Tomorrow, the Killing (Low Town 2)

by Polansky, Daniel

  They let me get my pants on before he came into the arc of the light, which was kind of them. I hadn’t thought there was enough left of me to be scared, but as it turned out my reserves are somewhat deeper than I’d realized.

  Crowley was an ugly man, had always been so. He was squat and hard and walked like something whittled from oak. His eyes were shellfish slits through which the world filtered. As a point of pride, the freeze keep their uniforms spotless, unblemished sheets of ice gray, but Crowley’s was wrinkled and scuffed. The mystical gem carried by every agent, the Crown’s Eye, was a small blob of silver swallowed by the fat of his neck.

  But you didn’t look at that – you looked at the scar that ran down the length of his face, that split his mouth into two deformed halves, curled his lips like a scrap of paper thrown on a fire. It was an old scar, but it would never heal. It had become his distinguishing characteristic, the quality marked by any observer, over and above his innate unsightliness. In that sense I thought I’d done him a favor, that night three years past when I’d carved out the discolored line from his flesh – though I didn’t imagine he saw it that way.

  How does a man forget about a man who wants to kill him, especially a man who’s tried? Volume, in short – there were a lot of people who could match Crowley’s loathing of me. Maybe not quite – my ex-colleague had a real flair for hatred. But still, if I went around worrying about everyone who wished me in the ground, I’d never find time to add anyone new to the list.

  ‘Hello, Crowley.’

  He didn’t answer.

  ‘All smiles, I see.’

  Again, nothing. Crowley didn’t seem to see me. ‘I’m to take you to Black House,’ he said, but dully, as if repeating something he didn’t quite understand. If there was one thing to be said for Crowley, and there might not have been, it was that he was predictable. Predictable in his fury, predictable in his swift recourse to savagery. The man I’d known wouldn’t have been able to keep a smirk off his face, or his hands off mine. I guess I’d cut him deeper than I’d intended – deeper than I’d realized at the time, at least.

  They didn’t bother to chain me, which seemed to speak well for the prospect of my immediate survival. True to form, none of my neighbors had reacted to the commotion. The occasional arrival of the frost, followed by the permanent disappearance of whomever they visited, was an infrequent but not overly noteworthy occurrence.

  Clouds gathered. It was still hot as the inside of a boot, but a drape had been pulled across the sun and a storm rumbled in the distance. You couldn’t feel it yet, but you could hear it.

  The walk seemed longer than distance strictly merited. My friend at the front desk made a point of not saying anything, and we ascended to the upper levels unhindered, up a blank stairwell and down a featureless hallway. Black House is egalitarian in its contempt for aesthetics and comfort. The top man worked out of an office the equal of a mid-level counting clerk, and went home to a modest two-bedroom. Money didn’t mean anything to him, and recognition even less, an active hindrance to the control he worked to effect over every inch of the Empire, and as far beyond as he could push it.

  He was of average height, a uniform mustache over an undistinguished mouth. Neither fat, nor thin. A characterless suit, a face you thought you might have seen before but weren’t certain. He had long fingers on soft hands, and his eyes were the blue of a newborn’s blanket. Try to pin him in a memory and you’d come up short, a hole in the canvas leaving a vague impression of good humor and easy senescence, both of which were absolutely false.

  It went without saying, the heat did not affect him.

  ‘Welcome back,’ he began. ‘It’s been far too long.’

  Even before my disgrace, when the Old Man was my patron and not my enemy, he still made my skin crawl. There was something hollow about him, obvious enough if you looked, though most didn’t. At the time I’d been willing to ignore it, willing even to pretend I didn’t see it.

  But I was young back then, and stupid. Now I’m only the latter. I figured if he was going to get nasty I’d be strapped into a chair in the basement, and not for the first time. Just the same I calculated the distance between us, tried to figure out if I could get my hands around the Old Man’s neck before Crowley could move on me, and whether my death grip would be enough to bring to an end a life that had stretched out far too long. I took a casual look around for some more effective tool to enforce my malice, but as usual the only object marring the clean perfection of his desk was a dish of hard candy. Cherry, by the color.

