“Are you bleeding?” I called to my junior partner.

“No.” He sounded far away.

“Are the goggles all right?”

A short pause. I could tell he was counting to ten- in Greek. I smiled.

He answered a moment later. “Yes.”

“No problems then!” I said.

“Good, I was beginning to think that falling into a concealed pit might be construed as a problem, since it’s not, I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t go all blue boar on me. Did you take out the other sniper?”

“Kind of.”

“What does that mean?”

“We took each other out.”

“What?”

“He came looking for me and I tackled him. While we were fighting, we rolled into the pit currently holding us hostage. He’s alive but unconscious.”

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing.

“Chastity!” he said in reproof.

“Fine, fine. Keep talking to me so I can find you.”

“Ahem. There once was a girl detective, who I thought was quite defective, but she chased criminals- in ways quite original, and never once got us arrested.”

I rolled my eyes. It was going to be one of those nights.