“Who are you really Mr. Book?” The waitress asked.

He smiled, showing well cared for teeth. “I can neither confirm nor deny my identity.”

“So you’re a closed book then?”

He chuckled and ran a hand through his dark hair, with just the slightest hint of gray. “You might say that.”

“Why did you take me with you?”

He fiddled with a couple of switches on the panel. “You killed a man back there.”

“An evil man.”

“Yes but just because he was a very bad man doesn’t change the fact that you shot him in the face in front of a room full of people who know you.”

Pei frowned, she hadn’t ever killed anything other than flies, the reality of her situation came crashing down and pressed on her shoulders. “Why… why did you get me involved?”

Book put the ship on autopilot and unlocked his chair, swiveling it toward her. “I am sorry, but you were the one who decided to liberate the man’s head from his shoulders.” He sighed, “Had you not killed him you could have returned to your job and…”

Pei slapped him. He saw it was coming but did nothing to stop her ineffective attack even if it stung a bit.

“No you Goram assassin! When you decided to kill those bun tyen-shung in my restaurant, you put me in the front row seat. You made me deliver that bomb!”

Book smiled which infuriated her more. “Yes I gave you a front row seat, but you were the one who decided to climb up on stage. I’m sorry this happened to you, but we all chose our paths. I did not make you pull those triggers. You wanted Slim dead, why else would you give him both barrels.”

Pei knew he spoke the truth; she buried her head in her hands and sobbed. Book put a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged him away. “Touch me not!”

The assassin turned back to his console and fiddled with the navigation computer for a while. He wondered what he had been thinking bringing the waitress along, he should have left her to sort out her own problems. She would complicate things. Perhaps he could get rid of her on Persephone.

He pulled out the specime