  He chased away thoughts of murder-suicide with a friendly wave to my escort. ‘Thank you, Crowley, that’ll be all. And be so kind as to send in a cup of tea on your way out – that’s a good fellow.’

  I was certain this would have elicited a response from my old colleague, given the precariousness of his temper and the relish with which he took offense. But Crowley obeyed without comment, and indeed, a moment later a starched suit came in with a chipped tea set. The Old Man added a spoonful of sugar into his mug, then a few more. ‘I suppose you know why I’ve called you here.’

  ‘Enlighten me.’

  ‘We’ve decided it’s time for the Veterans’ Association to experience a change of leadership.’ His smile took on a nasty edge. ‘The more things change, as they say.’

  ‘And here I was thinking you and Joachim were thick as lice.’

  ‘Time moves, my boy. Pretories has . . . overstepped.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘I wouldn’t have thought him for an idealist, not after all the coin that’s flowed through his pockets. But then, the years can do strange things. A man starts seeing gray in his hair, gets to thinking about his legacy. All this trouble and fuss with the pensions, stirring up resentment against Throne and Crown – and then this bother with the Giroies on top of it.’ He clicked his tongue. ‘I’m afraid our Pretories won’t be around much longer. Guiscard says you’ve been a help to him these last few days, and I wouldn’t want you getting caught in the crossfire.’

  ‘I didn’t realize you cared.’

  ‘Do you imagine your continued survival is an oversight? If I wanted you dead, the rats would chew your nipples before nightfall.’ The threat was offered in the same tone with which you’d greet an acquaintance.

  ‘Your good graces didn’t stop Crowley from trying to off me last time.’

  ‘I assumed you capable of handling it without my assistance. In fact, I was surprised to find my deputy still up and breathing, at the conclusion of events.’

  ‘Sorry to let you down.’

  ‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘It was what I would have done. You know he’s never been the same, after that night – that last little bit of savagery that made him so . . . uniquely skilled for his position, it went away when you marked him. Really, I have to applaud you. Anyone can kill, but to break a man? To reach inside him and make him something else? That takes talent.’

  I didn’t say thank you. But then, I’d been badly raised.

  The Old Man never seemed to be in a hurry – he could saunter out from a burning building. There was a long period during which neither of us spoke, during which any outside observer would think the two of us friends, or at least amiable associates. When he judged it had spooled out long enough he started again. ‘Strange, isn’t it, that Joachim would make a stink after so long in my pocket.’

  ‘Life is strange sometimes.’

  It was the sort of petty banality that appealed to him. ‘Yes, indeed it is.’ He pushed the dish of candy at me. I pushed it back. ‘Out of character, one might even say.’

  ‘You think you know a man.’

  ‘And what in the world would have inspired the lesser Giroie to go on the offensive?’

  ‘Who knows why anyone does anything?’

  He nodded sagely, as if I’d passed along some bit of profundity. ‘Indeed. As a particular, I’ve been racking my brain to discover what exactly determined your willingness to play the tattle.’

  ‘Didn�
�t have a choice in the matter.’

  ‘Our little Guiscard frightened you so, did he?’

  ‘Terrified.’

  ‘I’m sure.’ He took a sip of his tea and made a face, then added another lump of sugar. ‘So none of this had anything to do with the unfortunate demise of the youngest Montgomery?’

  If I hadn’t already been sweating, I would have started. ‘Who?’

  ‘Have it your way.’

  Another long pause. He raised his cup to his mouth, pinky finger elaborately extended, but his late summer eyes never left my own. ‘Do you know what the most important requirement of my position is?’

  ‘A dazzling smile?’

