"I'm probably about the same age as your dad," Jinxy said.

"Oh God, Rush!" Yang handed back a CD to Ruby. "Check it out, Rubes. Rush. We should get Dad and Jinxy together." Ruby smiled and handed it back. Taiyang Xiao Long insisted that the three members of Rush should be referred to as the Holy Trinity. Yang flipped through more of them. "Man, this stuff is old school. Me and Ruby used to have to endure this on road trips with Dad. Don't you have anything from the 90s, Jinxy? KLF, KMFDM, Gorillaz, Cypress Hill?"

"That crap?" He snorted. "I listen to music, Miss Xiao Long."

"Ha!" Yang held up a CD. "The Eagles. Dad likes these guys too."

"I like those guys," Ruby reminded her.

"I know. You like this old stuff."

"Not just that!" Ruby exclaimed. "I like Eurodance too!" Weiss opened one eye. "You know, Weiss! Eurodance! Captain Hollywood Project, Culture Beat, Haddaway." Yang barked a laugh, Weiss shook her head, and tried to go to sleep.

"Now talk about crap! Haddaway, Ruby? Really? Anyway, Weissy just likes classical," Yang said.

"At the moment, I prefer silence," Weiss grumbled.

"How about you, Blake? I never did ask what you like."

Blake tried to adjust her legs to something resembling comfortable. "Jazz," she said. "I love jazz. Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, George Benson, Herbie Hancock…that's what I like. I like classic rock too, but jazz...my dad and mom just love it."

"Hey, nothing wrong with that," Yang told her. She batted the Eagles CD against her hand. The HMMWV was silent for a moment. "'I'm standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see…'" Yang mused.

"'It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me,'" Jinxy added.

Yang slapped her thigh. "Yeah! What's the next line?"

"'C'mon, baaaby…'" Weiss stretched out the line, in perfect pitch, her eyes still closed. "'Don't say maaaybe…I've got to know if your sweet love is gonna save me.'"

"'We may lose, we may win…'" Ruby supplied the next line.

"'But we will never be here again,'" Blake finished with a smile.

"'So open up, I'm climbing in…so take it eaaaasy!'" Yang sang, off-key, then went into an air guitar solo. Everyone laughed, and suddenly the world didn't seem such a dark place after all.

Despite everything, the road trip passed easily enough, even if Jinxy insisted on not stopping until they were clear of the known radiation zone, by which time Blake was hopelessly cramped up and Ruby, who had helped herself to the coffee, felt like her back teeth were floating. Finally they reached Olesnica, where Jinxy pulled into a gas station. After all of them, even Little, had used the restroom, Jinxy handed over four of the gold coins to the owner, then began refueling the HMMWV. He nodded to Ruby. "Get some fresh air. We should be out of the fallout pattern now. At least that's what Antoni says." He thumbed at the attendant, who was wiping down one of the pumps. Here there was actually a little traffic, a car or truck passing by, either headed south towards Nysa or north towards Wroclaw.

"Jinxy," Ruby replied, leaning against the HMMWV, "thank you."

He didn't answer at first, then gave her a smile. "You're welcome, Miss Rose. I have to say it's been awhile since I've been on a road trip." He laughed and pointed. Yang came out of the gas station wearing a new pair of sunglasses, and dropped a gold coin into Antoni's unbelieving hands. She looked ridiculous, like a farmgirl who had suddenly discovered a mall. Blake followed, tittering, while Weiss just rolled her eyes. There weren't many supplies in the gas station's little shop, but Weiss had traded a bottle of wine and a pie for a six-pack of cold sodas. "He can't have very much gas left," Ruby observed.

Jinxy nodded. "No, Antoni's going to be out by the end of the week. Oh, he's got some stashed in the garage, I bet. He'll take that gold we just gave him and probably light out for the border then. He'll just have to abandon this place. Damn shame. He's been pumping gas here as long as I remember."

Ruby went around to the Faunus. "Jinxy, how long have you been in Poland?"

Once more, he was silent for a bit. "Well, Miss Rose, I guess it's been about ten years now. Rads or no rads, I intend on staying awhile longer. These people are gonna survive this somehow, and they're gonna need people like me running supplies back and forth."

"You're a deserter, aren't you?"

Jinxy grinned at her. "Ayuh. Came over here in 1992, right after we got rid of Saddam down in the sandbox. Decided I wanted to be rich rather than dead, so I just walked off post. Came over to Poland and started helping out a local guy as his helper; he gave me a place over his shop. Then I got my own truck, and next thing you know, here I am. Oh, I had to lay low when the 1st Armored came through here, but hell, no one notices you when you look like you know what you're doing." He finished fueling, pulled out the nozzle, and replaced it on the pump. "You going to turn me in?"

