"It was a she, not a he," Joe said.
Nadine's voice changed infinitesimally. "You mean you accepted a gift of this value from a ... woman?"
Joe looked at her and grinned sourly. "I wasn't in much of a position to refuse. The gift was in her will. She was well into her nineties when she died. She was an Upper-Upper, by the way, and the most knowledgeable fracas buff I ever met. She knew the intimate details of every fracas since Tiglath-Pileser and his Assyrians captured Babylon. She could argue for an hour on whether Parmenion or Alexander the Great should have been given the credit for the victory over the Persians at Issus." Joe grunted. "I suppose there should be a moral somewhere about this kindly old lady who was the outstanding fracas buff of them all."
Nadine Haer was in the process of hitting the drop lever with her left hand as they slowed and headed for the entrance to a parking area. She said brittlely, "The moral is that you can have slobs at any level in society. Being an Upper doesn't guarantee anything."
Joe sighed, "Here we go again." He looked about him, scowling. "Which brings to mind. Where are we going? These are governmental buildings, aren't they?"
They were sinking quickly, below street level, now in the power of the auto-parker. Nadine turned off the engine and released the controls. She said, cryptogrammicly, "We are going to see about doing something with your abilities other than shooting at people, or being shot at."
When the car was parked, she led the way to an elevator.
Joe said wryly, "Oh, great. I love mysteries. When do we find out who killed the victim?"
Nadine looked at him from the side of her eyes. "I killed the victim," she said. "Major Mauser, mercenary by trade, is now no more."