Daniel Polansky - Low Town

“That’s fine. I’d rather he knows it’s gone.”

“One of those, huh?” He worried the tip of his thumb with his teeth. “I don’t usually go in for that sort of thing.”

“It would be a favor. You ask around, you’ll hear I’m a good man to do favors for.”

“That’s the word.” He bit a callus off the top of his finger and spat it on the ground. “Why during the party?”

“It has to be done soon, and the party will be the best chance.”

“There’ll be a lot of people around. I could use a distraction.”

“And as it so happens,” I said, “I’ve arranged one.”

The germ of a grin spread contagion-like across his face as I explained what I had planned for the Blade’s Midwinter soiree. When I was done, he gave the answer I’d expected.

“Sounds like fun.”

I mimicked his amity, wishing I didn’t have to place my survival in the hands of this dilettante. “What’s your fee?”

He was too much the artist to enjoy discussing money. “Usually I get cut in on a percentage, but I assume this isn’t for sale.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Twenty ochres?”

Absurdly low for the job at hand, but I wasn’t about to complain. “There’s one more thing I ought to tell you,” I said. “The man you’re stealing from, the things you’re stealing-if you’re caught, the hoax will be the least of your worries.”

“Good thing I don’t get caught.”

“Good thing,” I responded, hoping he was as skilled as he was confident.

He extended his hand and stood. “I’ve got to get back to the hospital-my shift starts in twenty minutes. I’ll take a look at the place later on this evening. You’ll hear from me the day after tomorrow.”

“Contact me if you need anything.”

“I won’t.” He slipped on his coat. “Who’s that kid you’re here with?”

Kor’s Bellows, he was sharp. I hadn’t realized I’d made any sign. “He’s sort of my ward. I was hoping if I brought him by, you could give him some career advice.”

“On which one?”

“Which do you prefer?”

“Thieving,” he answered confidently.

“Maybe we’d best skip the pep talk.”

He laughed and strutted out. After a moment Wren came over. “That all for the afternoon? Weather’s getting worse.”

“Not quite. I’ve got someone to see, and you’ve got another message to run. I need you to pay a visit to the Blade. Tell the guard at the front gate that I’ll be attending tomorrow’s party.”

“I didn’t know you’d been invited.”

“Neither does the Duke of Beaconfield.”

Wren waited for a follow-up, but when it didn’t come, he headed out. I took his lead a minute or two thereafter.

I was halfway to Tolk Street when I made Crowley’s scarred Mirad following about a block behind me. I didn’t have time for this nonsense. I needed to look in on Cadamost, see what he could tell me about Brightfellow-but then I didn’t imagine Crowley would be sensitive to the complexities of my situation. Slipping the tail wasn’t an option either, my ex-colleague was a tenacious motherfucker and things were getting too busy to leave any loose ends floating around.

So I decided to do something I’d been thinking about since taking a dip in the canal two days prior. Stopping abruptly to let him know I’d seen him, I took a sharp turn down a side alley and headed south toward Kirentown. I moved fast but not too fast, making sure Crowley and his boys didn’t lose me in the dark. They played along, sharp enough to stay on my trail but too blunt to run me down. Fifteen minutes later I was standing beneath the standard of the Blue Dragon, and another second after that I was through the door.

The bar was crowded, and I ignored the unfriendly stares that greeted me. At the front counter the whale was chatting to a customer, but when he saw me he stopped and assumed the vacant pose he adopted whenever we did business. There wasn’t time to do this with any subtlety, so I forced my way to the front.

I leaned in close, conscious of the odor wafting from his excess flesh. “I need to see Ling Chi. Immediately.” He gave no indication that he heard me, weighing his options, keenly aware of Ling Chi’s policy on lenient doormen. “In three years, have I ever wasted the man’s time?”

He nodded toward the door, and I headed through the back and into the antechamber beyond. If the two guards inside were surprised to see me, they didn’t show it-whatever setup the fat man had going to alert them was apparently both silent and effective. I tossed my weapons on the table and went through a quick patdown before being ushered inside to see the man himself.

I still had my suspicions about the authenticity of Ling Chi’s costume, but if he was putting on a show, he could set it up pretty damn quick. His attire was impeccable, from the silvery-white diadem atop his head to the beauty mark that accented his maquillage. He held his hands prayerlike before his chest, the yellow gold of his false fingernails replaced today by a set of green jade. “The joy that stirs in my breast at the unanticipated arrival of my companion is almost too much for my aged heart to bear.”

I bowed low, accepting the rebuke. “It is a blot on my honor that I am forced to intrude upon the tranquility of my mentor, one that I will work tirelessly to expunge.”

He waved away my concern, happy to begin the discussion from a position of strength. “The worries of my beloved friend do credit to his sense of principle. But what need have we of ceremony, we who are closer than brothers? Gleefully do I order the unbarring of any gate that separates us-with all haste I command the doors of my sanctum opened to the twin of my heart.”

“Happiness beyond measure is the lot of your servant, to know that I am granted consideration by one whose word is law and whose hand shelters his children.”

He blinked twice, the shift in his placid countenance impossible to miss. “Shelter…”

“Well does my protector know that innocence is no guard against the wolf, and actions born of amity are like to destroy us.”

“The Celestial Emperor sets upon no man’s back more weight than he might carry.”

“Endless may he reign,” I intoned.

“Endless may he reign.”

“Great men stand before the ocean and command the very waves, while we small folk struggle to avoid the rocks.”

“All are bound by the will of the Emperor,” he said guardedly.

“Spoken truly-and yet where the wise find patterns in the Celestial Order, we lowly creatures struggle to discern the road set before us. I fear, in my haste to be of service to my companion, I have become a target for those who would work against him.”

“That is unfortunate,” he said, his sympathy less than palpable. “And who are these men who seek the injury of my dearest cousin?”

“It saddens me to report the corruption of those tasked with upholding the laws of our land, and of their mistaken crusade against myself and my brother.”

His eyes grew cold as a late-season frost, and I began to worry I’d made a mistake in coming. “Great as my love is for my ally, I cannot interfere with the representatives of the Throne.”

“The men who follow me are on no sanctioned business of Black House, nor, save one, have been adopted officially into its service.”

“Save one?”

“A deputy of the head of Black House, whose iniquities are manifold and beyond dispute. Perhaps you are familiar with him, an Agent Crowley?”

A snarl played across his stony features. “Our paths have crossed.”

I had hoped as much-Crowley had a particular talent for engendering hatred. “To the shame of my ancestors, there was once a time when the agent and I had dealings. Not knowing of our ties as brothers, Agent Crowley hoped to use my services to bring harm to the house of Ling Chi. Briefly, so briefly did I pretend to aid this duplicitous official that I might gain his trust and knowledge of his movements. But the veneer of a traitor cannot gild the core of a righteous man, and my deception has been discovered.”