"Nope," Ruby said, and grinned back. The road trip, the company of friends, and the fresh air was like a drug, and she was feeling better already.

"Glad to hear it." He leaned against the HMMWV himself. "Hell, Miss Rose…you know what I want? I want to be rich. My family was poor as hell. I was adopted—I told you that. Well, my papa was a lobsterman, taking pots, quahogs and steamers, and squaretails now and then. But we never had enough money to make ends meet—and he used to tell me that it was actually better than it had been after the war, when Maine got cut off by the New York and Boston Dead Zones, and we had to rely on the Canucks to feed us! Anyhow, I joined the Army just to get the hell out of there." His voice had risen. "Dammit, Miss Rose, I just want to be rich and have my own place, a cunning wife, and a kid or two. Here or back in Maine. I hate being poor! You being an officer and all, you don't know—" Jinxy caught himself, stared at the ground for a moment, then rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, hell, Miss Rose, I'm sorry. Carrying on like that. I just…well, it don't matter."

"Do you think you'll make enough off of us to get all that?" Ruby asked.

Jinxy sighed. "I imagine so."

"Then we'll make sure you get it." Ruby put out a hand. "My dad told me North Carolina wasn't all that much fun after the war either."

"No place was, Miss Rose." He shook the hand. Jinxy seemed to hesitate, then dropped his voice. "Miss Rose…look. Wroclaw is a mess, ayuh, but I hear there might be a few planes still getting people out. You folks are NATO pilots. They'd give you priority." He shrugged. "I don't know. I imagine their radios might even still work. They could get you out." He pointed up the road. "Wroclaw's just up there apiece. It wouldn't be that hard. Well, maybe."

Ruby thought about it for a minute, then slowly shook her head. If there were any aircraft left evacuating people from Poland, then space would be at a premium. Four—five, Ruby corrected herself; they couldn't leave Little now—seats to them would be five seats a refugee family couldn't use. There was also the idea of being sealed aboard a crowded transport with GRIMM still in the area; it made Ruby's blood run cold. "No," she said at length, "we've got a good plan, let's do it. Besides, you won't get rich if we go to Wroclaw."

Jinxy looked at his boots. "No…I suppose not."

There was a checkpoint coming into Nysa, manned by Polish Army troops, but seeing Jinxy's HMMWV and the uniforms worn by Jinxy, Ruby and Weiss, they waved them through. "Jinxy?" Weiss asked. "What about just contacting the Polish Army? They likely have a radio."

"From what I heard, they're cut off here," Jinxy answered. "But I have to meet with a few of them anyway this afternoon, so I'll ask. That would make our job a lot easier."

"If you're worried about the money…" Weiss began.

"I'm not worried about the money." Jinxy was strangely subdued.

They drove into the town itself, which Ruby was surprised to see was not much bigger than Patch back in North Carolina. There were refugee camps outside of it, but they were well-organized from what they could see. They crossed the river and came to the older part of town. "Nysa's an old fortress town," Jinxy explained. "Dates all the way back to the 10th Century, I guess."

Blake gave a low whistle. "I believe it. These buildings are old….beautiful, though."

"The older part of town is actually the old fortress. This place has been besieged about a dozen times. Here we go." He stopped in front of a hotel.

Yang got out of the HMMWV. "Whoa. How did you score this place, Jinxy? The hotels got to be full here!"

"Like I said, I know a guy. You do business here long enough, you get special privileges. This one's on the house—well, until we get to Pardubice."

Weiss got out and stretched. "Trust me, Jinxy. The Schnee Company will be more than happy to reimburse you, with interest."

Ruby crawled out behind Weiss, and shook Little awake. Aside from calls of nature, the mouse Faunus had dozed the whole way. Ruby was starting to wonder if Little was narcoleptic. "Oh, are we here?" She hopped out of the HMMWV and marveled at the old town. "Wow! I've heard of Nysa, but I've never been here."

"Aren't most Polish towns like this? Old towns in the center?" Ruby remembered Poznan, and Robyn's election celebration that had turned into a massacre. It felt like it had been years ago, rather than just a few weeks.

"Yeah, but this is really neat." Little looked up at the hotel. "Wow…"

Yang grinned at her. "Is it better than Miami?"

Little scoffed. "Nope." She paused. "Not as hot, though. Or as loud."

