Part II

	"That's it," Kristin pushed Ratislav to a stop. "Time for a little
explaining, Angel. For starters, who's the little girl? Does grandfather have
a name and exactly what business was he in? Finally why did you have to leave
here in the first place."
	Ratislav smiled as Kristin glared at him. "Well, if it's come to
that."
	"It has, it has." Kristin nodded.
	"All right then. The little girl, Leya O'Muirdagh, happens to be my
daughter. I was in love with a girl and she got pregnant. She decided to have
the baby, which did not go over well with her father. His solution to solve
this problem to have me killed off by a couple of local hit men. They weren't
very good, I heard them break in and grabbed my grandfather's shotgun from
the hall closet."
	"What happened," said Kristin shocked.
	"Let's just say, that only one of those three guys left my house
vertically." He held up his right wrist to reveal a chain of thorns with five
drops of blood. "Everyone who commits a murder gets this tattoo with a
certain number of drops of blood. Two for every person you kill, and one for
every attempted murder."
	"But you said those guys were sent by your daughter's grandfather.
Shouldn't that mean what you did was in self-defense."
	"There was never any proof that they were involved with Leya's
grandfather. So I got a couple of murder one charges knocked down by the fact
that they were breaking and entering. They couldn't come up with anything
that wouldn't piss my grandfather, whose name is Mario Inigo Figueroa by the
way, because he is something of a figure in the community."
	"So what happened?"
	"The only thing the judge could come up with was exile, so that was
what I got. I had to leave in a hurry because the verdict really but a burr
up the old man's ass. Since there wasn't a real plan for this sort of thing I
took the boat we came in on, and sailed to that warehouse in Florida. And
that was how I got my start in the great land of America."
	"What about Leya's mother, where is she?"
	"She died a year after Leya was born, and since I was exiled for five
years I couldn't even go to the funeral. Leya's grandfather wouldn't take
her, so in the end my grandparents took Leya in and it was just last year
before I even saw her."
	"I read some where that when some one has some good luck, some else
has to have some bad luck. It looks like a whole luck of people could live
off of your bad luck. So, what do we do now, go ruin a few lives, maybe blow
something up?"
	Ratislav started walking towards the house and Kristin was quick to
follow. "I was thinking that we would have dinner and then go into town
tomorrow. Things might get shaken up a little with me back so you may want to
carry a gun."
	"A gun, what are you planning to knock somebody off?"
	"No it's the other way around, I think somebody is probably planning
to knock me off. Grandfather says that Leya's grandfather has men watching
this house every day of the week."
	"And just what does that mean?" Ratislav laughed.
	"It means I'm going to pick a fight. I didn't come here for nothing."

	Dinner was a simple affair, just the five of them eating in a small
room off of the kitchen. Conversation witty and wandered from politics to
hygiene and right into a little religion followed by the history of the 
family. Mario finally explained how he had first run guns and food around the
world and then expanded into taking people out of heavy fighting zones for
free or at little cost.
	After Leya was put to bed, the conversation carried on late into the
night as they sat by the warm fire and talked of whatever came to mind.
Finally as if by some unspoken thought, everyone had had enough and decided
to turn in. Mario led Kristin to her bedroom, and then wandered off down the
hall.
	Kristin's bedroom was big enough to park all the frames on the
Normandy in. And then she saw her bed, it was big enough for her, her frames,
and maybe a small communications satellite.
	"This is crazy I asked for a bedroom, this is a room for Goliath. I'd
ask for a new one but I have this crazy feeling they would rather have me
disappear than fix a complaint. The food is great, the company is warm, it
all just seems a little bit creepy."

