Page 69 of A Drop of Corruption

Now it was my mouth that fell open. I coughed, recovered, and said, “Ahh. Well. That is rather exactly what the device looked like, ma’am.” Then I added: “And, ah, here I am addressing you, Commander-Prificto.”

Thelenai stared at me, then Malo, then the closed doors. “How…how did she know that?” She looked to the wardens. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you? Did you tellanyonewhat you witnessed?”

The wardens shook their heads. Sabudara looked especially truculent.

“Didn’t have anyone to tell, ma’am,” said Malo. “We were naked in a box. Not thesamebox, mind…”

“And you?” said Thelenai, this time to her three commanders and the rest of her functionaries. All of them quickly shook their heads.

A lingering silence.

Then Ana’s voice at the door: “Well? Shall you let me in or not?”

“Oh, hell!” snapped Thelenai. “Get her in here and let us find out how she knew that!”

—

When Ana wasfinally admitted, the sheer amount of smugness radiating off her was so tremendous that it drew glares from nearly everyone. She entered blindfolded, bowing as she grasped the forearm of a terrified porter—the very same young man who had fretted over her mounds of oyster shells—and she bore a tremendous sack ofpapers over one shoulder. The porter led her to a chair, and she fumblingly sat and dismissed him with a flick of her fingers. The boy ran away like the building was on fire.

“Well!” said Ana cheerfully as she slid up to the table. “Good morning, all.”

Thelenai struggled to recover her chilly composure. “Is it?” she snapped. “Breaching an investigation of such an incident is a terrible offense, Dolabra. But before we even begin assessing that, I must demand…how did you know what Kol saw in that jungle? Who gave you this information?”

“Oh, of course,” said Ana. “I have two answers to that, ma’am—one indirect, and one direct. Shall that suffice?”

Thelenai regarded Ana like she was a clump of turd waiting to be scraped off her boot. “If you must.”

“For the indirect—I regret to inform you that much of the city is now at least vaguely aware of what has happened. Sending up a big red flare, and then a bunch of folk in warding suits rushing out to set fire to a chunk of the jungle…well, that does give one ideas. And it informed my conclusions about what Din might have encountered during his foray.” She reached into her satchel and pulled out a huge, messy mound of parchments. “But a more direct answer would be to say thatyougave me the information, ma’am.”

“I?” said Thelenai, affronted. “Idid?”

“Indeed.” Ana hauled out yet another massive stack of parchments and slapped it down with an echoing thud. “I have been studying the records of all the thefts that have taken place on the canals over the past two years, you see,” she continued, blindly flipping through the parchments and sliding out a handful of documents. “The very onesyougave me, Commander-Prificto. It took me some time to find any pattern, but a pattern there was! For though the smugglers have tended to target the same precursors and shipments—valuable materials for healing grafts, and so on—there were a fewanomaliesspaced out over the months, thefts that made no sense at all…until I realized that for these, the smugglers weren’t stealing the reagentsbut rather theinstrumentsshipped with them!” Grinning, she arranged the parchments in a sloppy grid before her. “The baker’s baskets as opposed to the flour, so to speak.”

“Smugglers would have no use for instruments, though,” said Thelenai. “Since they lack any knowledge of their construction and use.”

“So one might imagine,” said Ana. “Yet the facts say otherwise! The more I read about these components, the more I began to comprehend the limited combinations they could be used in. And then I began to realizewhathe was likely making…”

“What…who was making?” asked Thelenai faintly.

“Oh, our impostor, of course,” said Ana mildly. “I am no Apoth, of course, but I guessed he was constructing what is called adegradation diffuser,outfitted with a disperser. Looks like a stack of pots with a glass chimney on top and a bunch of pipes. My understanding is that the instrument takes stable reagents and runs them through a series of cycles until they separate into their original, reactive states. For most reagents, this wouldn’t betoodangerous, but…” She slid out yet another piece of parchment. “Some ten months ago, a shipment of highly advanced, altered fertilizer was stolen by smugglers! One intended for an Apoth orchard in the second ring. As such, it contained a high concentration of the base ingredientqudaydin kani.Or, in layman’s terms, the most potent of leviathan’s blood! Runthatthrough a degradation diffuser too many times, and then feed it through a disperser so it sends a fine mist floating through the air, and, well…one shudders to imagine the consequences! But then, as I said, I am no Apoth. I could be wrong.”

There was a stunned silence.

Grinning wider, Ana looked around the room, still blindfolded. “AmI wrong?”

Thelenai’s side of the room erupted into muttering. One of her commanders snatched the parchments from Ana and gave them to Thelenai, who studied them with a dazed expression.

“A…a degradation diffuser is animmenselycomplex instrument,”Thelenai said haltingly. “We have only three here in all of Yarrowdale. The idea that some smuggler could steal some spare parts and build one out in the jungle is…is…”

“Insane!” said Ana. “Utterly mad! I agree. But then, this man is an absolute genius, apparently. We should not underestimate him.” She extended a hand to Thelenai: an insufferably magnanimous gesture. “And, indeed, you did not, ma’am. Very wise of you. I commend you for your foresight.”

“What do you mean? I did not what?”

“Underestimate him,” said Ana smoothly. “That, I assume, is why you assigned him to work within the Shroud.”

The entire room seemed to slowly tense: save Ana, who simply slid yet another sheaf of parchment out of her stack and thoughtfully tapped it with one finger.

“Immunis!” said Thelenai sharply. “Are you suggesting that…that I havemetthis criminal?”