FIC: [Haven] CLOCKWORK, Chapter 2 (Audrey/Duke/Nathan, R)

[roseveare]

2.

Audrey was shivering from the harsh breeze and temperature of their altitude as Duke showed her below deck. He displayed once again more sensitivity than she'd expected to find in some privateer airship captain as he said, "Wait here a moment, I need to fetch something," and set her at the door of a cabin full of possessions that was clearly his cabin. Searching in a closet, he pulled out a large coat, long and warm and dark, styled for a woman about her own size. "Someone... left this here, once."

"Someone with good taste." She nodded relieved thanks as she pulled it on. It was soft next to her skin, the quality fine. She'd woken with nothing. Even the clothes she was wearing now were stolen. Those she'd first been clad in had been so outlandish compared with what everyone else was wearing that she'd looked for alternative dress fast. It seemed clear that wherever she had come from, it was nothing like Heppa.

"I'll show you to your room, now," Duke said, eyes light and letting her know with a mischievous gleam that if she had any other thoughts about where she wanted to sleep, he was open to it.

"Yes, I'd like to get settled in my room."

His devilish charm and the fact he'd already helped her more than anyone certainly worked in his favour, and there was a familiarity in his presence that drew her -- but she'd only just met him, they had some kind of robot policeman chained above deck, and she had been running for days and absolutely did need the time alone to come down from that.

His smile quirked an extra bit and he made an elaborate flourish at a door down the corridor. She set her hand to the handle and pushed inside. It was small, bare, basic, and the safety and privacy it offered almost moved her to tears of relief.

"Thank you," she said heavily, and squeezed his arm.

"The shower and lavatory are there." He pointed to another door. "There's a small boiler to stoke up, but I still can't promise the water will exactly be ‘hot'. I'll leave you to it, and go make sure Tin Man is secure. And actually really-really-definitely check the boat for damage, this time."

He turned and left, rubbing his arm where Detective Nathan Wuornos had applied his crushing grip.

Audrey had never heard of such a thing as automated policemen before. No, she was certain she didn't belong on Heppa, where everything seemed so wondrous and alien, and even frightening. Airships? She was sure she'd had somewhat of a notion of what one was, but giant gasbags hanging above the city by the thousand? The wooden vessel of Duke's Cape Rouge, styled like a pirate galleon strung elegantly beneath vast, sculpted airbags? The rest, in all their shapes and sizes, from tiny ones to great passenger carriers? She might have known what these vessels were, but they were not a familiar sight.

There was a mirror affixed to the wall above a set of drawers at the end of her narrow bunk. That, and a shelf by the bed, and a row of hooks on the wall in place of any kind of closet. The strip of space next to the bed was about the same size as the bed, and that was all there was of a cabin.

Audrey winced at the sight of her hair in the mirror. She ran her fingers through it, tugging the knots clear, until she hit the spot at her hairline that caused a spike of pain. She shifted the blonde strands until she could study the livid red and black marks of the healing wound on her scalp.

This had done the damage. This was why she couldn't remember who she was, where she ought to be. She glared it it angrily, willing the memories to come back to her, but to no avail.

She was too restless to shower, though she no doubt needed it, and the knowledge she'd have to get back into the same grubby clothes was a deterrent. Perhaps, she thought, Duke had other things he'd be willing to lend if she asked. She did not mind borrowing his clothes if they were the only ones available and he was willing, until hers could be cleaned and dried.

She would ask. She was also uncertain of leaving him with the clockwork policeman for any length of time. It struck her as a recipe for trouble.

It figured that now she had the space and opportunity to relax, she was too keyed up to do so. She made herself take ten minutes, used the facilities and splashed water on her face, then went back above deck clutching her new coat around herself against the winds and cold. Sure enough, she heard Duke arguing with the police automaton before she drew within sight of them, over by the steering controls.

"--stay put, not go wandering around, not screw about with my damn boat!"

"I didn't touch anything," the wooden-faced cop retorted. "I was only looking. We are too far from Heppa and too high up for me to attempt any takeover of a vessel which I don't understand."

"Like I'm going to believe--!"

"I've never been on an airship before. I was curious." The flat gaze slid past Duke's shoulder to mark Audrey's approach. "Miss Parker."

Something about that struck a chord deep inside her and she found herself saying, "Parker. Just Parker."

