A bullet punched through Tar’s shoulder and another caught him in the thigh, causing him to stumble and fall. The enraged gang members set upon him with knives. They didn’t have any idea how to use their new jade, but it still made them faster and stronger than they otherwise would be. Tar cut open the ex-con’s face and dropped him to the floor screaming, but was too slow with his Steel and suffered a bad slash to the ribs himself. He was so vicious and terrifying with the talon knife however, snarling like a rabid animal, that the two remaining men hesitated to be the next to attack. That gave Tar the few seconds he needed to throw himself out of the restaurant’s only second-story window, shattering it with his Steeled body.
He crashed into the railing of the fire escape and tumbled over it toward the pavement. Controlling his fall with Lightness, he landed on his feet amid a shower of glass and the screams of bystanders, spraining his ankle in the process. Tar ran limping into the street and covered a block and a half, trailing blood behind him, before two Resville city police cars showed up and he surrendered to them without a fight.
_______
In the hospital, under strict police guard, Tar was allowed a private phone call to contact his family. He used it to call Hilo long distance on an unlisted number that had been known only to the immediate members of the Kaul family back when he was Pillarman and that he was relieved to discover still worked.
“Hilo-jen,” Tar said, still in a lot of pain from his injuries, “I’m in the hospital, but don’t worry, I’ll be okay.” He stopped, overcome with emotion, and didn’t continue. It was the first time the two men had spoken since that terrible night so many years ago.
Hilo said, “Don’t say anything to the cops. We’re sending a lawyer to you. We’ll get you out of there, Tar.”
When he’d learned that Jon Remi was dead, and that the assassin had been none other than his former Pillarman, Hilo had been assailed by the surreal sensation of being shocked and entirely not shocked at the same time. Now he felt as if he’d been thrust into the past to that awful moment when he’d stood under the trees at the back of the Kaul property with a talon knife in his hand and Tar kneeling in front of him, and his hands were shaking on the phone receiver as they had been on the knife. “We’ll push on the legal side, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll figure out something else. Remember, don’t say anything, and don’t worry. Just get better and be patient.” He paused to steady himself. “You did good, Tar.”
After a long moment, Tar said, “It’s good to hear your voice, Hilo-jen.”
“You know I’ve always counted on you more than anyone,” Hilo said. “Call me again in a few days, after you’ve talked to the lawyer. You’ll be okay.”
Tar did not phone the Kaul house again. While still recovering in the hospital, he was questioned by police detectives, and with an interpreter present to help him answer questions, he explained that he was a member of the Snakeheads gang. He said he’d been summoned to the restaurant to be killed because Jon Remi suspected he was a spy for the Kekonese clans, who were opposed to jade being used by criminal groups. Tar claimed to have killed Remi in self-defense. He cooperated fully with the authorities, naming all the known members of the Snakeheads, providing the locations of their hideouts, and giving detailed evidence of the crimes they had been involved in.
_______
Cory Dauk arrived not long thereafter to visit Maik Tar in jail and provide him legal counsel. The lawyer remembered Maik all the way back from Kaul Hilo’s first visit to Espenia. Cory had been only a young law school student back then, and Maik Tar had been the Pillar’s aide, a man every bit as intimidating as Rohn Toro had been. Now Maik was grizzled, tired, and pale from his time in the hospital before he’d been transferred to jail. He’d reacquired jade for a few minutes, expended an enormous amount of energy, and then lost it again upon being taken into custody by the police. All that strain on his mind and body showed in the sunken hollows of his eyes. His injuries hadn’t been life threatening, but the bullet in his leg had chipped the femur and he was likely to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.
Maik asked if he could have a cigarette, and even though Cory didn’t smoke himself, he asked the guards if any of them would spare one for the prisoner. Tar accepted the smoke gratefully, lit up, and sank into the metal chair with a look of contentedness, closing his eyes.
“You shouldn’t have spilled everything you know to the cops before I got here,” Cory said. “We’ve lost a lot of leverage that we could’ve used to bargain.”