	The next morning, after breakfast, Ratislav took Kristin into town to
show her around. The first stop they made was to a small bookstore sandwiched
between a Laundromat and family restaurant. It looked so old that the sign
out front was gone and the glass was almost entirely white from pitting and
dust. Inside smelled of old books and was lit by only one overhead light
bulb. When the door opened a set of bells hanging above it rang and a man
came out from behind a shelve and froze.
	"It can't be." Was all the man said in a deep-set voice, he was
middle age but already becoming over-weight. "I though they gave you five
years at least."
	Ratislav raised his right arm to reveal his tattoo. "It is me because
they only gave me five. It would have been ten if I had gotten the third one.
How are you Bruce, I haven't seen you since I got you on the flight down
here. It's good to see you got the shop started."
	Bruce laughed.
	"How could I not get the shop started, your grandfather had all those
books to be cataloged and he hounded me to do it. When it was done he gave me
all the ones he didn't want and the money you gave me and this was small
potatoes. I actually own this building which means I get rent from the
Laundromat, and I live upstairs."
	They all sat down at a small table in the center of the shop and
Bruce served cups of coffee. Kristin grabbed a book nearby and started to
look through it while the two friends talked and she listened.
	"The whole building, not bad," Ratislav said laughing. "Not bad since
I got your ass out on bail from, what was it a breaking and entering charge?"
	"No, no, it was an illegal entry charge. I hacked into some bank or
other and got nailed. It's a good thing I knew you knew there's no
extradition treaty with this country. So you went and joined the fleet,
what's that like?"
	"Well, I'm a lieutenant, now. So I get to give a few orders, and they
let me blow things up on purpose. They don't even mind when I carry a gun all
the time. But enough of that, how are things going on around here? Any body
drop dead recently?"
	"Deaths, nothing recently. Of course, this big nasty guy, something
Hernandez, that brute with the limp opened a rowdy bar across town."
	"Chago Rolon Hernandez?!"
	"Yeah that's it, you know him?"
	"God, I should hope so. I gave him that limp when he broke into my
house."
	Bruce sat back to think about this, so there was several moments the
only sound was that of Kristin turning pages and the sipping of coffee. Bruce
thought about how he had hacked that bank and gotten nailed the next day. He
met Ratislav that night, in jail while the other was waiting for his
attorney. Ratislav had taken a shining to the pudgy hacker and the next day
had gotten him out on bail. That night Bruce found himself standing at the
end of a pier in southern Florida waiting for a plane with only the clothes
on his back, a code phrase for the pilot, and an envelope from Ratislav.
	That envelope had held money for the trip and enough for Bruce to get
by on until he found Ratislav's grandfather. On the island he had quickly
opened the shop after doing the inventory of Mario's books. On the side of
course, Bruce had also straightened out the books from the family business,
so that with months things were better than ever until it finally came time
for Mario to shut down his business entirely. Bruce had no qualms about going
entirely legit and quickly settled in to the normal life of a law-abiding
citizen.
	The next couple of hours went slowly for Kristin, but quicker for
Ratislav as he and Bruce drank and played cards. They were just winding down
when Bruce pulled a machete out from a drawer in his desk and put in on the
table. Ratislav put down his beer and crossed his arms over his chest.
	"What's that for, finally sick of my company? Or do you want all this
money I just won from you?"
	"You have 1,138 dollars there Rat. And I will bet you double of
nothing that this knife cuts this bottle in half." Bruce said this putting
his bottle down on its side on the table in front of him.
	"Double or nothing." Bruce nodded, and Ratislav smiled. "Fine, but
not that bottle, this bottle," as he finished his bottle and replaced the
other bottle with his. "You're out of your mind, Bruce. God bless you!"
	Bruce raised the machete above him and paused in thought. He looked
at the bottle and took a deep breath before bringing the knife down with all
of his strength. The knife hit the bottle at a perfect angle and the bottle
leapt forward off of the table. It moved so fast that Ratislav's lightning
reflexes barely gave him the time to grab the bottle inches before it hit him
in the face.
	"It always worked before, Rat."
	"That's great, Bruce, but you still owe me 1,138 times two. So pay
up."
	"Oh, come on Rat, you know I don't have that kind of money." Bruce
smiled and tried to look innocent which on him failed completely.
	"You own a book store, you can do better."
	"What I meant was I don't have that kind of money on me."
	Kristin and Ratislav spent another couple of minutes in the store and
then got back in his car and drove away. Back in the car, Ratislav showed the
rest of the city until night fell and then he parked in the lot next to a
rowdy bar. The place was called the Mad Horseman, it was a bar so tough not
even the bikers parked the doors. Ratislav was about to open his door and get
out when Kristin stopped him.
	"What do you think you're doing? You go in there and you'll be going
home in a box. No, strike that, you'll go home in lots of little boxes."
	"Chago is in there. I haven't seen the man in years, the least I owe
him is a hello. If something else happens, well, we'll just call that a
stroke of luck."
	"You're crazy aren't you?"
	"Probably," Ratislav said and smiled, as he walked away towards the
door.
	Inside was probably the seediest, nastiest bar he had ever had the
displeasure of seeing the inside and he had seen quite a few. The Horsemen,
as it was called, had oak walls, with stainless steel mesh tables and drains
space across the floor. Quite an ingenious design, all you had to do was get
out a hose and the place could be clean in minutes.
	And then of course there were the customers. Never before had
Ratislav seen a group of people who were of questionable hygiene, evolution
or de-evolution, and possibly family history. Looking around he could even
see people who probably fit into more than one or all of the previous groups.
Walking over to the bar, he leaned and put one foot on the kick rail. He
could tell Kristin was following him before she got to the bar next to him,
because no one stared at him long enough to get an impression.
	"Bartender, give me a beer." The bartender looked him over and then
reached down and grabbed a beer from behind the bar. He put the drink and the
bar and went back to cleaning a shot glass that was already sparkling.
	 Ratislav just leaned against the bar and drank, he had decided to
wait and see what happened without his help. Kristin ordered a beer too, and
she tried to get Ratislav into a conversation.
	"So are you sure this is a good idea? Or should I get going before
the barstools and beer bottles start flying."
	"Oh, it won't get as bad as all that. I just want to talk to Chago,
of course funny things happens when people just try to talk." He paused when
he heard a glass hit the bar behind him. When he turned he saw the bartender
glaring at him and raised one eyebrow in question. "Something wrong?"
	"What you want talk to Chago for?"
	"He and I are old friends. I just want to talk," he said smiling.
Then he put up his right arm and let the sleeve from his duster drop down his
arm. The bartender's eyes opened wide with the realization of just who this
nut case was.
	"You want talk to Chago, go upstairs, you not make trouble here."
Ratislav nodded his head and made for the stairs. As if by magic, a space
opened for Ratislav and closed right behind Kristin. Once or twice some of
the bikers even made a swipe at her rear, making her jump until she realize
they just did it to get a rise out of her.
	At the top of the stairs one man stood guard at a door. Well, he was
a man if that included some whose neck was covered in tattoos and probably
cleared seven feet. Probably could have replaced the door considering he must
have weighed over some three hundred and fifty pounds.
	The gorilla was still just standing there, when Ratislav got even
with his knee and hit him hard enough Kristin heard his knee snap. Ratislav
was surprised when the guard didn't at least scream, he just dropped and slid
down the stairs.
	Ratislav reached up and opened the door, then stepped aside to let
Kristin through.
	"After you, milady. Right this way." Ratislav bowed as Kristin
laughed and then stepped inside. He followed her in and let the door slide
shut.

End Part II