Duke swung around and saw her, bitterness on his lips: "Oh, well at least you're not getting on first name terms with this thing!"

"Don't be like that," she said.

Duke grabbed the cuffs, dragging on them for a moment before he changed his mind -- the detective was kind of an immovable object. "All right, then, you watch him. I'm going to do my checks."

His shoulders were stiff and angry as he turned, heading toward the end of the ship that had been nearest the docking tower when they tore away from Heppa. "He really doesn't like robot cops," Audrey observed.

"I'm not a robot." The words were soft but definite, and she and the mechanical man regarded each other. His eyes were strange. Very, very blue, and she knew that they weren't real, but all the same, if she caught them at the right angle, they did not look like coloured glass and a collection of lenses, they looked human.

Audrey took a deep breath. "Do you know why they're chasing me?"

His reply was a blank look. He did those exceptionally well. She supposed she could not expect that he would readily give out such information. She would have to try and make some kind of connection with him if she hoped to get anywhere. She still had a fold of her dress that was full of gears and other metal parts and pieces, as well as his other possessions. She drew him to the deck with her as she sank to her knees, spilling the gears from her dress, but taking care to direct them onto the centre of a wide, flat board away from the risk of losing them down the cracks.

"Let me try to fix your arm."

He nodded, shifting on his knees until he was balanced.

He could not roll his torn sleeve up out of the way himself, because of the cuffs, so she did it for him, pulling it through where the fabric was trapped beneath the rings and curling it back. The burnished metal of his arm underneath was finely worked, aping human shape and movement if not appearance. The broken panel on his forearm rocked loosely.

"There are tools under the wheel," he said. "I saw them when I was exploring."

"Wait here." She put a hand on his shoulder as she rose to get them. She knew that his form was meant to mimic a human form, and there was too much bite in the air for living warmth to carry through to the outer layer of anyone's clothing, so why did something still scream out to her that this was a real shoulder beneath her palm?

She came back and perched opposite him again with a few small screwdrivers and pliers. She unscrewed the loose panel and removed it, so it would not get in the way of the delicate work. The detective frowned at the broken part of himself as she lay it on the deck, and she supposed it was a larger chunk of his body than any of the rest, and... quite disturbing, if she thought about it that way.　

"How do I do this?" she asked, finding herself looking at a small pile of gears and a host of empty slots with little idea at all what should go where.

The automaton swivelled his head, studying arm and pieces. "Most of it looks dislodged, more than broken. It seems likely that I can regain more functionality if they're replaced. I can guide you." He twisted his cuffed hands slowly, using the undamaged one to point to a loose gear, and then twist around to point to a place in the arm cavity where something was obviously missing. "Here."

"I'm glad that at least you know what you're doing," she said. "I suppose you have to do, um, maintenance."

He didn't say anything to that, but a few moments later he stiffened oddly, with an audible clank in fact, as she set the first gear in place, her fingers brushing against metal.

"What is it?" Audrey asked. "Did I hurt you?"

"Nothing, and no. I do not have nerve receptors. But for a moment, I just..." His mechanical brows shifted in a strange expression of confusion. "For a moment it seemed like that... tingled."

She could see that the reaction continued as she worked, but he held himself as still as he could. She tried to prod him with more questions, but her focus and her queries kept getting caught back up in her intricate task. They were nearly finished by the time Duke came back.

"I really don't see any point in that," he grumbled. "We don't want him more functional, it'll just let him cause more problems."

"He's cuffed. It can't do any harm to repair the damage we did," Audrey said. "If he was human we'd patch him up. You would, wouldn't you?" She stared at him for the answer.

"He's not bleeding out. This isn't going to get infected and kill him if it's left."

"I," the automaton said stiffly, "am a fully registered citizen and possess all the documentation to prove myself human--" He glared at Duke, who'd pressed his lips together then leaned over and pinged his forefinger off the detective's head, making a decidedly non-human sound. "Legally and psychologically," he finished, annoyed, and then his jaw and neck jumped a little as if he swallowed with unease, as if he could do that, and his eyes rolled to unhappily follow the forward motion of the airship. "On Heppa."

"On Heppa," Duke repeated, with a nod and a gently mocking smile. "On Callion, I'm betting you're property. In fact, we can probably make a tidy profit selling your metal ass."

