When last we left our intrepid detective, she'd investigated her way into a safehouse for a human trafficking ring, only to meet the occupants. So what does she do? She stretches. She's ready as hell. And she's already taken a name before the first punch is thrown, having called out Varga. And then she kicks their asses. Her snark certainly isn't Vic's, but lord the girl is trying and we love her for it. That she even loses her normally dour disposition in the mask is something I've always loved, like it was something Vic had ingrained in the identity so deeply that she couldn't help but pick it up. On that subject, Rucka said in 52 "As an aside, I discovered, quite by accident, that Renee became funnier (or at least tried to be funnier) once the mask was back on. That came out in the writing, rather than the planning, but it made such perfect sense; the mask is truly a liberating force, yet another secret that Charlie tried to share with Renee." I've always loved when that happens, when you get to know a character so well they write themselves, and I'd be hard pressed to think of a non-OC that Rucka knows better than Renee. Weird detail here, notice she switches to English when she starts snarking? Translation convention always gets interesting with Rucka.
Anyway, she kicks more ass (the skinny one has a nunchaku, but not for long; the dog has a good memory, isn't having any of this) until she gets another name, the name of the place Louisa Soliz was taken. Chandless. Chandless handles shipping, so Renee goes to see Chandless in his high-rise office. Now, I'm pretty sure I know what she's trying to do here, but I just can't help but see it as her hitting on the receptionist, who, in the last panel, is totally hook-line-and-sinker. She may not look it in the second-to-last panel, but that expression fits her words without quite debunking the idea. I mean, look at her her eye-line! There is no ambiguity here. Also, love Renee's smile in the last panel (but you could tell that from the icon). Yes, receptionist lady, she knows you're checking her out. 'Nother also, note the jacket. The black tanktop is as Renee as the orange shirt plus tie was Vic, but otherwise, she's going Classic today.
She masks up and listens and Chandless' door, but suspense! Chandless' ape of a bodyguard tases her, leaving us with another cliffhanger! See you next month, Renee.