The two men lifted their glasses to her. “This mission of yours,” Patzer said, “is more important than you realize, Head Saarg. Whenever true progress is made, evil, waiting in the shadows, swoops in to destabilize your efforts. We know all about that, don’t we Drool? Yes, and we mustn’t be caught unaware, must we? The Enemy will appear from nowhere and take apart your dreams. But we have steadfastness of purpose on our side, do we not, Head? Yes, we do!”
Terese sipped. The familiar taste of brandy lightly burned the back of her throat, as did a cool taste she didn’t recognize. They drank slowly, Patzer regaling them with a tale of how he once tracked a man who was a master of disguises and who’d fooled him several times.
Terese mopped at her brow. How odd, she’d begun sweating. The room wasn’t warm enough for that. Drool brought out a small hourglass with blue sand and set it upright.
Patzer’s voice jerked her from her thoughts. What had she been thinking of? Something blue? She’d not had that much brandy, surely.
“I said, I think it’s time for that story, Head,” he repeated.
Well, of course. The mission brief, finally.
“I was on duty the night the Royal hologram came in, and I led the mission out to a buried chamber, lower than Swallowing depth. Somehow hidden from Polis. An Investigator had gotten there before us and we explored it together.” Her head was filled with a familiar cotton wool and an unfamiliar optimism, unlike the other times she’d been drunk. She shook her head, but it didn’t clear.
She continued, telling the whole story: The missing Sumadan generator that had powered the Immersion Chamber, the odd religious inscription on the wall, the hundreds of bodies in the suspension sacks beyond, how she’d learned the four renegades had survived, and how Polis Armer had Swallowed it. She told how the Seekers had gone hunting the renegades, learned their quarry had fled Polis Armer. A complement had been thrown together with her as its head and sent to track, find and kill the renegades, who were probably infected.
She left out her involvement in the Immersion Chamber program. It wasn’t difficult, for nothing linked her to the Chamber, except the renegades. Everything she said had been the truth. And he hadn’t asked her for the whole story, or if she’d known more about the Immersion Chamber than she’d said. For some reason she’d wanted very much to tell him.
Patzer nodded thoughtfully. “Why were you convinced they worshipped the Darkness, or were infected?”
“Because there’s something sinister about them. Remember the families they aren’t connected with? There’s a reason. Morgenheth is the leading suspect in his girlfriend’s and father’s murders. Separate events, but no evidence. Rortiin broke his clan’s finances, deliberately. Only, the bankruptcy forced out some allegations of their… abuse of girls. The Inspectors were about to descend, but then the ‘suicides’ happened. Turned out he was the only one who could have had access to the records sent to the authorities. Then there’s Dantet, whose mother and stepfamily suddenly went insane. His mother had some sort of meltdown and went into a nunnery. The others ended up in an asylum. And the worst is Lethrien, who, at eight years old, killed his whole family. There was a thorough autopsy, but no cause was found, and I wonder if—”
“Oh, I know the cause, Terese.” Patzer interrupted her with an uncharacteristic quiet chuckle, not blinking or smiling. She decided that this sedate manner chilled her more than his manic outbursts. “That’s him, is it? Repaan Lethrien. And four of them, from Armer. Very clever. Well done. Clearly, we wasted our time, searching other places, Patzer. But forget we said that, Saarg.”
That he’d said… what?
Patzer swirled his brandy in his glass. “Right. They’re what brought you here. I see. So why are you really here, Head?”
Drool leaned forward.
“To purify infected renegades, Patzer,” she said, sighing. That was the truth.
“No,” he said quietly. “You are not here for that. What are you really doing in Sumad? It just doesn’t sound that simple. To come all this way for infected? Why not just be glad they’re gone and forget them?”
“Patzer, it’s a high-profile case. Politicians and Royalty showed an interest, and so did the newskeepers. If we didn’t send someone to hunt them down, my Holder Moorcam would have looked bad. Everyone has a master who doesn’t understand their subordinate’s job. When citizens expect things of politicians, the politicians take to bothering the Holders for results. You think I wanted to leave my daughter… for this?” She pointed upwards. Again, he hadn’t asked about the Immersion Chamber. Maybe he’d ask her now?
“So why couldn’t you take the infected if you did everything right?”
“Oh? I tried. I failed. The whole chapterhouse think I’m an idiot because I messed a taking. Once they were contained, even. Now my squad don’t even dare talk to me in public!” Patzer kept looking past her, at Drool, who nodded at Patzer in agreement. Strange, but then Drool was a strange man. Patzer had specifically asked why she was in Sumad. Why didn’t he ask about the Immersion Chamber?
“So, you wouldn’t have let them go on purpose?”
“Why would I do that? I’d prefer to be home, tucking my daughter into bed and listening to a story on the waves. Instead, I’m sent on this idiotic hunt looking for something that can’t be found.”
“Hm. Why can’t they be found, Terese?”
He knew her first name?
“I’m not sure what they are, but I’m the best Armer Stone has got, and if they break my restraints on a perfect take, then… they’re something other than infected.”
Patzer burst into laughter, for the first time. “Of course they’re