"Duke!" Audrey exclaimed, outraged, as the clockwork detective's jolt of alarm foiled her efforts to put the last gear back in place. "We're not doing that. Besides, won't Heppa want their policeman back?"

"Well, that's a question," Duke said, "since Heppa traditionally isn't very good at the concept of failure."

"I haven't failed yet. On the contrary, I am the only one of my department still positioned to succeed."

That declaration made Duke uneasy, which probably wasn't for the best. Audrey ignored their glares passing over her head and determined to finish screwing the panel back into place over the mostly-mended arm. The rest of the gears were too broken and mangled to put back, but perhaps they could find some replacements and fix the arm properly later. The panel had been snapped off at the point where a second screw fixed in, and although she could return the screw and the panel, it would only hold so long as the arm remained still. Any movement at all jerked it free of the half-held screw and set it swinging loose again.

She poked at it with her finger and sighed. "Guys, we need to do something about this. Any ideas?"

"A solvent--" the detective started.

"Bandages," said Duke, brusquely, as if he resented having to make the suggestion. "Easier to undo if you get the parts to finish the job later." They both looked at him and he grunted.

Then he went to dig in the chest under the wheel and tossed a first aid kit at them. "Knock yourselves out."

"Thank you," the police automaton said, although he still said it somewhat sarcastically. It was hard to tell, but Audrey was fairly sure that was him doing sarcasm.

"I'm going to call you Nathan," she decided, "if that's okay."

"Of course, Miss-- Parker." He caught and corrected himself, watching her wind white strips of bandaging around his arm to hold the panel in place. "Thank you for your care. Although I am afraid I cannot tell you anything regarding the warrant for your arrest. 'Fugitive' and strict instructions to apprehend are the limits of my information."

She sighed and rolled her head. "I couldn't have left you walking around spilling gears everywhere anyway." She taped off the bandage, still a little frustrated by the declaration. "How's the hand?"

Nathan lay both hands side by side, clinking as he stretched the limits of his cuffs, and moved the fingers in sync. The right was fractionally slower than the left, and the little finger wasn't moving at all. "Much improved," he told her.

Duke was clattering about by the starboard nacelle. Audrey got up from her knees, stamping the numbness out of her legs. She looked down to find Nathan scraping the remaining broken pieces up from the deck and pouring them into his own pocket, but she let him. There seemed nothing there with which he could do any harm, and if he could do harm with a screw or a fragment of metal, he had too many other of those readily available for it to be worth confiscating these.

He climbed to his feet awkwardly, working around his cuffed hands. And it was funny how it seemed to her that the way he moved was exactly like a person; too much like a person; that the level of skill involved in creating him artificially didn't gel with the rest of the technology she had seen here.

Then again, magic existed in this world... somewhere. Although she had the impression it wasn't the kind of thing often seen by the man on the street.

Her head ached dully. A low whirr seemed to gather as she shut her eyes. She blinked them open again. "We're flying in the wind, now?" she asked, calling the question over to the sullen Captain Crocker. "No engines?"

"Yes, why?" Duke asked.

"Because I could have sworn... for a moment... that I heard engines."

"I can hear them, too," Nathan said, with a hard, content note to his voice. "They're coming closer."

"Damn it!" Duke rushed to the port side and started hauling tarpaulins off a well-covered bundle by the stubby wing nacelle. Audrey had taken it for a part of the engine, but apparently that was the point of the tarp. When that cover was dragged clear, and a few boxes hauled away that were stacked underneath to hide the shape, it was revealed as a shabby, rudimentary mounted gun.

"Holy shit," said Audrey, "this thing's got firepower?"

"More likely to blow us up than anything else," Nathan said, his confident manner switching to concerned. "Mr Crocker -- Duke -- if those engine sounds are Heppa's air security, you can not fire on them."

"Oh, what do you know, you tin ground-cop?" Duke growled. "I've fired on them before."

"That's an admission of--"

"Shut up!" Audrey snapped, and raced to the matching tarpaulin by the starboard nacelle. Two shadows of smaller craft were resolving out of the cloud cover. They hadn't zeroed in on them yet, but they were searching, and it could only be a matter of moments. After the race to be prepared for the attack, though, she was frozen in her tracks when the nearest craft loomed close enough for her to see what it actually was.

Biplane, flitted through her thoughts. Early 20th century. Impossible...

It was a memory that didn't belong here, but she had no time to examine it. "Can we switch all the engines on and outrun--?"

