Conspiracy (16 page)

“
I haven’t been back out
there since last month,” Yara said, her tone snappish, and
Amaranthe guessed the two had argued over the matter
before.

Yara opened her fist to examine the bullet,
then sucked in a quick breath.

“
What is it, Evy?” Mevlar
asked.

Yara held up the cartridge so her brother
could see, but she addressed Amaranthe. “I chanced across some of
these and a broken rifle of a strange design two months ago. I’ve
been trying to locate the source and find out if there are more or
if they were prototypes.”

“
There are more,” Amaranthe
said. “A lot more.”

“
Evy.” Mevlar shifted his
weight, but Sicarius’s grip tightened on his arm, holding him in
place. “These are criminals. The only discussion you should be
having with them is to tell them their rights and how we’re going
to escort them down to headquarters.”

Before Amaranthe could point out the
unlikelihood of the enforcer leading them anywhere, given his
current position, Books stepped forward and lifted a finger.

“
I’m
not a criminal. Thanks to your sister’s kindness, the
indictment that was wrongly placed upon my head has been lifted.
Would you object if
I
spoke to her?”

“
I object to this whole
situation!” Mevlar barked, his face growing red.

Yara was staring at the bullet in her hand,
and Amaranthe didn’t know if she had noticed Books.

“
If you go out to that farm
today,” Amaranthe said, “you might be able to see some of the
weapons and the remains of the manufacturing facility. I don’t know
how quickly they’ll be able to clean up and hide everything again,
considering...” She met Sicarius’s eyes for a moment. “Well, I
think they’ll be delayed.”

“
I’ll bet.” Yara’s jaw
tightened and she gave Sicarius a hard stare, one utterly devoid of
fear. “What’s your stake in all of this?”

Amaranthe smiled. “We’re simply concerned
citizens.”

Yara snorted.

“
We can leave now if you
wish,” Amaranthe said, “but I believe you have a piece of knowledge
that I need. Perhaps we could trade information for information? I
could tell you what I know about the weapons and who might be
behind them, and you could better decide if they represent a threat
to your district.” Appealing to Yara’s sense of duty would be more
likely to interest her than anything else. Such an offer would have
swayed Amaranthe once.

“
What
knowledge
are you looking for?”
Nothing in Yara’s tone suggested she was in the mood to share
information, but at least she was asking. That might represent a
door being cracked open.

“
Evrial.” Again, Mevlar
tried to take a step forward, but Sicarius restrained him easily.
That did not keep the enforcer from talking. “You can
not
spend time with
these felons. I’ll be duty-bound to tell the captain that Sicarius
was here in town and you did nothing to—”

“
What do you want me to
do?” Yara snapped at him. “He’s got you by the balls, and he could
kill us both in half a second.”

“
It might take a whole
second,” Amaranthe said lightly, trying to alleviate the tension
crackling between the two of them. She had a feeling she had walked
into a brother-sister argument that had been simmering for some
time. Had something about Yara’s investigations bothered her
higher-ups? Maybe they had distracted her from her regular
duties.

The only one who paid attention to her
comment was Sicarius. He gave her the barest hint of an eyebrow
twitch. Maybe he disagreed with the one-second estimation.

“
Remember our adventures
last spring?” Amaranthe said, drawing Yara’s eyes back to her.
“With the makarovi and those magical machines? I need to know what
happened to the shaman’s workshop in that mine.” She avoided
looking at Sicarius, though she could feel his eyes upon her. He
must be wondering at her opening topic choice.

Yara scowled. “Looking to acquire some of
his toys for your own use?”

“
No, but there’s still at
least one of his creations out there, threatening people.”
Amaranthe kept it vague and hoped Sicarius would think she was
talking about the sentries in the weapons manufacturing
facility.

Yara’s brow furrowed. Apparently, the
vagueness wasn’t convincing her of much. Maybe Amaranthe should
share a few details about the threat to the emperor. Not the bump
under his skin, but the Forge group’s behind-the-throne
machinations. If Yara knew the emperor was threatened, she might be
more willing to assist the team.

