"Okay, Mak, your turn."

"Gotcha." She readied herself and looked at the man in the puffy suit. "Hiya," she said to him.

She thought she heard him say a m.u.f.fled, "Hiya" back at her through his mask.

"Mind if I attack you now?" she asked politely.

Was that a growl I just heard?

The man ran at her with his arms outstretched but as soon as he got close enough, she blocked him and forced his arms to one side, striking him in the face with the palm of her hand. The padding of his mask felt soft under her fingers. She followed it up with a knee to the groin for good measure, but before she had got far with that standard manoeuvre he was turning and grabbing at her throat tight with both hands. "Oh, f.u.c.k you then..." she said as she tucked her chin down and put her hands together, as if in prayer, and attempted to shove her fingers underneath his...

d.a.m.n that's hurting me...

"No, Mak," Jaqui Reeves was yelling at her. "Won't work. Come on..." Mak could barely hear for the adrenalin pumping in her head.

I'm rusty...d.a.m.n, what do I do again?

By now it was really starting to hurt her throat. She considered putting a hand up in defeat, but no.

Makedde screamed, "Nooooooooooo!" as she grabbed the man's wrists and fell backwards, pulling him with her. His resistance softened her fall, and the moment her b.u.t.t hit the mat she raised up her feet and kicked him hard in the face, like a kangaroo does when it rests back on its tail. He went sailing backwards and she jumped to her feet, panting.

"Okay, that's it for now," Jaqui said, holding her hands up.

The masked man stopped dead in his tracks and pulled his padded head off. Jason was looking a little sweaty under that thing. He shook his head to orient himself.

"You're a little rusty there, Mak," Jaqui scolded.

"Thanks for pointing that out," Mak replied. "You could have let me keep going, you know. I was just starting to have fun."

One of the girls in the cla.s.s raised an eyebrow and let out a caustic chuckle at her comment.

Mak turned to her. "I learned this neat trick where you can pull a person's skeleton out through their nose. Wanna see?"

The girl wasn't sure whether to laugh or run. She smiled timidly and scurried away. Jaqui shook her head.

When Mak had showered and changed into her favourite pair of Bettina Liano jeans and a black turtleneck pullover, she waited outside, leaning against the brickwork of the old church building that Jaqui Reeves used for her cla.s.ses. The s.p.a.ce also catered to acting cla.s.ses, jazz dance and the odd spot of children's ballet.

Makedde had attended the first two lectures at the conference that morning before going to the self-defence cla.s.s. She was only waiting a few minutes before Jaqui came out to join her. "Caper's?"

"Caper's," Mak agreed.

Caper's Natural Food Market and cafe was only a few blocks away, and the two women walked there briskly, stomachs growling.

They had first met when Mak attended one of Jaqui's cla.s.ses as a teenager, and had been friends ever since. Jaqui Reeves was born in Vancouver and she was a true west-coast girl-tall and buff, with platinum-blonde hair to her waist. She tended to wear clothes that showed off her impressive, bulging biceps, and in particular, the intricate Celtic dogs tattoo that encircled one of them. She had a few others on her back, and another one on her ankle that meant peace. But she was not trained for a peaceful world. She kept a folding knife in her bra at all times, affectionately called her "b.o.o.by Trap", and she was a kick-a.s.s self-defence instructor. Hard-core. Like Mak, Jaqui carried pepper spray wherever she went, and she had a certain double standard when it came to Canada's tight gun laws. She wanted the laws to be tight, she didn't want her country to end up with America's gun problems, but that didn't stop her from owning an illegal weapon or two.

When Makedde had returned from her disastrous "incident" in Sydney, Jaqui got her an illegal Sat.u.r.day Night Special, and promised her free self-defence cla.s.ses until the end of time.

"It's good to see you again," Jaqui said.

"You too. Sorry I've been so slack, there's been a lot going on lately."

"I want to-" Jaqui began, but paused as she swerved around an old lady with a walker. They glanced back to make sure the woman was okay. She was. "I want to hear all about it. No editing."

"I never edit with you, Jaqui. That's the beauty of our friendship."

They'd almost reached Caper's. It was a popular hang-out, frequented by everyone from university students to hippies, young trendies and seasoned locals. It was fast-service, not fast-food, vegetarian and organic, and always popular in health-conscious Vancouver.

"I don't think Jennifer will be coming back," Jaqui said, speaking of the girl who had chuckled at Makedde.

Mak shrugged. "I didn't mean it like that, honest."

"Yeah, right. How did you like the cla.s.s?"

They moved up to the gla.s.s display of the deli section and simultaneously began to salivate.

"It was great, Jax. You're teaching some new stuff."

"Oh, look at that!" Jaqui pointed at an enormous puffed-up apple pie. It looked like it was a foot high and overflowing off the tin pie sheet. "Save room for dessert. We're going halfers," she said eagerly.

"Next time."

"Don't tell me you're dieting? You're looking a little thin."

"No, no, nothing like that. My appet.i.te just isn't up to snuff."

Jaqui eyed her suspiciously but said nothing.