"Against another airship, we could outrun all day, but not planes," Duke cut her off. "Our only chance is to fight, and that's a slim enough chance!"

"I'm not going to let you shoot down those planes," Nathan said, making a grab for Duke's improvised gun turret with his cuffed hands.

Duke broke an empty crate over his head, and while he was still staggered, looped around his chest one of the truncated mooring ropes that was already fixed near the side safety rail, pinning his arms down at the elbows. Nathan got up again instantly as Duke scooted backwards to the gun platform, but made a noise of dismay at the discovered he couldn't take more than a few steps and couldn't get within range of Duke and the guns. Nor could he raise his cuffed hands high enough to tackle the rope. He did instantly drop to the deck and start trying to squeeze out of it, letting the tether fixed onto the rail drag it by fractions higher up his shoulders, gaining a bit more mobility with his arms.

Duke fired a few shots. Audrey discovered she hadn't a clue how to load the weapon and ran back to Duke's side of the boat to observe him.

The planes were far faster and more agile than the airship, and as she was running to Duke, one of them came in between the Cape Rouge's gondola and the airbags, somehow avoiding all of the joining ropes in its strafing run. "Duke!" Audrey screamed, even as he spun backward, away from the gun mount. His lunge picked her up with him and threw them both down among the only shelter available, the storage boxes by the steering.

His weight flattened her and she could hear her heart frantically beating as shots rattled around them. She could just see Nathan's stunned face as he held himself quite still, pinned down amid the barrage.

Then the plane had passed over their heads. "Up! Up!" Duke panted. "Are you hit?" He was brushing his hands over himself and looking down as if he couldn't quite believe he'd escaped unscathed.

"No," she said, "and neither are you. Nathan, are you hit?" She ran to the gun, the one Duke had hopefully loaded already, hoping to stop another run like that. Duke got the idea and went to the other.

The clockwork detective had given up trying to slip the rope and had hunched next to the rail instead, seeking shelter from the shots and making himself a smaller target. "No. Somehow, I'm not. They were trying to kill us! Heppa security has no reason to--"

"Were they Heppa security?" Duke asked. The second plane was coming in. Audrey tried to line the gun up. Marksmanship she could do. Like shooting clay pigeons, she thought, dizzily, not sure what clay pigeons were. But this weapon was clumsy and antiquated.

"I don't know!" Nathan yelled back to Duke. "Rigid aircraft like that are still experimental in Heppa's security forces! It would be science division, not a working -- I didn't see any identification!"

They were unmarked. Audrey was getting an alarmingly good look.

She fired. The second plane was too close, still coming, and her shots ran out too soon. Their cover of before seemed a long way away.

"Down here!" yelled Nathan, gesturing as best he could with his pinned arms.

She threw herself his way instead. He dug his fingers into her dress, yanking her close, and bent his body over her to cover the angle of the shots. She heard at least one metallic ping as the plane passed overhead, but didn't feel any bullets hit.

"Why don't they shoot the airbags?" Audrey asked, as they straightened up. Nathan was moving okay. She worked her trembling fingers on the knots Duke had tied, certain he was not going to fight them over this now.

"I don't know," Nathan said. "If they want you dead, which seems a certainty--"

Duke was back at the second gun mount and shooting the tail of the retreating plane, but there was already an extra smoke trail emanating from it, and it was losing height. He turned back to them both. "The airbags have compartments. We'd lose altitude before we crashed. They don't want to down us or risk losing us in the cloud layer below. They just want us dead." He glared at Nathan. "Good enough for you now, Tin Man?"

"I thought they were Heppa's," Nathan said crossly. "Who would have no reason to use deadly force. Get me out of these cuffs and I can help. All our lives are in danger now."

"Uh, no," Duke said. "She already let you off your leash. You can help with the cuffs on. You can man one of those just like you are." He pointed to a gun mount. "And you're a lot more bullet proof than either of us."

"That isn't fair," Audrey said, and remembered something, her stomach turning over nastily. "Hey... Nathan. You were hit. Where were you hit?" She patted down his back, and found a bullet hole in his pants over his thigh, but there was only a small dent in the metal there. "You're okay," she told him, getting up from her knees.

"Listen." Duke held up a finger. "The first plane's coming back around."

Nathan went wordlessly to the indicated gun.

