Word traveled through the ranks that Miss Read had a visitor, that she didn't have an appointment and was asking for the boss. Then someone recognized her as Faye Valentine, the legendary bounty hunter who had previously visited the Bonny Corporation under mysterious circumstances. The whispers rippled through Club Babylon, until they came to the ear of Madam Lakshmi, who called Marguerite.

Twenty-four seconds later, Anne Bonny was hanging up her cell phone. She frowned; Club Babylon was far, and Mary was even farther. No time to drive there, considering that Faye wouldn't have come if it wasn't important. She walked back into her office, double-locked the door, armed the laser-guided self-defense mechanisms, and sat down in her leather desk chair.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was looking out at the main bar of Club Babylon. She looked down, focused, saw the long legs and uniform of the waitress she had been intending to possess. Good, she'd ended up in the right place. The red-headed waitress looked to her right and spotted Faye at the bar, just as Madam Lakshmi had reported.

Anne/the waitress walked over to Faye, and gave her a brilliant smile. "Faye Valentine, how good it is to see you. Indeed, I'll never get tired of looking at you." She extended a hand, and gave Faye a courteous kiss on the back of the hand. "My fiancee Mary can't make it. But I would be more than happy to help you with whatever small problem you may be facing." That was something she was pretty sure about; no one came knocking unless they needed something. A sad fact of the business world.

Anne was indeed surprised by this news. She had been aware that Lucy was technically an escaped slave of Travanix', but he had let her live so far; she had come to take this for granted. (The Corporation had offered to buy her freedom from Travanix when they'd hired her; it wasn't so simple as that, but the gifts they'd offered seemed to sweeten the situation.) And besides Travanix, or one of his slaves, no one had a reason to kill the girl.

Anne dismissed her idle speculation about the 'murder' and focused on the important issue. "That is highly inconvenient, Miss Valentine... Lucy is scheduled as a regular performer here. I really don't know what we'd do without her. So the Corporation is going to bring her back." She smiled at Faye in what she hoped was a comforting way. "You do have some DNA of hers, don't you? A lock of hair? A drop of blood, perhaps? We can make you a new Lucy."

She had an afterthought and added, "Depending on what our Madame Necromancer can do, Lucy might suffer from some amnesia, or disorientation. You would be willing to help her through this difficult time, I'm sure? Of course... you would do anything to heal her, wouldn't you? Such is love."

Anne crossed her arms and leaned back. "Now tell me about this murder. Tell me everything you know about why and how Lucy died." While she spoke, Anne's eyes were boring into Faye's, establishing a connection from one mind to the other. She was surprised to find that the legendary bounty hunter did not seem to have much resistance to mental penetration.

She wouldn't take Faye's word on it. Distressed humans often told unreliable versions, even if the truth was faithfully embedded in their sensory memories. As Faye told the story, Anne would see it in her mind, just as it happened. She'd decide then whether anyone needed to be punished for the untimely death of Miss Lucy. After all, if it had been Travanix, it could be argued that he had a right to the life he'd taken. "Tell me all about it," Anne repeated, and opened her mind to listen.

"What a horrible ordeal you have gone through," said Anne. She was trying to sound sympathetic, but only came off as polite; she wasn't great at expressing a softer side. "And for Lucy too, of course." A jab at the truth; a quick suggestion to Faye that Lucy wasn't dead for good. An important foundation for the half-truths to follow.

"First, let me just suggest that you leave Lord Travanix to me. You're going to have your hands full taking care of Lucy, so why don't you leave the justice to the criminals this time?" She smiled confidently. "I'll deal with Travanix, I promise you that. I'll see that he gets what's coming to him." This was all true, she noted to herself. She had often dealt with Travanix, and would continue to deal with him; in a sense, they worked in the same industry. She respected the man enough to make sure he always got what was coming to him, just as he was good about sending checks to the bank whenever she sent him human cargo.

And justice would indeed be served, in her eyes: Lord Travanix had destroyed his own property, after the property in question had pounced on him and tried to attack him. It wasn't so much a killing in self defense on Travanix' part as an act of suicide on Lucy's part. And even if it had been murder, that was Travanix' right. Justice would be done by seeing this matter dropped without further violence.

"Now listen to me very carefully, Miss Valentine," Anne said, in what she hoped was a gentle manner. "You know where the Morgan Laboratories are, don't you?" She scribbled a few lines of instruction on the back of one of Brandon Lee Morgan's business cards: "Pls resurrect this cat-girl, Thanks."

"Show this card to the people at the front desk," she instructed, giving it to Faye. "You'll be taken to Brandon. Give him the DNA sample - hair, fur, blood, whatever you have. He'll clone us a clean copy of Lucy." And one, she noted to herself, which Travanix did not have prior claim upon. "Then our Staff Necromancer will find Lucy's soul, her ghost, and convince it to return to its body." If, she added to herself, Lucy's soul could be found; she planned to resurrect Lucy regardless, on the theory that a cute cat-girl was useful even if it wasn't the same girl Faye had loved.

"Do you understand?" She smiled at Faye warmly. "Lucy will live again. It will be like this incident with Travanix never happened. It's true; we've done this all before. We can bring her back." Well, she added to herself, we can certainly bring back something. And hopefully, whatever that new Lucy was like, she was still a good singer. They really did need her around the Club.

Why tell Faye any of these complications? It was possible that they could actually locate Lucy's soul, and perform a perfect resurrection that fully restored her to Faye. It was highly unlikely. But it could happen. Who was Anne to take away Faye's hope? At least that's how she explained it to herself, as she gave Faye an encouraging smile of congratulations.