"That's the South—hot, humid and loud." Yang nudged Weiss. "Hey, they'll probably give us leave when we get back." Weiss smiled; Yang's optimism was worse than Ruby's. "You and Blake didn't get a chance to visit last time…y'know, after Beacon. We should totally go to Dad's cabin. He makes the best cornbread and chili around."

"Mmm!" Little commented.

"Let's get out of Poland first," Ruby said, somewhat sharply. They gave her sort of an odd look, then all of them followed Jinxy into the hotel. It wasn't the fanciest of places, but it was fancier than a bunker below Wioska Myszy's school. The five girls would have to share a room; Jinxy got his own, which was just as well. "I need to go meet with some folks to get my stuff sold off," he told them. "There's a nice café and restaurant around the corner. We'll eat dinner there tonight—my treat. I'll introduce you to a lady friend of mine."

"Oh ho." Yang wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Jinxy laughed. "Monika's not like that. Anyway, see you in a few." He stopped at the door. "If you want to go exploring, you should be pretty safe. Nysa's well patrolled. Just be back here at five." He pointed to a clock; it was 3:30. "I'll find out about that radio, too." Jinxy closed the door behind him.

Yang collapsed onto the bed. "Oh, man, that feels good!" She sat up. "Hmm, two beds and a couch. We're going to have to double up."

Blake went into the bathroom and switched on the faucet. "Warm water. I know what I'm doing before dinner." The showers in the bunker had been cold.

Weiss tested the couch. "I'll take the couch. Little can bunk with Ruby. I assume you and Yang will bunk together, Blake?" She was fighting a smile.

Blake leaned out of the bathroom. "I'm fine with that, as long as Yang doesn't cop a feel again."

"What?" Ruby exclaimed.

"It was an accident!" Yang insisted. "Gad, I just climbed into her bunk because I was having a bad dream—"

Weiss clasped her hands. "Awww, poor Yang!"

"Oh, shut up, Weiss. That was the same morning you got up and you were buck-ass naked. You would've flown commando that day if it wasn't for Blake saying something." Yang turned her attention on Ruby, giving her a lewd smile. "And we all know that innocent, sweet little Ruby was having her ashes hauled by Oscar that morning." She fell back onto the bed, splayed out. "Ye gods, I can't believe my flat-chested sister is getting laid more than I am."

Little looked thoroughly confused. She edged towads the door. "I think I'm gonna go exploring."

Ruby gave her sister a look that would melt a glacier. "I think I'm going to join you." The two went out the door. Before she closed it, Ruby stuck her head back in. "And you're damn right I was getting my ashes hauled!"

They went down the stairs and out the front. "Ruby," Little asked with painful naivete, "what's it mean, 'getting your ashes hauled'? I don't get it."

"Er…tell you when you're older."

Ruby and Little spent the next hour pleasantly looking around Nysa. If Poland was now no man's land between NATO and Salem, with a radiation belt only fifty miles north of town, the residents didn't show it. The shops were open, there were a good number of passerby, and it was a pleasant late afternoon. Good day for flying, Ruby thought, and wished she was up among the scattered clouds. The ground never felt quite like home. Only the considerably higher prices than the norm and a larger than normal amount of soldiers on the streets betrayed there was a war on. Some people noticed Ruby's flight suit, but no one stopped her, and two Polish soldiers saluted as they went past, noticing the rank on her shoulders. Ruby returned the salute, despite not having a hat on, and wondered if she should cut off the rank tabs. Then she decided there was no point in doing so; they would be back behind NATO lines in a day or two. Then the fun really begins, she thought morosely.

Little cheered her up. She chattered on about growing up in Poland and her uncle in Miami, and introduced Ruby to potato pancakes, with powdered sugar on top. Washed down with coffee, Ruby found that she could easily have wolfed down twice what she had, though it had taken most of Little's Polish money to pay for them—Ruby didn't want to start throwing around gold coins, and she was low on them anyway. They stopped by the medieval Scales House in the center of town, and Ruby saw where the old structure had been scarred by Napoleonic bullets and rebuilt after World War II. Nysa was no stranger to war.

Little and Ruby had started to head back when Little nudged Ruby. "Hey, isn't that Jinxy over there?"

Ruby turned. It was certainly the raccoon Faunus, sitting at a table with four men in uniforms, but a cut that she didn't recognize. Probably Czech border troops, she thought. The soldiers had AK-47s, but that weapon was so ubiquitous that it meant nothing.

