“ I don’t know how I did it,” he said, shrugging. “I was thinking about sticking my toe in the door, and the next thing I knew a tiny thread of my potentia had woven itself into Rottlezinder’s warding hex. I didn’t plan it. It just happened. And somehow I was able to pass through the barrier undetected.”
“I see,” said Sir Alec, after a moment. “How very… creative… of you, Mister Dunwoody.”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know about creative, Sir Alec. All I know is that it turned out lucky for Errol. If I hadn’t-improvised-he would’ve been blown to bits, just like Haf Rottlezinder.”
“Yes indeed, he certainly would have,” murmured Sir Alec.
He leaned forward. “Look, sir. I’ve no idea what you know about me that I don’t. I don’t know what all those tests have told you. And to be honest, right now I’m too tired to care. But let me tell you what I know about me. I agreed to join your Department so I could make up for what happened in New Ottosland. All I’m interested in is stopping people who hurt other people with thaumaturgy.”
Sir Alec unsteepled his fingers, and instead laced them across his lean belly. “Yes, Mister Dunwoody. I am perfectly aware of your motives for joining this Department.”
“Maybe, but I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings,” he retorted. “I never asked to be a rogue wizard, Sir Alec. If I could undo it right now, believe me: I would.”
Sir Alec’s eyebrows lifted. “Really?”
“You asked for the truth. That’s it. I’ll always be truthful with you, provided honesty doesn’t get someone hurt.”
“Mister Dunwoody…” Sir Alec sighed. “Surely you’ve learned by now that life is rarely so cut-and-dried. Telling the truth frequently results in casualties. That is the nature of our business. It is sadly too often how this wicked world of ours works.”
“I know,” he said, uncomfortable. “I suppose what I’m trying to say, Sir Alec, is that while I might work for you, that doesn’t mean you own me. And it doesn’t mean I’m going to let you spend six more months poking and prodding and investigating me to satisfy your curiosity about just what makes me tick. You take me or leave me the way I am, flaws and all, right here and now. And if there’s more about me and my rogue powers to discover, then I say let’s discover them while I do what I joined this Department to do. Because otherwise, I don’t see any point in me staying.”
Sir Alec’s wintry smile appeared then disappeared, like a sparkle of sunlight on dancing water. “What a forthright young man you are, Mister Dunwoody.”
“I try to be,” he said, making himself meet Sir Alec’s unforgiving gaze. “And I try to learn from my mistakes.”
“Yes, well, I’d advise you to learn from this one,” said Sir Alec. “Do not edit your reports to me, Mister Dunwoody. I’m not sure if it’s occurred to you, but trust is in fact a two-way street.”
The girls. He winced. But I can’t drop them in it. Nor Monk. I’ll just have to do a better job of keeping them out of things after this. “Yes, sir.”
“Hmm,” said Sir Alec, eyes narrowed. Then his expression relaxed. “And now, to celebrate the establishment of our new and deeper, more trusting relationship, I will share with you some rather alarming news about your erstwhile superior Errol Haythwaite.”
Gerald sat up. “He’s not dead, is he? I mean, I took every precaution with that lab explosion, Sir Alec. I know I timed it right, and jiggled the prototype’s engine matrix not a single thaumicle past what I needed to, and I absolutely protected him with-”
“ Relax, Mister Dunwoody!” Sir Alec said sharply. “I realise you’ve had a morbid night but there’s no need to assume everything is about death.”
He swallowed. “Sorry. So-Errol’s all right?”
“He’s not dead,” said Sir Alec. “But I’m afraid to say that he’s far from all right.”
Oh, lord. “What’s happened now?”
Sir Alec got out of his chair and moved to stand at the window, gazing into the slowly lightening sky. “What can you tell me of Jandria, Mister Dunwoody?”
“Ah… not an awful lot,” he said, staring. “Um. They were the instigators of the last big war. Must be coming up to forty years ago. They lost. They were required to pay some pretty steep reparations and made to agree not to rebuild their- oh.”