"Can you man this?" Duke asked Audrey, pointing at the other. "I'm going to try to drop us, get us lost in the cloud cover. The clouds are thick below. If I can release enough gas quickly... Maybe we'll manage to slip them."

"Reload it for me," Audrey said.

"Good job before, by the way," he told her, as he started to do that.

She watched him. She thought she could repeat the action on her own, if she needed to. Then he was dashing away from her and she was listening for the sounds of a plane she couldn't see. She risked a glance at Nathan, but he was listening too, his eyes tracking the clouds. She didn't speak to him, but she felt unaccountably close to him, working in tandem like this, like the partnership between them fit.

It was also true that she did not feel like she'd met Duke Crocker only today, in a seedy bar, in a transaction that didn't exactly inspire trust.

They waited, ready, on-edge, but the humm of the remaining biplane faded and then disappeared. Duke stepped back from the controls. There had been no sudden drop to indicate the proposed release of air. Instead, he breathed out a long sigh of his own and said, "They must have gone after their buddy. We lucked out."

Audrey felt tentative and twitchy about abandoning her post at the gun, and had the urge to keep a paranoid check of the skies. Looking across to Nathan as he lingered on the other side, she could see he felt the same. His body was stiff and straight, cuffed hands hanging awkwardly, showing her the back of his head as his gaze raked the cloud.

Duke said, "I'm thinking we'll get some more altitude instead, now we've got time on our side. It should make it harder for them to find us again. But we might have to huddle below deck and light up the furnace against the cold. I don't have enough fuel on board to do that for long." He eyed Nathan. "If only I had someone who didn't feel the cold who I could trust to keep watch up here."

"I'd turn you over to Heppa security in a second," Nathan said.

"Kind of what I was getting at--"

"--but what I won't do is let unmarked planes and unknown forces unlawfully kill either of you, or all of us. Go below. Get warm. I'll watch for hostile planes."

"Oh my God, just trust him," Audrey said, doffing Duke on the shoulder with the palm of her hand. "He fought with us. He saved my life. Heppa aren't going to come after us in planes, and can't catch up with us in airships. Right?"

"Good luck to them even finding us, now, to be honest." Duke looked over the side, and Audrey took a peep, too. The ground wasn't even visible below. "It'll be dark soon, to boot." He frowned at Nathan. "I'll feel any changes if you start screwing with the controls, okay?"

Nathan wordlessly held out his cuffed hands.

"Not a chance," Duke said.

Audrey fingered the keys in her pocket, but decided not to push it.

They left the automaton wedged in the seat next to the steering, one leg curled up, hands rested between his knees, in the fading light, and descended the steep, rickety wooden steps below. Duke led Audrey into the small galley. "We're not going to Callion anymore. That going to be a problem?"

Audrey didn't know Callion from anywhere else, and had picked it only because it was the closest destination on the map that was out of Heppa. "No, but where are we going?"

"Might make Breinor, maybe Alstan. I'm gonna settle for where the wind takes us first. With a bit of luck, they'll still search for us on route to Callion."

"It doesn't matter where I go," Audrey said. "All I'm doing is running. And you know these places, so pick whichever you think is best."

He nodded. "Don't tell the cop about the change of destination."

She sighed. "He did save my life."

"That's his job. I told you, these guys? By the numbers and then some. Don't let the real hair and painted face and human ID fool you. He's a machine, he'll act like a machine. You can bond with him all you want, and he'll still drag you back to Heppa security soon as he has the chance."

"I'm not sure that's true." Audrey shivered, and hugged her arms around herself, pulling the thick coat closer.

"You're freezing. Shit, I'm freezing. We need to get the stove on. I'll cook something, too."

That hadn't been why she'd shivered, but she nodded gratefully. Duke heated a cup of cocoa and pressed it into her cold hands, then started preparing something that smelled like food. Real food. After living off the fast food joints on Heppa's skyport towers, where it was easy to hide, Audrey's stomach growled at the provocation and she moaned along with it.

They'd eaten and she was drowsing in her seat, tired and warm and no longer feeling hollow from hunger, when heavy steps sounded, descending into the ship, and a few moments later Nathan pushed his head around the door. His clothes were damp and his hair and face sparkled with moisture droplets in the lamplight. The porthole windows onto the sky outside were darkened now, and Audrey hadn't noticed the rain.

