Page 29 of A Drop of Corruption

“Not to disguise the clothes,” said Malo. She spat a stream of black spit out the open window. “But to remove scent. Hair. Skin.”

“Yes,” said Ana. “We are in a city of Apoths. Any trace of a human can be used to track them. He had to be sure that even if we did find his leavings, we could not use them. And all the hair and blood and urine he left in the room above—that was Sujedo’s own! In other words, this man knows the nature of Apoths and wardens, and was almost unfathomably careful to only leave behind things hewishedto be found.”

“By hell…” muttered Malo. “What a person this is.”

“Yes!” said Ana. “A marvelously brilliant creature. Having made his way to this room, I think the impostor then changed into a different set of clothes—probably those of a servant. Simple, undistinguished apparel. He then simply walked downstairs and slipped out. To where, I do not yet know.”

A silence as we all absorbed this.

“But…but why do this atall?” asked Kardas, frustrated. “Why go to all this trouble? Why kidnap and butcher poor Sujedo, then pretend to be him for…for what, only half an afternoon, and then fabricate this scene?”

Malo’s whole body went stiff. “The vault,” she whispered.

“Correct!” said Ana triumphantly. “This impostor, pretending to be Sujedo, was lefttotally alonein the Iyalet vault of the bank for…oh, well, several minutes at least. And I think those several minutes were theentire pointof the kidnapping, this complicated façade, all of it. He went to these great lengths solely to get into that exact place, at that exact time.” She sniffed. “The question is—what did hedothere?”

We all stared at one another in horror.

“Well…well, whatdidhe do there?” demanded Kardas.

“Oh, don’t ask me,” said Ana. “I’ve no idea! I suppose we’ll have to open up all the damned boxes to figure that out, yes?”

—

The entire scenedissolved into pandemonium. Malo sprinted away without another word. Kardas began crying for his assistants to get to the bank, and soon the whole building filled up with the stamp and pound of Treasury feet as the delegation panicked. Soon it was just myself and Ana, slowly descending the crooked stairs as she clung to my arm.

“Better get me back to my rooms, Din,” she said. “My head is beginning to pound from all that mold and conversation. I am unsure which one was worse! And you, I think, shall need to go to the bank to see what is found, or rather not found.”

“Certainly, ma’am,” I said. “But…you truly think this was just all about a bank robbery, ma’am?”

“In all honesty, I’ve no fucking ideawhatthis was about anymore! But I am most curious to find out.”

“I see…But there are two things I can’t make sense of in all you said.”

“Good!” she said. “I appreciate it when you throw rocks at my ideas, Din. Keeps me from going too far up my own ass. Proceed.”

I coughed. “Yes…First, why all this show with the disappearance? If he wished to get into the vault, why come back here and keep pretending to be Sujedo, instead of simply running with what he’d taken?”

“I think the answer to that will depend on what was stolen from that vault,” said Ana. “But the likely answer is that by making his exit so inexplicable, our thief obscured the true crime entirely. I mean,no onehas been looking at the bank for nearly two weeks! Instead, people have been wandering around calling Sujedo’s name out in the street. A wonderful defensive play, really.”

“Perhaps, so,” I said. “But I also wonder—how was this impostor able to wield the blood authorities of a Treasury immunis?”

“Yes…that troubles me most out of all of this. There are threepotential answers, I believe. The first and simplest is that he himself actuallyisa Treasury immunis—but that is unlikely, for why then would he bother to pretend to be Sujedo? We shall discard this possibility,” she said with a sniff, “as it is tremendously stupid. The second, of course, is that when they captured Sujedo, they removed the cultured organ that granted him his Treasury authorities and implanted it in the impostor. But that is a very tricky and deadly operation. Swapping an organ is not simple work, even for an experienced medikker. It would take time, and the kidnappers would have had to move fast, otherwise Sujedo’s absence would be noted.”

“And the third possibility?”

She shrugged. “The third is that our impersonator managed to somehow transport the blood of Sujedo with him through means I have not yet devised! A bottle of Sujedo’s blood hidden on his person, say, would not have worked. It takes the touch of alivinghand bearing the proper authoritative blood, as you witnessed. We shall have to investigate further.”

We exited onto the Old Town streets, which were still ringing with the shouts of the departing delegation.

“The glow of my triumph fades,” said Ana quietly. “And much troubles me. I dislike hearing Kardas suggest that the king of Yarrow might be involved…and, to be frank, I dislike Kardas himself being present. An emitias? In such a delicate place? And to learn that he has been so profoundlyunsuccessfulin all his labors? It bothers me. Yet…we are staggering around in the dark. We know nothing of this impostor—his name, his nature, his origins, his goals, nothing. And I am disturbed by his depth of knowledge.”

“How do you mean, ma’am?”

“Well—the fucker simply knows too much! He knew about the delegation’s schedule, the bank, the safes! I would guess that the pool of individuals who know about any one of those subjects is quite limited. Let us derive the size of that pool, Din, and then go gazing in it.”

Chapter 12

I found the Treasury bankin no less of a stateof pandemonium than the delegation’s tower. All bank business had been shut down, and dozens of laborers and officers were milling about in the street, making futile demands for their money. The guards at the door were so rattled that they first denied me entrance, but I finally forced them to look at my heralds, and they allowed me in.