Cortin gave him a final blessing, then resumed her gloves, put away her stole, and wrote a note that this one required burial in holy ground. She pinned it to his shirt, then rose and looked around.
The Service horses were still there, obedient to their dropped reins, but only two of the others' had stayed—not enough to transport seven or eight bodies. "Check them for ID, then get them off the road and cover them. We can inform the residence's security people, and they can send someone out. We'll take the horses along, though; they're royal property now, and they need looked after."
"Right." Odeon took charge, helping pull bodies off the road and search them, while Cortin collected the horses and mounted. None of them expected terrorists to be carrying identification, so there was no disappointment when they didn't find any. Half an hour after the attack, they were ready to go again, but as Cortin was taking a final look at the blanket-covered bodies, she got an idea, reached back into her saddlebag for one of her spare gloves, then tossed it on one of the bodies. "Whoever finds these plaguers won't know what that means until later," she said, "but Team Azrael has claimed its first victory, and it won't be our last. They'll learn."
The repentant Brother hadn't told her much, Cortin thought as they rode, but the little he had said was disturbing. Shannon, so afraid of her—why?—that he'd put her off limits. That didn't make sense; logically, he should be doing his utmost to kill her. Instead, it was Piety—and what did that 'in more ways than one' mean?—at the top of their wipe list. Which also made no sense.
"Unless Shannon knows something we don't," Odeon said, riding up beside her.
"You reading minds now?"
"Hardly—but what else would you be thinking about, after what he said?"
"True." Cortin gave him a sidelong glance. "So what possible knowledge would have that effect? Put an Inquisitor off limits, and target a medic? The only thing she and I have in common is that we were both his victims."
"Surviving female victims," Odeon said. "Both associated with Enforcement, and now both, not just one, religious." He frowned. "If Shannon's who—or what—Sis thinks, and Tony won't dispute, God won't let him operate unopposed for long. Though it may seem like forever to us, depending on when he started. If it's recently, there won't be a whole lot we can accomplish, though of course we'll have to try to fight him—but if it's near the end of his allotted free time, it means the Protector's about to appear. With him afraid of you and targeting Sis, I'd say the latter's more likely, and with you two playing important parts. Maybe his heralds, maybe part of the staff the prophecies say he may have if Shayan's strong enough to make him need one, there's not enough information to say—but whichever, if I'm right, you and she are the two most important people in the Systems right now."