Mary Anne Bell

At first glance, room M16 looks like a well-furnished hotel room, but not terribly personalized. Sharp eyes, however, might spot the postcard wedged in the frame of the mirror, or the rifle under the bed.

"Here we are," she says. "Home sweet home."

After checking the directions on a scrap of paper, Mary Anne stops outside room 19 and knocks.

"Oy! Little birds tell me it's your birthday--you in there?

I brought tequila..."

The door opens onto a dimly lit bar. Two men in suits sit at a table by the wall, speaking in low voices; they don't look up when Mary Anne and Ramon walk in.

Four men at the pool table in the back do look up, then go back to their game. Their rolled up sleeves show off jailhouse tattoos--tattoos that mean murderers, time served, rank in their organization. Just because they aren't staring openly doesn't mean they aren't paying attention. The fact that no one makes a fuss just yet over Ramon's machine gun is telling.

A waitress in a short skirt goes by with a tray, delivering drinks to the suits by the wall. Mary Anne heads for the bar, taking a seat that's a few stools over from the next man. She beckons the bartender over.

"Vodka for me and my friend," she says in flawless Russian. "And keep them coming. We're out on the town tonight."

The bartender shakes his head. "You picked a hell of place to come," he says, but pours the drinks all the same then wanders down to the customer at the other end of the bar.

Ask me something! Anything!





I even probably answer honestly.

Six months down, three to go.

Given that most of her normal activities (ex. war, drinking, picking fights) are off-limits, Mary Anne has set up shop in one of the smaller rooms of the castle. It looks like some sort of entertaining-guests-with-tea-and-gossip room; she's made it a reading-the-classics-to-her-child room.

"Sun Tzu said: the good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy..."

They say motherhood changes you. Some things never change.

As soon as they get home, Mary Anne heads into the kitchen. Dish soap gets out blood better. She's got lather up to her elbows before she says anything to Ruin.

"You want to tell me what that was all about?"