Page 53

Beside me, Kez says quietly, “We didn’t know, but now that we do, we’ll shut it down. You have my word on that.”

“Lightfoot.” Drogan bows his head to her. “Even if Acker had not vouched for you, I know your word is good.”

Kez and her street cred. Evidently, it extends all the way to the E.C.

“Then why put a hundred CeeBee bounty on my head?” Kez grits.

Acker grunts. Drogan bows his head. “Tanier, please give Mister Snow our gift.”

The boy who was helping the old man picks up an opaque plaz box from under the table, walks around to me and places it on the ground beside me before returning to his seat .

I glance at Acker, who nods.

I tap the magne-seal on the box, and when it clicks, slide back the cover. Then I slide it back on before it ruins Kez’s dinner.

I push the box under the table and put my arm around Kez. “Think that’s his way of sayin’ he don’t have anything to do with it.”

She looks up at me, a flash of big blues. “What’s in the box?”

The wide, white tail of Dom Fox. Probably all that’s left of him.

“Nothin’ you want to see right now. Eat your eel.” I nod at her plate. She picks up her chopsticks and sets in, which tells me how hungry she is ‘cause she only does what she’s told that fast when we’re in bed.

“Are you convinced of our good intentions, Mister Snow?” Drogan asks.

“Ain’t me you gotta convince,” I respond. I hook a thumb at Kez. “Talk to the boss.”

The Horse-Man looks from me to Kez and back at me. He smiles, flashing teeth too white to have ever seen kaffe. “You were right, uncle,” he says.

The old man grins at me. His teeth have seen some distance.

“Drogan’s matona , Haf’ele, occupies very much the same place in his life as the Lightfoot occupies in yours, Mister Snow.

I advocated for bringing her to this meeting, so that she could meet the Lightfoot, but Acker could not guarantee her safety with the Ojos’s attacks. ”

Drogan holds his hands out. “She’s breeding. I could not risk her. But now that I have met you both, I wish she were here. She would know what to say to you, Lightfoot. And I must still face her wrath on my return.”

That gets chuckles all around. He may wish his woman was here to help butter Kez up, but he’s doing just fine on his own.

“I admit that I was very angry when I heard of the shipment,” Drogan continues.

“I believed you had broken the word of the Honorable Tyng out of greed. And I may have spoken incautiously in my anger. But I would never pay anyone to hurt you, Lightfoot. That is not Helas’s way.

It is to my shame that you ever believed that of us. ”

Kez is too busy eating to respond, but I can see her thinking.

I can also see how hungry she is, since she rarely eats with this much dedication, although Kez does like her food.

She glances at me between bites and each time I nod back at her plate to keep her eating.

Once she’s demolished most of the mountain, I cut my eyes at Drogan.

She taps her chopsticks against the side of her makeshift plate. The E.C.ers, who have been eating politely, if not with her concentration, look up. “If you thought we were breaking your deal with Mister Tyng, why didn’t you try to talk to us?” she asks.

Drogan’s brows come together into a thick, black line. “I did. I sent messages through the same channel that I used with the Honorable Tyng. When I received no response, I assumed you had no wish to speak with me.”

Kez glances at me.

I shrug. First I’ve heard of it.

“I’ll look into it,” Kez says. “The transition to us was abrupt and some private avenues of communication may have been lost. But I certainly wasn’t ignoring you.”

Drogan nods before he goes back to his food.

“Have you any idea who else might be behind the attempts on your life?” the old man asks. “Despite our ... gift, it is surely not the Foxes.”

Kez glances at the box by my knee. The healthy pink of her cheeks blanches. I rub my hand up and down her back.

“How did you know about the Foxes?” she asks.

That’s a good question, since I haven’t told anyone but Kez what I found in the vid Payton sent me.

Flagg clears his throat as if to speak, but Drogan leans forward and looks so closely at Kez that I’m tempted to back him up with the point of my kukri.

“What do you know of us, Lightfoot?” Drogan asks .

Kez gives him the gimlet stare right back. My kitten. “I’ll be honest. Not a lot.”

“I’ve not had that luxury.” Drogan nods, black beard wagging against his leather tunic.

“I have needed to know much about my neighbors to protect my brothers and sisters from those who would undermine their Faith. The Cloudlands have been my main concern, because of their proximity to my lands, and I have listened to every whisper to come from the Clouds for the last five years. You did not escape my attention, Lightfoot.” Drogan’s look turns speculative, and he’s lucky we’re all sitting around Acker’s table, or I really would back him up with my knife.

“It did not escape my attention that you and your Reaper-Man were on the Clouds the night the House of Tyng fell. It did not escape my attention that the next time you came to the Clouds you were attacked.”

“Official story is the skimmer malfunctioned,” I say.

Drogan lifts an eyebrow in my direction, letting me know he thinks as little of that story as I do.

“One of the things that most distresses me about Unbelievers is how willing they are to betray their fellows for a few credits. It cost me less than the expense of travelling here to discover the creature who shot down your skimmer. A creature so without honor that returning him to Helas was a service. Bringing you what remains of him is a benefaction.”

His version of Helas is a lot bloodier than I would have expected. Maybe I can find some common ground with him. “Appreciated,” I say.

Kez nods in agreement, although she probably wouldn’t if she saw what was in the box.

“That is how I knew of Domni Fox,” Drogan says. “But that does not answer the question, Lightfoot, since I also know enough of the Blue Fox clan to know that they do not have one hundred credits to spare, much less one hundred thousand. Which begs the obvious question. ”

“How Dom Fox got his paws on a mag gun,” I supply, which gets me a sharp look from Acker.

Drogan’s dark eyes flick to me and he nods.

I decide to share. Ain’t my first impulse, but I figure he and Acker have earned it. “Might be an inside job. Mag gun came from the Tyng arsenal in Hemos. I’m still figuring out how it got to the Foxes.”

“I can assist you with that,” Acker says quietly. “I have eyes and ears within the clan.”

“Thanks.” I probably should have told him before, but there hasn’t been a ton of opportunity. Or a ton of trust.

“Two weeks ago, you’d have needed no eyes and ears,” Drogan offers. “Honorable Tyng’s lieutenant here on the Clouds was so consumed by greed, he would have delivered such a weapon to the Foxes, even to be used on one of his own.”

Kimpler, who must have been playing both sides if he was having Payton establish distribution paths into the E.C. even after the Old Man gave his word to Drogan. No wonder the Old Man had Kimpler offed.

Fucking Tyngaling politics.

“That why you demanded a meet with the Old Man himself?” I ask. “Cause you knew Kimpler was playin’ both sides of the fence?”

The Horse-Man nods. “I brought the Honorable Tyng a name, a face, to prove that his lieutenant had betrayed him. The revelation was no surprise.”

“Yeah? What name was that?” I’ve got a bad feeling I already know.

“To my people, he is known as Jannox, but you know him by another name?—”

“Jaxon Mereia,” Kez says heavily.

Drogan nods.

I grunt. It all comes back to that little fucker.

“I know Jaxon pretty well,” Kez says. “And I know he doesn’t have a hundred CeeBees, either. There’s someone else behind him. ”

“Someone within your organization,” Drogan responds. “Someone who could supply such a quantity of fly strike.”

It’s my turn to nod. “Someone who’s name begins with B.”