Girl Named Sandoz

"If You Were Here"

Around mid-afternoon, the drone of the sewing machines is eclipsed by clamor and screaming. The shop's front window has been shattered and a small horde of criminals is streaming in: gang kids and mob thugs and thieves in ski masks, all whooping like hyenas and smashing up the racks. Some of them are setting off firecrackers, and the hanging wares are burning while Mr. Kowalski cowers pleading being the counter.

They break into the back room and the workers all panic, standing up en masse and crowding toward the back door. The girl beside Walter pushes back from her work table so violently that her stool clatters backwards onto the floor, and she nearly trips in her hurry to escape.

Walter stands his ground, and when two of the invaders rush at him he flips his table to catch them both under the chin. More of them scent blood and start to circle around him, but then the chaos is pierced by a sound like a raptor's cry, and a round shadow descends onto the street outside. Nite Owl leaps out of the owlship, batting away flames and bodies as he runs inside.

Now the looters are penned between them, and Nite Owl meets Walter's eyes across the shop floor. They form a battle plan with just a glance, and Walter nods his assent, and then they fly into motion. Each of them tears into looters left and right, on either side of the room; they work with symmetry, in perfect synchronization.

After the last man hits the floor (it's that knot-top who chipped Walter's tooth last week), Nite Owl swipes one hand across his brow and grins at Walter. "Wow," he says. "I've never seen anyone bring a man down with a bobbin before. That was pretty amazing. What's your name?"

Mr. Kowalski emerges from behind the counter and gasps, "Kovacs! You saved the shop! I can't say how much I-- why don't you take the rest of the day off?"

"Hey, Kovacs. Hey." There's a sharp pain in his arm, and Walter looks around. The girl beside him is poking him, right in the center of his biggest bruise. "You don't get to clock out yet honey. Wake up. We gotta stay late today."