Dudo rolled down the window. The police officer shone the flashlight into the front seat and asked a question in Shotarian, which Shae assumed to be a demand for identification. She said to Dudo, “Hand him your driver’s license and the car rental paperwork.” The policeman swung the flashlight over to Shae’s voice coming from the back seat, playing the bright beam over the two women dressed for the theater—Shae in a short white coat and black skirt, Wen in a maroon dress and silk shawl.
“We are visitors. We don’t speak Shotarian,” Shae said, making use of a few phrases she knew in the language. The officer studied Dudo’s Kekonese driver’s license and the papers from the car rental company. He returned them and stepped back, giving an order in Shotarian and motioning for Dudo to step out of the car.
“What the fuck,” Dudo muttered.
Wen said, worriedly, “Maybe he wants to search the car for drugs.”
“Or weapons. Or jade. Both of which we have,” Tako said.
In Janloon, a police officer that stopped a car full of Green Bones would apologize and send them on their way. If there was some issue with behavior, he would bring it up with the Horn. Cops didn’t police the clans. The clans policed the clans. Dudo had never in his life obeyed a city police officer and didn’t move.
Any Green Bone of No Peak who traveled on official business for the clan was required by the Weather Man’s office to sit through an information session explaining what to do in case of a run-in with local law enforcement. Don’t hurt or kill anyone if you can possibly avoid it, cooperate fully, go to jail if you have to. The clan’s lawyers will take care of you and the clan will resupply you with any jade confiscated by foreign police and reward you further for your trouble—if you follow the rules. But Wen’s bodyguards were not going to adhere to those edicts if it meant being handcuffed or separated from the person they had sworn to the Pillar to protect with their lives. This unfortunate patrolman would be dead before such a thing happened.
Shae Perceived the police officer’s escalating apprehension as he put his hand on his belt, near his pistol. “Do as he says,” she ordered Dudo. “Get out of the car.”
“Kauljen—”
The police officer repeated his order in Shotarian, more insistently. His hand moved to the grip of his sidearm, his eyes darting between the occupants of the vehicle. Dudo swore under his breath, opened the door and stepped out. The officer motioned for him to turn around. Dudo did so, placing his hands on the side of the SUV. Cars passing them on the road cast pulses of light across the scene. Briskly, the cop patted Dudo down, finding the handgun in his waistband and the talon knife in his shoulder holster and removing them both with a few declarative words in Shotarian that none of them understood. Dudo didn’t move but Shae could Perceive the Fist’s jade aura swelling. What if the officer tried to take his jade as well? Shae’s mind raced, trying to think of a way to prevent the situation from escalating.
Tako’s shoulders jerked in alarm. “Something’s not—”
Three black cars roared up and surrounded the SUV. Before the vehicles had even stopped, masked men were spilling out of all the doors. The police officer dropped flat to the ground on his stomach, arms shielding his head, and with a flash of dreadful understanding, Shae understood that it had all been a setup. The sweating cop, if he was a cop at all, had kept them in place, distracted their sense of Perception.
Even taken by surprise, Dudo and Tako reacted with remarkable speed. Dudo hurled a powerful Deflection at the men jumping out of the nearest car, knocking several of them to the asphalt. He dropped and scrabbled for his weapons—the gun and knife the cop had taken from him—but before he could rise, three assailants set upon him with the startling speed and force that came only from having jade Strength. Tako leapt out of the passenger side, firing over the hood of the SUV.
Barukan. Shae flung open the rear door, drawing her talon knife. Wen let out a scream as a man’s silhouette filled the frame of the vehicle’s opening, reaching toward them. Shae slashed at the masked face. When the man jerked back, she kicked him in the chest with her bare foot and followed it up with a Deflection that sent him stumbling backward.
Tako yanked open the rear door on the other side, pulling Wen out of the vehicle and shielding her with his body as he continued to fire around the SUV at the attackers. One of his shots dropped a man. Another two were Deflected wide, punching into the sides of the black cars. “Kauljen,” Tako shouted.