Josie let her persona go so her watch could recharge. She frowned at Jack as they

made their way upstairs. He was supposed to wait for her instead of raiding the place

himself.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?,” Josie asked.

“I didn’t want to,” said Jack. “What about the girls in the wagon?”

“Elaine and the Ducklings are negotiating with your harem for safe passage for

them,” said Josie. “Some of them don’t have homes. Jane said she would look after

them.”

“That’s really great,” said Jack. He smiled slightly. “Are you ready to do this?”

“I need to let the watch recharge after what I did,” said Josie. “I’m still mad about

this.”

“I’m sure you are,” said Jack. He waved his hand for her to take the other side of the

door. “I will be glad to talk to you about this when it’s over.”

“I know better than that,” said Josie. She took the other side of the door. “You avoid

talking about things you have done.”

“And I will continue to do so until the day I die,” said Jack. “I’ll try to cause a

distraction. She was holding a knife to the Lord’s neck. It’ll be up to you to pull off

the rescue.”

“Zatanna should be useful for this,” said Josie. “One spell should be enough to

separate them.”

“Then we can see if we can find out anything from her about who’s running things

and how to cut them off,” said Jack. “It might let us change the existing nobility into

something useful without causing a civil war.”

“Let’s see what she wants,” said Josie. She looked at her watch as it dinged to let her

know it was ready to conduct business.

Jack knocked on the door. He wanted the Vision to track her moves, but decided he

wanted to be loose in case he needed to call up someone else. Scarlet Witch, or the

Hulk, could make short work of the door if he wanted. He didn’t know if she would

start cutting if he knocked the thing down.

And he didn’t want to get in trouble with the Society for causing someone innocent

to be executed in his own bed by his greedy wife.

“What do you want?,” called Lady Endwright.

Josie summoned her magic. She waved at Jack to keep talking while she got ready.

She didn’t need the door open as soon as she summoned the book of knowledge to

help her target her enemy.

“I want to know about the Montrose,” said Jack. “I’m ready to trade you your freedom

for whatever you can tell me about the organization.”

“Why should I believe you?,” said Lady Endwright.

“I let the spotter in the market go with his daughter when he gave me the alchemist

that makes your potions,” said Jack. “Then I killed him. It’s amazing what chemicals

will do when you set them on fire.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Lady Endwright.

“Which part?,” asked Jack. “The spotter gave me everyone he knew, and I gave

everyone else to my partner. I don’t know if she had time to take her revenge yet, but

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I definitely did kill the alchemist and Donald Corle.”

“You killed Donald?,” said Lady Endwright. “He went up north on some expedition.”

“He was trying to unleash a menace on the city,” said Jack. “He got what he

deserved.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Lady Endwright.

“I have his ring,” said Jack. “Are we going to keep talking through the door, or are

you going to let me open it so we can talk face to face?”

“I want you to leave the hall, and then leave the manor,” said Lady Endwright. “I will

send a message to the rest of my men. We will take the younger Endwright with us

and leave the elder behind. When I am sure I’m safe, we will leave word where the

younger Endwright is so he can be found.”

“I don’t really care about the Endwrights,” said Jack. “My offer still stands. I will let

you walk away with whatever you can carry if you give us details about the Montrose.

You won’t leave that room alive otherwise. Don’t throw everything away when you

can rebuild somewhere else.”

“Open the door,” said Lady Endwright. “I want to see if you are armed.”

Jack turned the knob and pushed the door open. He stood in the frame with his hands

up. He saw the crossbow at the last second and stepped back as the bolt whipped

across the room. He shook his head as the missile sank into the opposite wall.

Josie flung her hand into the room. She nodded as everything froze in place. She

checked her watch and noted the spell was eating a lot of energy. She wrapped Lady

Endwright in a set of manacles after making sure she wasn’t armed with anything

else. She pushed the noble off the bed so she couldn’t try to strangle her husband with

her new manacles.

“So we have number twelve,” said Josie. She gestured at the manacled lady. “What

do we do about her husband?”

“I use Doctor Strange to see what’s wrong with him, and fix him,” said Jack. “Then

we deal with things from there.”

“All right,” said Josie. She let the Zatanna persona slip. “Are we really going to let

her go?”

“She didn’t come outside to talk to us, and shot at me too,” said Jack. “She’s not

getting a pass. I just want to know what she knows about the rest of the captains.

Maybe we can do something to them to make the rest reorganize.”

“Don’t ditch me over that,” said Josie. She frowned at him. “You may have some

powerhouses on your watch, but so do I. And one wrong move, and I am all alone

except for the girls and Elaine. They don’t have the years that we do.”

“I’m capable,” said Jack.

“I know,” said Josie. “But I’m not explaining anything to your mom either.”

“You’re not trapping me with a trade,” said Jack. “Take your prisoner and clear out

while I try to figure out how to deal with Lord Endwright. Then we can see who we

have to deal with next.”

“All right, but your mother is a lot better than mine,” said Josie. She grabbed the set

of chains of the noble and pulled her to her feet. “She would want to know.”

“I’ll send her an invite when Elaine and I figure out if we want to get married or not,”

said Jack. “Maybe even give her the watch so she can be the next champion.”

“I don’t want to hear you say anything like that again,” said Josie. She pulled on her

prisoner. “Let’s go downstairs, and you can tell me what you know.”

“You ruined everything,” said Lady Endwright. She seemed a little dazed by what had

happened.

“Jack does that,” said Josie. “One time, he did something to a friend’s birthday cake

that caused his friend to never talk to him again.”

“It was your cake,” said Jack. “And we talk all the time.”

“Do you hear that?,” said Josie. “That sounds like the voice of a ditching ex-friend.”

“I’m sorry that I chased Dudley back to where his home base was and raided it,” said

Jack. “Now don’t let anyone in here until I am done.”

“Let’s go to the stairs,” said Josie. “I think we can wait there.”

“I will see you pay for this,” said Lady Endwright.

“How?,” said Josie. “I’m tempted to put you through the process so you can see what

you are doing, but I don’t think you’ll learn anything. So when Jack is done, I will

talk to him about how much we can squeeze you to get what we want.”

“What if you can’t get anything?,” said the noble.

“Then we’ll deal with you in a way you won’t like,” said Josie. She already had some

ideas based on the book of knowledge. She wouldn’t want to try them where she

might have to battle new arrivals trying to get their commander out of her hands.

But they wouldn’t take her without a fight since Josie had opened up Bulletgirl. That

tended to trump the normal swordsmen about the same as Jack’s Blade.

She had never thought of herself as a gun bunny, but the persona allowed her to fill

the air with bullets made from her body.

That worked great against people that had never seen a gun.