The Fifth Elephant (Discworld 24)

He ran back into the hall. It was a wreck. As he arrived Angua managed to get a headlock on Wolfgang and ran him into a wooden pillar. He staggered, and she spun and scythed his legs from under him with a kick.

I taught her that, Vimes thought, as her brother landed heavily. Some of that dirty fighting - that"s Ankh-Morpork fighting, that is.

But Wolfgang was up again like a rubber ball and somersaulting over her head. That brought him to the front door. He smashed it open with a blow and leapt out into the street.

And... that was it. A room full of debris,

snowflakes blowing in, and Angua sobbing on the floor.

He picked her up. She was bleeding in a dozen places. That was as much of a diagnosis as Sam Vimes, not used these days to surveying naked young women at close quarters, thought he could decently attempt.

"It"s all right, he"s gone," he said, because he had to say something.

"It"s not all right! He"ll lie low for a while and then he"ll be back! I know him! It won"t matter where we go! You"ve seen him! He"ll just track us down and follow us and then he"ll kill Carrot!"

"Why?"

"Because Carrot"s mine!"

Sybil advanced down the stairs, carrying Vimes"s crossbow.

"Oh, you poor thing," she said. "Come here, let"s find something to cover you up. Sam, isn"t there something you can do?"

Vimes stared at her. Built into Sybil"s expression was the unquestioning assumption that he could do something.

An hour ago he"d been having breakfast. Ten minutes ago he"d been putting on this stupid uniform. In a real room, with his wife. And it had been a real world, with a real future. And suddenly the dark was back, spattered with red rage.

And if he gave in to it he"d lose. That was the beast screaming, inside, and Wolfgang was a better beast. Vimes knew he didn"t have the knack, the mindless, driving nastiness; sooner or later his brain would start operating, and kill him.

Perhaps, said his brain, you start by using me...

"Ye-es," he said. "Yes, I think there is something I can do..."

Fire and silver, thought Vimes. Well, silver"s in pretty short supply in Uberwald.

"You want I should come?" said Detritus, who could pick up signals.

"No, I think... I think I want to make an arrest. I don"t want to start a war. Anyway, you need to wait here in case he doubles back. But you could lend me your penknife."

Vimes found a sheet in one of the broken boxes and tore off a long strip. Then he took his crossbow from his wife.

"You see, now he"s committed a crime in Ankh-Morpork," he said. "That makes him mine."

"Sam, we"re not - "

"You know, everyone kept telling me I wasn"t in Ankh-Morpork so often that I believed it. But this embassy is Ankh-Morpork and, right now," he hefted the bow, "I am the law."

"Sam?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I know that look. Don"t hurt anyone else, will you?"

"Don"t worry, dear. I"m going to be civilized about it."

There was a cluster of dwarfs in the street outside, surrounding one lying on the snow in a pool of blood.

"Which way?" said Vimes, and if they didn"t understand his words they understood the question. Several of them pointed along the street.