"What is it?" Duke asked abrasively. "We didn't save any for you."

Nathan eyed the scraped-empty plates. "That would be pointless."

"Oil's in the lockbox with everything else."

The clockwork cop cleared his throat awkwardly, an artificial gesture if ever there was one. "It's a... request along those lines. I need someone to wind my mechanism."

"Now there's a proposition," Duke said, nodding cheekily to Audrey where she perched at the table.

"No, I -- I -- I--" the machine actually stammered. If he could have, he would surely have blushed. "While my wrists are affixed together like this, I cannot reach to wind the ports in my neck, or my arms. Without the former, I will very shortly lose consciousness..." He hesitated before adding, with a special glare of criticism just for Duke, "shut down."

"Sounds good to me." Duke toasted him with his second cup of cocoa.

Nathan stubbornly held out his wrists. "One problem or the other needs to be solved." He looked at Audrey. "Please."

"You're kidding me?" Duke rolled his eyes as she got up. "Don't unfasten his arms. And for that matter, don't wind his arms. We've a lot less to be nervous about if he can't try any tricks."

"I don't agree," Audrey said, "but we can both agree that we're not going to take any chances with his brain." She frowned at Duke until he gave a weary nod.

She moved behind the mechanical man, uncertain what she was looking for. "What do I do?"

"Here." Awkwardly twisting his hands around the restricting chain, the automaton peeled from the inside of his wrist a small but sturdy key, with a butterfly-shaped handle tapering down to an asymmetrically shaped point. His fingers seemed clumsier than earlier, less mobile. She wasn't sure if that was down to the water and chill outside, or his resources running low. "There is a slot midway between my shoulders. Turn the key clockwise until it stops." He added, "There are similar slots above the joints of my elbows." It was obvious that he would not be able to reach those, at present.

"Don't push it," Duke said, though he'd straightened up and was watching with a keen curiosity.

Fingering the elegant lines of the key in her hand, Audrey carefully pulled back the starched shirt collar and found a small hole that matched the end of the key. It slid into place with a click, and Nathan's head jerked a fraction.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked, concerned.

"No," he replied, but there was an oddness in his tone.

The key made a grinding noise as she slowly turned it until it stopped and would turn no further. She took it out and gently rearranged his collar.

"If you don't wind up my arms," he pointed out, "I will no longer be able to maintain the rest of my limbs, to wind the ports in my legs and lower back, that I can still reach."

"Good," Duke said. "Go sit up there again, by the klaxon, and if you don't move, you'll conserve what motion you have left in case anything happens."

Nathan gave him a sullen look. "I don't see why I should help you at all."

"Well, they came damn near to filling you full of bullets, too."

"Stop being petty." Audrey cast a dubious look between the two of them, then made for the automaton's right arm, the damaged one. "We'll compromise." There was a slit in the sleeve tailored to look like a pocket, but it folded back to reveal another port, for ease of access. She put the key in and wound again. The automaton nodded gratefully as she finished and handed the key back. She wanted to wind the other arm, but Duke already looked pissed, and she owed him a lot, too.

"How many places do you have to wind?" she asked. "And why not just one big key for everything?"

"I am a complex mechanism," he responded, "and the motors for my limbs, body and brain functions are linked but powered independently by six major torsion springs. I can replicate almost any human movement this way. Were all the movement to come from the same source, the overall mechanism would have to be simplified."

"Any human movement?" Duke picked up. He waggled a finger downward. "You got a special slot that winds that up, too?"

The automaton looked very annoyed, but did nothing that suggested an answer one way or the other, although Audrey supposed there would be no reason to make police automata with any sort of sexual function... or they would have to be being made for other reasons entirely. "I shall return to my post above deck," he said, and left.

Audrey was tired, and her head ached, and this rivalry was bullshit. "You shouldn't treat him like that," she said baldly to Duke. "Maybe he's not what you think."

His return expression was dour and unapologetic. "Well, excuse me, but I spent half my life at the mercy of his kind, growing up in Heppa. It was hard enough to work around the cops and all their regulations before they started introducing those perfect unbendable drones in their masses."

"I really don't think that's true for this guy. Have you ever seen one pissed off before? Because he was furious, and hurt," she added, reinforcing the point.

"No," Duke said slowly. "No, I've not seen that. And considering how hard I've tried to piss them off, maybe that is a bit surprising."