“Yeah, but don’t you live in a cavern?”
“I don’t live in the rusting cavern,” Wayne said. “What, you think I stay down there in the dark?”
Embrier grunted. “How’s your sister?”
Sister? Aw, rusts. Wayne glanced at Embrier. That smile.
“You stay away from my damn sister,” Wayne said.
“Just askin’,” Embrier said, raising his hands. “Ruin. No need to come out swinging.”
“Look,” Wayne said softly, “Cycle isn’t acting strange — he’s worried. Saw some lady conner sniffing around our base. Dark hair. You know the one?”
The man cursed under his breath. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“I just rusting did. But Cycle wants to report it. Thinks he’ll get … you-know-who’s attention. For spotting a conner what we know is likely to be around. Rusting idiot.”
But Embrier had gone a little pale at the implication that the Cycle wanted to draw Trell’s attention. Best to … ease away from that. Wayne threw his arm around the fellow’s shoulder and walked them back toward the others.
“’Sides,” he said to Embrier. “You can forget my sister. I’ve met this woman, she’d be great for you.”
“Really?” Embrier asked.
“Sure. She thought Yulip was handsome.”
“Yulip? The koloss-blooded who looks like a frog?”
“Same one,” Wayne said, rejoining the others.
Embrier shook his head. “Insanity.” He nodded to VenDell. “I’ll go get the Sequence. You can start your men unloading.”
VenDell turned, waving for the process to begin. Hopefully Marasi would keep her head down, like Wayne had told her. She was too damn obvious, that one. Needed to learn how to scrunch her face up and become someone she wasn’t, once in a while. Really helped with the self-loathing.
Still shouldn’t have crossed the river without the hero, Wayne thought as the two thugs jogged to the rear of the room and opened a door.
“Seriously,” VenDell asked Wayne, “how do you do that? You don’t even have their bones.”
“Gotta have fewer sticks up your posterior, VenDell,” Wayne said. “Yank one or two out, and you’ll see.”
“It’s patently unfair,” he said. “A mortal should not be able to stand beside one of the Bearers of the Contract and seem a fair match to their skill in imitation.”
“Aw, jealousy,” Wayne said. He breathed it in. “Smells like cherry blossoms. Also, stop breakin’ character, ya sod.”
Finally, two figures in nicer clothing stepped from a darkened room at the back of the warehouse. Perfect. That was what they’d wanted. Hopefully the waiting constables could–
Suddenly, the outer doors slammed open and figures in brown began flooding in, pointing guns at the thugs. “Drop your weapons!” a voice shouted. “This is a sting!”
“It’s the heat!” Wayne said, slipping his gun out of his holster.
VenDell grabbed his arm.
“Oh yeah,” Wayne said, letting his arm be lowered. “Right, right. I forget sometimes…”
But these weren’t their people. What the hell? All around, the thugs were turning — but nobody fired, because more and more figures in brown were pouring in. At least a hundred constables. Wearing …
… the shield and tortoise, symbol of Bilming. These were local constables.
Marasi’s sting had just been stung.
22
Marasi groaned and sat up in her seat, pulling off the hat she’d used to obscure her face.
Bilming city constables. Wonderful. She glanced at Moonlight, who shrugged.
“I had no idea,” Moonlight said.
Marasi sighed. At least the locals knew to surround the Sequence and his flunky — a pack of at least twenty constables were holding weapons on him. They might not know about the Set, but they understood things like smuggling and gangsters. The rest of the newly arrived constables were rounding up thugs who had wisely decided not to shoot, as they were far outnumbered. They reluctantly dropped their weapons.
Marasi kicked open her door and hopped down. Immediately, several of the advancing constables turned weapons on her. She sighed and raised her hands. “I’m Elendel Constabulary!” she shouted at them. “Special Detective Marasi Colms!”
“What’s this?” a voice demanded. A tall woman with short blonde hair — wearing a Bilming uniform — pushed through the constables. Marasi thought she knew the woman.
“Captain Blantach?” Marasi said. “We met at the intercity training event last year.”
The woman looked Marasi up and down, then groaned. Nearby, some of Marasi’s people were hesitantly climbing out of the backs of trucks — showing their credentials.
Captain Blantach put her palm to her forehead. “You’re kidding me,” she said. “You’re running a sting inside my city?”
“I have jurisdiction in the entire Basin,” Marasi said, fishing for the paperwork. “Constable-General Reddi authorized it under the oversight of the governor.”
“You claim jurisdiction in the entire Basin!” Blantach said, waving the authorizations away. “Rusting Elenders. Of course you would pull an operation in my city and not even send word.”
Marasi felt a little bad for the woman. Still, the Set had the Outer Cities under its thumb. Sending advance word to the local constables would have been far too risky; there were almost certainly Set agents within Blantach’s organization.
Though … the fact that the constables were here seemed to disprove that theory.
“You’re going to need to turn them over to us,” Marasi said, waving at the gangsters.
“Like hell we are,” Blantach said, folding her arms across her uniform jacket, stiff and buttoned tight.
“This is part of a much bigger network,” Marasi said.
“Then we’ll discover that during interrogation.”
Marasi sighed, but took a deep breath. “Blantach,” she said, “do we have to fight this fight?”
The taller woman eyed her, but said nothing.
“The politicians don’t get along,” Marasi said, “but that’s their business. Our business is protecting the cities — all of them. Just a couple of conners with our hands full. Let’s work together rather than squabble.”
“Perhaps I can agree to that … if we do it on my terms.”
“This thing I’m hunting,” Marasi said, “it goes deep. Dangerously deep. And it has little tendrils of mist wrapping around all parts of society. Your city’s leaders are almost certainly compromised.”
“You said this wasn’t about politics.”
“I said we shouldn’t worry about how divisive the politicians are being,” Marasi said. “But everything touches on politics these days. The group I’m pursuing are deliberately stoking war between Elendel and the Outer Cities.
“If we get close to them, there are elements in both governments who are going to try to stop us. Which is why I couldn’t warn you we were coming. I apologize for that, but most in my own government don’t know about this operation.”
Blantach waved away an aide who came trotting up, perhaps to deliver a count of enemies taken captive, and continued to regard Marasi. This situation was a bit like a political negotiation — but Marasi had an advantage over Steris and Wax. You never really could tell what senators wanted. But fellow constables?