Midnight Thoughts ~ Shadow & Bone

11

"I mean it. We need a demo man." I sighed as we pushed through the people crowding the streets around the Emerald Palace.

"You're still on that?" Kaz asked Jesper exasperatedly.

"I just brought it up tonight." I rolled my eyes.

"Jesper," I said, "you ask for an explosives expert on every job." He sighed.

"Because I don't want to be the one you point to and say, 'Explode something for us.'" He pointed between us. "That is not a Jesper talent. I shoot things with style. And I look good! Just play to my strengths, boss." Kaz shook his head.

"Alina Starkov will be kept at the Little Palace," he told the boy. "Entering the Little Palace requires us to be quiet. Blowing something up, we've likely failed." Jesper shrugged.

"Then we should take Inej. She's a good investment. More quiet than I'll ever be." He lowered his voice slightly. "She can't stay here, you know that." He frowned and stopped walking, making us stop and look back at him. "Whoa. Hang on, aren't we on Pekka's turf now?" Kaz stepped closer to him, lowering his voice.

"I go to Heleen now and ask for her buyout, she knows I need Inej and sets a price I can't pay." Jesper nodded, his frown deepening.

"That's evil," he said. "Well, how do you know that?" The shorter boy sighed.

"It's what I would do." He started to walk away, leaving both of us to follow him. "Besides, Inej refuses to kill. Would you trust her in a matter of life and death?" I sighed, and Jesper shrugged.

"Well, I've trusted her so far and I'm still alive, so, yeah." He gestured up at the Emerald Palace, looming down the street like the embodiment of the impossible job itself. "Now, you want to tell me why we're scoping out a rival club?" Kaz sighed, glancing up at me.

"To have a talk with an old business partner." Jesper shook his head.

"The bouncers will know you on sight."

"That's why I brought you two." He smirked up at us. "Make sure they don't see me." He walked away, and Jesper sighed, adjusting his collar aggressively.

"Handsome decoy is also not a Jesper talent." I chuckled.

"Speak for yourself," I told him. "It's one of my specialties." I looked around the area as I saw Kaz inching towards the door, pressed up against the wall. I nudged Jesper quickly and pointed up at the sign. "Hey, I think that sign's a bit crooked," I muttered. I smirked up at him. "Take care of it, will you?" He grinned and nodded, placing a hand carefully on one of his guns as he waited for the bouncers to turn away from us. I ducked away from the tall Zemini boy and around one of the stalls to remain invisible.

Jesper shot towards the sign, breaking one of the chains holding it up in half. The bouncers spun around as he re-holstered his gun.

"You!" one of them shouted. Jesper looked around frantically.

"You heard that, too?" he asked. They lifted their guns cautiously.

"Was that you?" the other asked. He shook his head.

"No, I'm, uh..." I gulped, hoping he would be able to come up with something quickly. "I'm, uh, bouncing for the Clipper." The Dime Lion frowned.

"Haven't seen you before," he said. "Where's Tombar?" I sighed, and Jesper shrugged.

"Oh. Don't know. Hey!" He pointed up at the partially broken sign. "Was that sign damaged before?" The bouncers looked up quickly, and he whipped his other gun out, shooting the other chain quickly and returning it to his holster. I summoned the smallest amount of shadow to cover the gun, just to make sure they couldn't see it smoking from the barrel.

"Saints!" Jesper cried as the guards spun towards him again. "Where was that?" The bouncers looked around the square frantically, and Jesper ran over to me, ducking behind the crate next to me as the men looked around for him. I crouched next to him and pointed to a narrow alley behind me. He nodded, and we took off running. We sat on either side of it, leaning against the walls facing each other.

"So who is this 'old business partner' Kaz is looking for?" he asked. "Why do we need them?" I glanced around the narrow alleyway and sighed.

"They know someone who can get us across the Fold," I told him quietly. "He's gonna try to find out how to find him." He nodded, and I began carving into the stone beneath us with one of my knives until Kaz came limping over frantically. He looked down at me with panic in his eyes, handing me a small slip of paper.

"Get there," he commanded. "Quickly, before Inej does something we will all regret." I gulped and took the paper carefully, jumping up and scaling the wall as quickly as I could. I ran across rooftop after rooftop, seeing Jesper and Kaz following from the ground until I reached the right building. I climbed down the side and slid in through a window in the hallway, sprinting through the building until I got to the right room. I threw open the door and ducked through the room, seeing Inej with her knife to a man's throat.

"Don't!" I cried. She spun around, throwing a second knife towards me. I ducked to the side, and the blade just barely grazed my cheek before lodging itself in the wall. She took a trembling breath.

"Karlin," she muttered. Uneven footsteps approached behind me, and Kaz stepped into the doorway, breathing heavily.

"He's our way to Alina Starkov," he told her quickly. She looked down at the trembling man in the chair.

"Him?" he asked. Kaz nodded.

"Heleen knew it," he said. "She was using you to sabotage our mission." The Suli girl shook her head, pressing her blade closer to the man's neck.

"She and I made a deal." He shook his head frantically.

"It isn't worth more than what we get with him alive." She looked up at him sadly.

"You choose him over my freedom?" she asked quietly. I held up a hand in an attempt to calm her.

"You assume it's one or the other," I told her gently. Her jaw clenched, but she pulled away her knife, making the man sob in relief. Kaz limped over, scowling down at him.

"Conductor," he said professionally. "I have a job for you. Get us to the Little Palace."