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Dec
22
That’s enough!
I mentally slapped myself. Hard.
I’d been going around like a lost puppy ever since I’d heard the news. Well, now here I was, looking down at the dead face of my friend. If she could, Lilly would have told me to snap out of it. So it was time to cut the grief and get effective.
I reached down and stroked the cold dead cheek. A cheek I’d stroked so often in life.
“I’m going to get the bastard who did this, Lilly. That’s a promise.”
I was aware of Alverez and Liu watching me with a sort of confused, uncertain concern.
I looked up. ”Don’t worry yourselves,” I said, “The only one who needs to worry is the one who did this.”
They exchanged their signature glance. I liked these two.
I turned back to the body, grabbed the sheet and pulled it down to Lilly’s waist. Beneath her left breast was an ugly gaping wound.
I grabbed a big magnifying glass on a stand and stared at the wound through it. The wound was about five inches across and the edges were jagged as if the blade had been serrated on both sides.
I put the glass aside and put one arm under Lilly’s body. I rolled her over and sure enough there were two small exit wounds close together showing that the blade had entered below the breast, gone right through the heart and exited at the level of the shoulder blades on the left side.
I rolled her back, pulled the sheet over her face, pushed the drawer back in and turned to my expectant audience.
“When I saw the pictures of the wound I wondered if it was just a chance resemblance,” I had there attention.
I walked over to a white board that was took up a large section of the wall to the left of the drawers. I took the black marker and began to drawer.
It was a sword, but the blade was not straight, it undulated like a snake and the edges were serrated. At the end it split into two points, like a serpent’s tongue.
I stepped back and looked at my little art project. A bit crude, but it captured the essence.
“The blade is not five inches across,” I said, “but the undulations cause the resulting wound to be wider. It’s not the most effective sword in the world, but it’s main purpose was for intimidation rather than for actual fighting.”
“What the hell kind of sword is that?” demanded Liu.
With great melodrama I flung out my arm and flourished my hand at my drawing. “That is the sword of the personal body guard of the Old Man of the Mountain.”
Hearing no gasps of astonishment I frowned. ”You do know who the Old Man of the Mountain was?”
Three blank expressions answered that one.
It was time for an explanation.
« The Body | The Sword of the Assassins »