They slowly moved up the line, and when they reached the counter Mak ordered the vegetarian focaccia with goat's cheese, and Jaqui ordered the spicy stir-fry with Chinese vegetables and cashew nuts. They filled a couple of paper cups with purified water and found seats.

"I love this place. I haven't been here since...since we were last here."

"You haven't taken a cla.s.s for like, five months. I was so offended," Jaqui said, pouting.

"Oh, forgive me. I know I've been all emails lately. Bad friend. Sorry."

"You were in fairly decent form today, so I forgive you. Have you been practising somewhere?"

Makedde laughed. "Oh, no, only on my pillow," she said. "I haven't done a cla.s.s with anyone else since the time you set me up with Hanna in Australia."

"Aren't you supposed to be practising other things on your pillow?" she asked, implying the obvious.

Their meals arrived and they both dug in. When she came up for air, Jaqui picked up the conversation right where she had left off.

"So. Come on. I'm waiting. Tell me about this new guy."

Mak gasped. "Oh G.o.d, have I mentioned him to you already?"

"Yeeeeeeeeees. He sounds quite gorgeous."

She vaguely remembered the email she had sent the day she accepted Roy's date. What did I write, exactly?

"Well, he is that. He's nice, too. Pretty down-to-earth. A security guard. He is very tall-"

"Of course he's tall, you Amazon," Jaqui cut in. "Now tell me he's a total s.e.x G.o.d and he sends you to the moon every time."

"Jaqui-"

"Does he give good-"

"Jaqui!" Mak reached over and covered her friend's mouth with her hand. A couple of patrons had looked up. Reluctantly, she took her hand away again and brought her index finger to her lips. "Shhhh," she said. "We've only seen each other once. Well, twice if you include the lunch at the conference. I don't really know that much about him yet."

"So you're not-"

"No. We're not."

"And the detective's back in the picture, eh? Is that what's holding you back?"

"No. I told you I barely know this other guy. I just like him, that's all." She paused and shook her head. "I can't believe that Andy's here." She swallowed hard. "It feels...weird. He wants to talk with me about something. I don't know what it's about."

"Oh, I know what it's about," Jaqui said. One-track mind, every time. "Mak, I'm worried about you."

"You're worried about me?"

"Well, for starters I can see you've lost weight, which you didn't need to do. You don't exactly look well-rested either. And by the sounds of it you haven't had s.e.x for like, a year. You're either going to completely forget what it is, or you'll leap on someone and tear them to shreds."

Makedde laughed at the thought. It wasn't an altogether unpleasant idea, with Roy at least.

"I'm just hibernating, that's all. You've never slept with a guy, so what would you know?" she challenged.

"That's because I'm a lesbian, Mak."

"That's beside the point."

"No, it's not. Did you get that thing I sent you?"

"That thing...?" Makedde was momentarily perplexed. "Oh! Oh that."

Jaqui lowered her chin and looked at her. She had the Cheshire cat beat for mischievous looks, hands down.

"You are such a complete hazard, you do know that, don't you?"

Jaqui just grinned. "Have you tried it?"

"You enjoy embarra.s.sing me, don't you?"

"It makes you stronger. Is that why you haven't called me lately? Because I embarra.s.sed you? I bet you didn't even open it. I'm so disappointed..."

"Oh, I opened it alright. I get this plain brown parcel from you, and inside I find a little rainbow-coloured container with the word 'LifeSaver' written on it, and you bet I opened it."

Jaqui was laughing so hard she knocked her water and it splashed across the table.

"There is something very sick about buying a friend a vibrator, Jaqui."

She was cacking herself and couldn't stop.

"Such a hazard you are..."

She stood up and walked to the silverware counter and grabbed a bundle of napkins.

"I'll get it, I'll get it," Jaqui said and started mopping up. When she finished soaking up the liquid she looked directly at Makedde and said, "I just don't want you to forget where your c.l.i.toris is."

"Oh p.i.s.s off, Jaqui. Honestly, could we please stop discussing my c.l.i.toris in the middle of Caper's? Would that be possible? Thank you."

One of the waiters walked by and Mak flashed him a tight-lipped smile.

"Enough about me. How's Inelle?"

Jaqui shook her head. "Oh...Inelle, Inelle. I think she's seriously going to go back to Sweden." Mak gritted her teeth. "Bad subject. Sorry. I didn't know."

"How could you have known? Nah, she's such a sweetheart, but ughhhh..."

"So you-"

"I kicked her out of the apartment last week."

"No!"

"I had to. She was getting so whingie. It was awful. She wanted to go and I think she just couldn't bring herself to do it."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Ya know, another heartbreak, eh? Tough as nails," she said, pounding her chest. Despite her humour, Mak detected the emotion in her friend's voice. "I'll be fine. It's for the best." She sighed and shook her head. "Ah...women are heartbreakers." She looked at her watch. "Hey, I've gotta go soon."

"Okay. Look, I'm sorry for bringing up Inelle. I hope I didn't upset you."

"Not at all."

But Mak felt that she had. She shook her head and looked out the window, and that's when something caught her eye. "Oh my G.o.d..."

"What is it?"

"Look across the street. See that guy there?" She pointed.

"The tall one?"