Part Thirty-One

The shadow landed a blow before either of them could find their bearings. It was aiming for Marie's head, hoping to drop the biggest threat first, but one didn't survive as long as Marie without some serious reflexes. The blow which would have swiftly rendered her unconscious had it hit full on barely glanced and she spun into a ready position, flexing her wrists to spring her small knives into her hands.

The shadow tumbled into the faint light from the gas lamps and Marie recognized the characteristic braids. Zora. No longer playing the role of the sweet waitress her face had hardened and her whole demeanor reeked of something completely different than before.

"You here to kill me or are you just the distraction" Marie taunted, hoping that Sparky would get the hint.

Zora only smiled before she exploded into action. Close combat was not one of Marie's preferred methods of combat but she could hold her own. Zora was in a completely different league. It took all of Marie's skill to keep on her feet and she knew her luck would run out soon.

Had Marie been alone in the alley Zora would a won, no doubt about it, but she wasn't, something the waitress-turned-thug/assassin quickly noticed when and elbow crashed into her back. She scrambled to get to her feet and narrowly avoided a slash of Marie's blades.

"What took you so long?" Marie asked as she dodged and spun.

"Damn skirt got stuck... you were fine though." Miss Sarah said as she blocked two blows from Zora and finished with her own counter-blow forcing the other woman back.

"Fine! I was fighting for my life!"

"... and since you are still alive and mostly unhurt you did fine. Your posture is still sloppy though so we should work on that." Sarah deflected a few more increasingly desperate blows before she got her chance. A misstep from the braided girl left an opening Sarah swiftly took advantage of and a solid elbow blow propelled the would-be assassin into the stone wall of the building, effectively knocking her unconscious.

After catching her breath Marie bent to check on Zora. "Out cold. She won't be moving in a while. Enough time for us to get the heck away from here."

Miss Sarah finished refastening the skirt she had gotten rid of for the fight."Sparky's already on the move. He bolted as soon as the fight started."

"Great. We'll find him later... now. Let's bring this one to a suitably scary place so we can interrogate her."

"We can try, but I recognize that fighting style and if she's what I think she is we won't get a word out of her."

"Well. We won't know until we get poking. Argyle has a cellar, right?"