“
More than your district
may be in jeopardy,” Amaranthe said. “A huge pile of weapons and
ammunition is on its way to the capital, possibly to be used as
part of a plot against the emperor.”

Yara lifted her hand and fingered the
sergeant’s rank pin affixed to her collar. “Let’s go outside. I
will speak with you.”

“
Evy... don’t do this,”
Mevlar said. “Being with them... this could destroy your
career.”

“
Not if nobody finds out.”
Yara fisted her free hand and propped it on her hip. At six feet
tall, with shoulders almost as broad as those of her brother, she
was an imposing woman, but Mevlar glared right back at
her.

“
I can’t look the other
way,” he said. “Going against your superior’s wishes to snoop was
bad enough. What you do now could bring dishonor to the entire
family. If you go with them, however briefly, I’ll have to tell the
captain, lest he find out from someone else and—”

“
Think you’re involved too?
By all means then, tell him. Maybe tattling on your little sister
will earn you the promotion you’ve coveted for so long.”

Mevlar clenched his jaw.

Ah, Amaranthe thought, Corporal Yara and
Sergeant Yara. Yes, it must have rankled Mevlar to have his younger
sister promoted over him.

Yara grabbed a gray enforcer parka from the
back of a chair and stalked toward the door. Amaranthe stepped
aside to let her lead. The woman brushed past Sicarius and her
brother without sparing a glance for either.

“
You coming, Lokdon?” she
growled, stomping down the stairs.

“
I hadn’t realized what a
charismatic young lady she is,” Books said.

Before stepping outside, Amaranthe told
Sicarius, “Make sure he doesn’t run off to tattle on his sister
right away, please. In a manner that doesn’t leave him permanently
damaged.” And, Amaranthe thought, in a manner that keeps you busy
for the next ten minutes.

Sicarius gave her a curt return nod.

Outside, dawn was brightening the gray
clouds spanning the sky, and Amaranthe resolved not to take too
long with Yara. In a town this size, some early riser would note
the oddity of a steam vehicle parked in the street, and she didn’t
need enforcers being sent to investigate. Amaranthe had no wish to
incriminate Yara, and already regretted that she hadn’t found a way
to contact the woman without involving the brother.

Yara stopped at the last corner on the side
street before it dwindled to a trail and headed out into a field.
An old barn towered to one side, and she stepped into its shadow. A
rooster crowed nearby.

“
The soldiers blew up the
mine,” Yara said.

At first Amaranthe was tickled that Yara was
talking so readily, but it seemed less of a victory when she
realized the information wouldn’t prove helpful. “Blew up? With
everything still inside?”

Yara nodded. “They wanted to ensure none of
the shaman’s foul tools were used again by anyone else, so they
collapsed the entire side of the mountain.”

“
I... see. Do you know if
they—”

“
The back entrance through
the vertical shaft too.”

“
Oh.”

“
Now,” Yara said, “your
information.”

Though disappointed, Amaranthe briefed her
on the details of the last couple of days. She couldn’t bring
herself to mention the pile of bodies Sicarius had left on the
lawn, but she spoke of everything else.

Yara didn’t seem to notice
the omission. “I’ve been trying to locate that sort of evidence for
weeks. After I found the bullet and the broken rifle, I knew
something was going on, and it disturbed me that it was happening
in
my
district.”

A small lump formed in Amaranthe’s throat at
the way the sergeant spoke of her territory. It was the same way
she had once felt about her own district, a mingle of pride and
protectiveness.

“
When I showed the captain
my findings,” Yara went on, “he dismissed it as nothing. When I
started investigating on my own time and he found out about it, he
ordered me to stop.”

“
Hm,” Amaranthe said,
mulling over the possibilities. If Yara had been investigating on
enforcer time and it interfered with her regular duties, then an
order to stop would be understandable, but if she was snooping
about when she was off-duty, why would it matter to her superiors
one way or another? “Was your captain surprised when you first
showed him the rifle and cartridge? Or was it as if...”