  ‘Facility with numbers.’ He set the cup down on the table. ‘People don’t like numbers – they like people, and they get confused when the first becomes the second. But I don’t get confused. For a while, I thought you were the sort who didn’t get confused either. But of course, that wasn’t true at all – you’re as bad with sums as anyone I’ve ever met.’ He lifted a thumb from out a fist. ‘There was Iomhair – no great loss, we might agree, but a tick mark just the same. The five Giroie boys guarding that wyrm shipment. Artur’s retaliation took the lives of four men – veterans, like yourself. They’re still pulling bodies out of the Hen and Harpy, so it’s too early for an exact count, but let’s say a dozen for ease.’ He’d been tallying them on his fingers, sharp flutters of movement, but this last addition overran his count and he tossed up his hands as if to acknowledge it. ‘That’s twenty-two souls, and we haven’t seen the end of it yet. Twenty-two men. Not sprung from the earth, I wouldn’t imagine, but bred in the regular way. Mothers and fathers. Siblings. Wives and children, perhaps. A strange sort of debt, don’t you think, which needs to be repaid two dozen times over?’

  I scratched at the back of my neck. ‘That was a really long monologue.’

  He snickered and folded his hands, clearing the ledger. ‘Doesn’t matter now, not really. The line has been crossed. Whatever his motivations, Pretories’ usefulness has ended. Of course, if this was all revenge for Rhaine Montgomery, I’m surprised you let a conspirator remain unpunished – knowing your, shall we say, rather savage sense of justice.’

  It didn’t do to admit ignorance in front of the Old Man, but it slipped out before I could say anything. ‘What are you talking about? Pretories didn’t want Rhaine throwing mud on him, weakening his position before the big march. He arranged to have a man kill her.’

  He looked at me strangely. ‘There’s a reason Joachim Pretories couldn’t achieve his position honestly. He’s too weak a reed to do what’s needed, not without long consultation. It was the same when we took care of Roland – you can’t imagine how long he dragged his feet before acquiescing in our designs. I’m not sure he’d have gone along with it at all, if I hadn’t had help persuading him.’

  A pit was opening up beneath my chair, a dawning sense of horror at my own extraordinary foolishness.

  Something of this must have shown in my face. ‘You never put it together, did you? The identity of our silent partner?’ I’d heard the Old Man laugh before, but always as part of his façade, as a tactic to lull the unwary into the delusion that he was human. But I’m not sure, before that moment, I’d ever heard an honest expression of levity cross his lips. A line of goose pimples ran up my arm.

  ‘You’re lying,’ but even as I said it I knew it was off – the Old Man didn’t lie. He never told the truth either, but he didn’t lie. You bluff with a weak hand, and the head of Black House held four aces and hid two extra up his sleeve.

  ‘I assure you, I very much am not. At the time of Roland’s death, his father was a hair from being High Chancellor. Even I couldn’t kill the scion of such an esteemed house without fear of repercussions. Happily, the general appreciated the necessity of curbing his son’s misbehavior. He was my back channel to Pretories, him and that Vaalan who laps after him.’

  Pieces began to slip into place, pieces I’d overlooked or ignored. The fight I’d overheard the night of Roland’s birthday party. The general’s palpable misery the second time I’d been to see him, as if he already knew that Rhaine was dead.

  The Old Man began to laugh again, laugh until his blue eyes swelled with tears. ‘Oh my dear boy,’ he started between chortles. ‘My dear stupid, stupid child. You set all this in motion, and you never even knew? Rather than risk having anyone learn of his filicide, Montgomery sent his daughter to join his son.’ He set one palm against the table to steady himself and raised his other against his brow. ‘You aren’t the architect of this stratagem – you’re the mark.’

  45

  I started hitting crowds at Broad Street, a good half-mile from the epicenter. I didn’t know what count Pretories had been hoping for when he’d put this shindig together, but whatever it had been he’d blown through it. There were contingents of veterans from throughout the Empire, from every corner of the Three Kingdoms: Tarasaighns from Kinterre in brightly colored outfits, piss drunk despite the hour; lines of Ashers with clipped black hair and clipped black eyes, eternally solemn, taking no part in the festivities; Islanders strolling in full naval regalia, red velvet coats and gilded thread, grinning in the heat. Groups had been piling into the city all week, setting up makeshift shelters at the march site. They milled about happily near their lean-tos, swapping lies about the war, buying food from passing vendors, catching up on regimental gossip.