“Yes,” said Sir Alec, at his blandest. “ Oh indeed. They were made to agree not to rebuild their military capabilities.”
He felt his heart thud, sickeningly. “Are you saying the Jandrians have broken the terms of the armistice?”
“I’m saying we’ve received reliable intelligence that they are working on a secret fleet of military airships,” said Sir Alec. “Incorporating some of Errol Haythwaite’s most innovative thaumaturgical designs.”
Gerald felt his jaw drop. “ What? No. That can’t be right. I mean, Errol’s a lot of things, Sir Alec-” pillock… plonker… tosser… “but he’s not a traitor.”
Sir Alec turned from the window. “No? And what makes you so sure of that? It wouldn’t be the first time a Haythwaite has let down his country.”
I’m so tired, and this is all going too fast. “ Sorry, Sir Alec. I don’t know what you mean.”
“Never mind,” said Sir Alec, and resumed his chair. “The Haythwaite family history is not germane to this conversation. Let us instead look at the unpalatable facts of this new development, shall we?”
Yes, please. “You said we’ve received reliable intelligence?”
“We have a janitor in play,” said Sir Alec, nodding. “A long term undercover agent inserted into Jandria more than ten years ago, against the possibility of just this event.”
More than ten years? One of Sir Alec’s men had been living in a deceptive, hostile foreign country for more than ten years? But-but “Yes, Mister Dunwoody,” said Sir Alec, very dry. “A confronting notion, is it not? What one might describe as the very antithesis of treachery. More than ten years of looking over your shoulder, hoping and praying you don’t make a slip, not one single, infinitesimal mistake, that would reveal to those around you that you’re not at all what you seem. And all the while on alert, living on your nerves, looking for the clue that might save countless lives. Prevent another devastating war. Save the entire world from a thaumaturgical conflagration.”
Gerald swallowed, his mouth suddenly like sand. “It sounds-” He shook his head. “Very lonely.”
“It is,” said Sir Alec, his sharp gaze losing its focus. “Lonely and dangerous.”
Something in the way he said it, some odd little note in his voice, had Gerald looking at him even more closely. He’s speaking from personal experience. But he knew better than to comment on it. Think about Errol, instead. That’s a lot safer. And more comfortable.
“And this agent in Jandria has seen some of Errol’s airship designs?”
Sir Alec nodded. “He’s seen copies, yes.”
Leaning forward, he willed Sir Alec to believe him. “Sir, I don’t mean to contradict you or the janitor who passed you this information, but I really can’t believe Errol would do this. He’s got too much pride. Appearances matter to Errol Haythwaite. Hell, appearances are everything. If you’d heard him tonight, talking to Rottlezinder. He was furious he’d been dragged into this portal investigation.”
“Perhaps because this investigation threatened to uncover what he’s really been up to,” Sir Alec suggested. “I accept your assertion that Haythwaite is not involved in the portal sabotage. But that in no way means he is innocent of industrial espionage and treason.”
“But-but-it doesn’t make sense.”
Again, a swift flash of that chilly smile. “You’ll find, Mister Dunwoody, once you’ve been in this line of work for slightly longer than a few weeks, that many things on their surface do not appear to make sense. Nevertheless they are true. And in due course they often do make sense. At least to the criminals we apprehend. Usually we come to understand their twisted logic, in time. But understanding them is not a prerequisite for catching them. I think that principle was discussed in some depth during your training.”
“It was,” Gerald admitted. “Except-”
“Exceptions exist to prove the rule, Mister Dun-woody,” Sir Alec said briskly.
“So is there any more evidence against Errol? Aside from the fact that his airship design-work has turned up in Jandria? Rottlezinder mentioned some… youthful indiscretions.” He sat back, staring. “Is that why you’re so quick to believe Errol’s trucking treason with Jandria? Because he and Haf Rottlezinder made some mischief when they
