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There's a knock on the door.

Hard and rapid.

Followed by "Hello? Hello? Hello?" said in a young girl's voice, probably no older than five. "HELLLOOOO?"

On the other side will be a small red haired girl holding a fat grey kitten. Running up the walk is a man with hair just as red, looking slightly out of breath.

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Jimmy eyes her skeptically. Angela's gonna kick his ass for this one, he just knows it, but the business deal is appealing, and it can't take that long, right?

"Well, that's up to Kale, I think. 'n up to my wife, if she takes you anywhere. But you gotta be good, 'cause you know what happens to little kids who ain't good, right?"

"Aunty Grace says that the monsters under the bed come and take them away to the forest to have their skin peeled off and hung off the branches. I tried to set up a net to capture one but it caught Uncle Rory instead and then mum yelled at me and it wasn't my fault that uncle Rory stepped in the net."

Kale is staring up at the ceiling as she says this.

"That's just ridiculous, kid. Y'know, there ain't any monsters under the bed -- well, there're only a couple, but the ones that are there're pretty nice. But when kids ain't good in Atlantic City, well, the kittens don't wanna play with them anymore. 'n they won't be their little weapons, either. I know you got a special connection with Mayhem over there..."

... who Tommy is now holding upside-down.

"... but if you're real bad, Mayhem'll defect to the enemy side, 'n you know how powerful he is. That'd be bad."

The girl, clutching to Kale's leg, gapes up at Jimmy in disbelief. For a second it looks like she's going to lunge and bite him on the leg but Kale catches her by the collar.

"Nuh-uh!" she says, but isn't certain completely.

Kittens are her great weakness.

Mayhem, meanwhile, is being as pliant as beanie-baby and doesn't seem to be doing anything horrible and vicious.

"Yeah huh," he says, very solemnly, "And that's why if you spend time with Angela and Tommy, you gotta be good. 'Cause the kittens're smart, 'n they know everythin' you do. So are you gonna be good for Angela while we go to our meeting?"

Now he just has to arrange a meeting, but compared to dealing with a terror of a child, that's downright easy.

To add to the bribery factor Kale says, "If you're really good, Nat'll make you some of his strawberry tarts when we get back to Ireland."

She chews her lip. "You promise? Promise on the crows that will eat your eyeballs if you're lying?"

Most things are easier to deal with than Ceilidh.

"Sure do. I wouldn't want any crows to be eatin' my eyeballs, after all. Wouldn't dare risk it."

"Okay." She holds out her hand to Jimmy to shake on it.

And he shakes her hand back, very solemnly. It seems they've reached a deal that works for both of them. This is probably a good thing.

Yes, it is.

"Go back to play with Tommy now, while the two of us finish up business, all right?" He pushes her back towards the kitten and kid.

"Her brother is just as bad. Sold her to the circus last year. He and his mum went to the museum of history today and I've got two dollars on him trying to steal one of the weapons."

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