“
He was already familiar
with it?” Yara suggested.

Amaranthe nodded. Maybe the captain had been
paid to look the other way. As discreet as the delivery team had
been, and as well hidden as the manufacturing base was, it would be
hard to keep such an outfit secret forever.

“
He just grunted and waved
for me to take the stuff away,” Yara said. “His disinterest might
have been an act. I don’t know.”

“
And there’s not much you
could do,” Amaranthe said, giving her voice a sympathetic nuance.
“It’s not as if enforcers are encouraged to question their
superiors.” She smiled ruefully, remembering her own encounters
with Chief Gunarth.

“
No.” Bitterness crept into
Yara’s tone. “They’re not.”

Amaranthe was searching for a way to switch
to subtly probing for information about Yara’s last meeting with
the emperor, when Yara spoke again.

“
What were you doing on the
train?”

Amaranthe should have been ready for the
question, but it startled her. She hoped her pause to think of an
answer wasn’t suspicious. “Practicing maneuvers in case we ever
have a mission that takes place on a train.”

“
That sounds like something
you’d only do if you
had
a mission on a train.”

“
Does it?” Amaranthe asked
innocently.

The hardness had returned
to Yara’s voice. Maybe she thought Amaranthe was up to something
illegal. Technically Amaranthe
was
up to something illegal. Even if Sespian had
requested they kidnap him, that didn’t make it an act enforcers
would sanction.

Yara shifted, her broad shoulders tensing.
“It’s convenient that your group happened across these men loading
weapons in the middle of the night.”

“
It was luck.” Amaranthe
wasn’t going to call it good luck, not when she didn’t know what
the ramifications would be. “You seem to follow what’s going on in
the city. Have you seen the newspapers lately? We’ve been mentioned
a few times as people working for the good of the empire. We’re not
colluding with Forge.
They’re
the villains.”

“
This Forge group is behind
the creation of those weapons?” Yara asked.

“
It’s too soon to be
positive, but we aim to find out.”

“
And your train mission has
something to do with finding out?”

“
Not exactly.”

A part of Amaranthe wanted
to tell her about their scheme to kidnap the emperor, if only so
someone somewhere could come forward as a witness to testify on her
behalf should things go... badly. She was still carrying around the
note Sespian had given to Basilard. Though it wasn’t signed, if she
let Yara see it, she
might
believe it was authentic. But Amaranthe hadn’t
even spoken of the mission or shown the note to her journalist
acquaintance, Deret Mancrest, and he was far closer to qualifying
as an ally. Yara had grudgingly admitted that Amaranthe might have
helped the empire get rid of the makarovi in the dam, but that was
it.

Amaranthe wasn’t sure why she cared whether
this woman might become an ally or not. Because they had similar
backgrounds? Because she seemed to be in trouble with her superiors
and might be open to stretching the rules of the law? Because Yara
had an extra reason to feel loyal to the emperor too? Amaranthe
wondered how much Yara had spoken to Sespian and how much he had
looked into her record before promoting her. Had he simply been
moved to encourage the satrapy’s female enforcers, or had he found
something intriguing about her? Amaranthe wished she knew more
about how Yara had first come to his awareness.

She laughed inwardly. Why? It wasn’t as if
she was going to set them up on a date.

Her breath caught. Between
one second and the next, an idea formed in her head. What if
she
could
set
Yara up with Sespian? Sure, emperors were supposed to marry
warrior-caste women of suitable lineages, but Amaranthe had a
feeling Sespian wasn’t the sort to fall for refined and
sophisticated. Besides, anyone could look at Yara and see she had
all the attributes imperial men supposedly wanted in the mothers of
their children. Nobody would call her a beauty, but she could be
considered handsome—when she wasn’t glowering—and with that height
and brawn, she was sure to have strong children. Of course, Sespian
would care more about love, but maybe they could have that
too.