"Ruby?" Little was moving her head back and forth. "I think those soldiers are speaking Russian."

"What?"

"I mean, maybe. I know what Polish sounds like, of course, and Czech…and this doesn't sound like either." Little tugged on her huge ears, her Faunus trait. "I have pretty good hearing, you know."

Ruby noticed that there was a hedge between where the five men sat by the café and the street, where they could get closer without being seen. "C'mon, Little. Don't say anything, don't make any sudden moves." Jinxy's back was to her, and she prayed none of the Russians—if that was who they were—turned in their direction. They would if Ruby and Little ran, so they walked as nonchalantly as they could until reaching the hedge. There were strollers on this side as well, so the two walked at a regular pace until they were close enough, then stopped, as if to admire the old basilica on the other side of the street.

There was a spate of rapid-fire Russian, and then one of the voices switched to English. "You are sure about this?"

"I've spent the last few days with her, all right?" Jinxy sounded angry. "Silver eyes. Plain as day."

More Russian. "That is good," the voice said. "The Czarina is very interested in silver eyed people."

"Then there's a bonus? On top of what she pays for NATO pilots?" Jinxy asked.

"Of course. I don't know how much—we will have to radio that in—but from what I understand, it is considerable. At least $50,000 American dollars, possibly more."

"Great. I can definitely use the money."

Little turned to Ruby, her eyes wide and mouth open. Ruby held up a hand; the other was on the Beretta, stuck in a pocket of her flight suit. She was seized with a sudden impulse to leap over the hedge and kill all of them, especially Jinxy. All the horror and terror she had felt fighting the Hound and worrying over the fate of Summer Rose came back, and it filled her with rage. She stopped herself, but only just. "So…how do we do this?" the Russian asked.

"Tonight. I'm taking them to dinner with Monika Bylinkar."

"The Herbalist?"

"Ayuh. She'll spike their drinks with kerasine. It'll take effect after about an hour. Once they're out, we load them nice and quiet into my Hummer, I drive them to the drop point, they're all yours. And I want my money on delivery."

"Naturally."

"I'm serious," Jinxy growled. "Monika is my friend. If you kill me, then she has instructions to blow your whole network in Slovakia. I don't think your Czarina is going to like that."

"No, of course not," the Russian answered. "You're not the first mercenary the Czarina has worked with, and we'd rather not draw attention. We are very far from our own lines, and much closer to NATO's—and the Polish Army would kill us if they knew we were Russians. Right now they think we're the Red Prince's men."

"All right. Glad to hear it." There was a pause. "Look…you're not going to kill them, right? Or sell them into slavery? I've heard about what goes on in the lawless zones."

"Relax, Mr. Peddler," the Russian assured him. "They won't be killed—the Czarina wants pilots alive, after all—and she does not traffic in slavery. She'd shoot us if she thought we were doing that."

"Ayuh. One last thing," Jinxy said. "You hear about someone named…" There was a shuffle of paper. "Marrow Amin? He's another pilot."

"No, that name isn't familiar." There was some conversation in Russian. "No, we don't have him. It's possible another patrol captured him, but we were not told any other pilots had been captured."

"Ah well. Doesn't matter." They heard chairs being drawn back. "Look, I have to head over to the Basilica to get some other business concluded. Why don't you pull up in front of the hotel about six o'clock?"

"There will be no trouble?"

"None at all," Jinxy said, and they could hear the smile in his voice. "Once that kerasine gets into their system, they get very, um, pliable. I could tell those ladies that I'm taking them to Disney World and they'd believe it."

"Excellent. A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Peddler."

Ruby motioned Little away; they had heard enough. They reached the hedge's end, and Ruby glanced back. Jinxy was headed in the opposite direction, and the four Russians had their backs to them, settling the bill. It only took five minutes to get to the hotel.

AUTHOR'S SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES: Ruby Flight and Jinxy's taste in music is pretty much my playlist. You young'uns reading this might not recognize those groups, but something tells me Yang would be into something like KMFDM, while Ruby definitely would be a Haddaway fan. (It's been mentioned before in ORW that Tai is a diehard Rush fan, and Yang likes Gorillaz.) And while I am not a huge Eagles fan, I have indeed stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona...and it is a fine sight to see.

Nysa is a real city in southern Poland. Thank goodness for Google Earth. As for kerasine, no, I didn't misspell "kerosene." Kerasine is from the manga of Gunsmith Cats. If you've read that, you know just how much danger Ruby Flight is now in. If not, not to worry-I will explain all in future chapters. Or at least the Herbalist will...