“Lise? But —”
“But nothing. Lise is a damned genius and they know it as well as you do. If Perak wasn’t Archdeacon but was still inventing guns and all the rest, they’d ask for him too. As it is, he’d just be a bonus. The Mishans need someone to make things for them, or to show them how to make guns and whatever else so they can defend themselves when – and as far as they’re concerned it is a when, not an if – the Storad destroy us and start threatening them. And they want you handed over as an initial peace offering, so they can give you to the Storad if they need to.”
The only word that came to mind was “Shit.”
“Quite.”
“Does Perak know about this?”
“I suspect so, or at least he guesses. Jake’s mentioned it once or twice – I think she was hoping I’d find out what I could. I’ll tell Perak as soon as I can; at least he might be able to keep Lise safe.”
All of a sudden that bold cardinal’s snide words didn’t seem quite so much bluster, and Perak wanting me out of harm’s way made a lot more sense. So did getting out of this bar about now.
I slapped down the last of my money on the bar, took what was left of the bottle and offered my arm to Erlat.
“Perhaps you’d like an escort home?”
She took my arm and I got a proper smile out of her at last. “Only if you promise to finish that bottle with me. Maybe take me up on my offer for once, and let me ruin you for other women. And to be careful, whatever it is you’re planning on doing. A corpse would suit them just as well.”
“I promise faithfully on the Goddess’s fictional arse to both finish the bottle and be as careful as I can. That do?”
And there, a laugh that lightened all the black thoughts in my head. “It’s all I’m going to get, isn’t it?”
The streets were lonely and dark, but I was sure I saw a pale face turned up to watch me as we passed.
That pale face bothered me, a lot. I couldn’t be sure it was the same one that I’d seen earlier when I was with Halina, but in light of what the cardinals had argued, and what Erlat had told me, taking chances seemed stupid. Especially if it wasn’t me the Mishans were after – there was Lise to warn too. So, reluctantly because Erlat’s house was a safe haven and I wanted that right then, I didn’t stay there once that bottle was finished. I made sure I didn’t have too much of it too.
I even kept part of my promise to Erlat about being careful and rearranged my face, just a touch, so that I didn’t look like me but instead like some blandly forgettable guy from Under.
Pale Face was still there, lurking, but I was pretty sure I fooled him – men came and went at an alarming rate from Erlat’s house so I was just one of several, even at that hour. But he was still there, and that opened up a whole load of possibilities in my head. I hurried as quickly as I could without looking suspicious and got to the lab.
The office was quiet as I passed, dark except for the flicker of Dendal’s candles. The lab was quiet too – it was the middle of the night. That hadn’t stopped the boom-shudders from keeping on coming though, and another one rocked the lab just as I got there. A few heartbeats later something smashed inside – call it a gut feeling or paranoia, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t the usual sort of smash that came after the boom-shudders.
I had my pulse pistol out and the door half open even before I thought about it. Another smash, and someone swearing – Lise.
“Oh, you Goddess-fucked bastard, do you know how long it took me to make that?”
By the time I got to her, whoever had been doing the smashing was regretting it. The lab was in near-darkness, just one faint Glow globe hanging over Lise’s desk. At the edge of its light, a man hunched over his stomach, holding on like he thought it’d fall out otherwise. The blood was very dark on his hands, and it was on the long screwdriver that Lise had taken to keeping with her at all times. I don’t suppose he’d have been all that comforted to know she could have called upon any number of torturous instruments if she’d wanted.
Lise herself stood under the light, looking pale but furious in a blizzard of bits of machine, even worse than normal. Two of Perak’s guards whom he’d assigned to protect Lise and the lab lay unconscious a bit further in. They obviously weren’t up to the job.
Lise caught sight of me and stepped back from the man on the floor, from her screwdriver sticking out of his stomach. “Rojan, I – oh, I – I – he broke my gyroscope! Bastard. It took me days to get it all aligned properly. And he wanted me to leave, he kept grabbing me and…”