  Joachim’s logistical abilities hadn’t faded – it was a masterpiece of planning, executed with extraordinary precision. I’d say military precision, but having been in the service I know that to be an oxymoron. Everything so far was legal as sea salt. The Throne couldn’t refuse permission for a march by the men who had guaranteed its survival. What they could do, and indeed had done, was surround the protesters by a cordon of hard-looking men in dark brown uniforms, carrying thick-headed clubs of the same color. Not city boys either, the hoax were too smart to let themselves get pulled into this mess. Levies from the provinces if I had to guess, bumpkins culled from the fields and brought south. Fifteen years earlier they’d have been called out to fight the Dren. They were the nephews and sons of the men they would soon be attacking, though it would have been too much to ask of them to realize it.

  It was a vast host, too thick a chunk of humanity to comfortably force down. I hadn’t seen its like since the war itself. Reminded me of the war in a lot of ways, looking at the faces of men soon to die and knowing nothing can be done to stop it. At least during the war everyone was aware of the possibility of imminent demise. But the atmosphere at the march was anything but tense, self-righteous certainty buttressed by the joyous folly of the crowd. They’d have thought me mad if I’d tried to tell them what I knew, or taken me for a provocateur and lynched me from the nearest pole. Nobody likes being told they’re walking in the wrong direction, even if the trail ends at a cliff.

  I struggled my way through the tightening mass, conscious of the hour’s steady beat. Closer to the front progress choked to a standstill, and I started throwing elbows and getting them back in return. The storm rumbled from a few blocks over, but from where I stood the sun was bright as it had been the last week. Too bright, you had to squint against it. Sometimes that’s how close it is, the line between the two.

  There was a barrier separating the organizers from the mob. I saw Adolphus on the other side of it, not for the first time grateful that he was closer to two men than one. I hopped over the obstruction, ignoring the dirty looks of the unwashed. The press of people loosened enough that I could make out the face standing at Adolphus’s side. They were smiling to each other and talking, but they cut that shit short at my approach.

  For a moment the ties that bound me to the giant, ties that were strong enough to have induced me to risk my life in getting him to safety, strained. I looked at Wren, then back at his guardian savagely. ‘Are you out of your fucking mind?’

  Dimly Adolphus must have realized he’d overstepped, or perhaps
our last interaction was still wearing on him, because he didn’t answer.

  ‘Not enough risking your own fool life, you gotta drag the boy in as well?’

  ‘I can take care of myself,’ Wren piped in, doing his best approximation of an adult. ‘I’m man enough.’

  I cuffed him against the side of the head, hard enough to set him to his knees. ‘No, you ain’t. Not nearly. Get home, now.’

  He peered up at me, then over at Adolphus, who seemed strangely apathetic, paralyzed by my arrival. After a moment he dragged himself off the ground, then slipped out from the crowd, shaken and pale.

  I felt great about myself. Adolphus still refused to look straight at me, his one eye fluttering off at the margins. ‘We’d best follow his example. Right now.’

  He ejected a thimble of spit from his square jaw. ‘I’m not talking about this with you again. I made my decision. It’s settled.’ A drop of rain splattered against his pockmarked nose.

  ‘Today ends badly.’

  ‘Never pegged you for a prophet.’

  ‘I got the inside line.’

  ‘From whom?’

  ‘The head of Black House.’

  Adolphus shot a quick look around, concerned that my intemperate announcement might have made its way to the men surrounding us. ‘Keep your voice down.’

  ‘There’s no time for subtlety – the Old Man’s gonna make his move, and make it soon, and when he does blood’s gonna water the dust.’

  He had enough respect for me not to call it a bluff, which I appreciated. But still it took him a while to process it, time we didn’t have, my heart beating near through my chest. Adolphus wasn’t stupid, but he was slow – sudden shifts of direction were not his strong suit. Finally he reached a decision. ‘Even if that’s the case – especially if that’s the case – I’m not going anywhere. These are my people. I’ll stand with them.’