I stood up and looked at her face. She still had a faint red mark from my earlier slap. She flinched when I held up the knife but didn't move away. I ...eached out and grabbed the first button on her blouse. She gave a small cry when I cut it off but didn't say a word. She stayed silent as I worked my way down cutting each button off her favorite blouse. I turned and picked up her purse. I opened it up and pulled out a tube of lipstick which I then opened. "There's not enough lipstick on you. I poked one of the attackers in the face with my sword an' that wuz enough ta break the attack. The three remaining Injuns ran off. After I wuz shore that the coast was clear, I jumped down from the wagon an' retrieved my bolts. One of the bolts had been damaged, so I was gonna have ta move the point ta another shaft, but that was a minor thing. I was down ta 11 bolts, so I wuz gonna have ta stop long enough ta make more bolts. I could see that I needed as many bolts as I could make.We checked. I only broke down a little bit in going over the details. She offered me a glass of water. I happily took this proffered drink. She let me go on as I related the details which seemed so fresh after 43 years in hiding.She knew where I had been a year ago. She knew we had covered many topics. Some hard. Some silly. But never as dark as this.We both were able to conclude this was no dream. Not some sudden variation of the same.I was able to show actual fear at the vision I had seen. The poor,. Sometimes whole weeks went by without a special request. Sometimes, they came in clusters. With her combat skills, grace under extreme pressure, and gift for languages, Rada had gone into many situations over the last two years where the Service simply couldn’t account for all the variables that might be dangerous to her or the client. She was proud that, in all that time, no client had ever been killed or maimed, she’d never suffered worse than a sprained wrist, and she’d only had to pull her.