Galo’s expression softened a fraction, approaching sympathy. “Look, we’re not friends. You’re an asset and I’m your handler. But this one time, I’m giving you advice that’s for your own good.” He gestured out the window. “The leaders of the major clans are dead. Janloon is going to be a fucking mess. There’s an opportunity for the ROE to play a role in reshaping the political landscape, but it’s also likely the whole country will descend into chaos. The Green Bones will come after anyone associated with the Clanless Future Movement. The Ygutanians or the clanless could find out you led us to Molovni. What reason do you have to stay here?”
Bero hated that he had no answer. Maybe he had nothing in Janloon, but Janloon had him. Even rats had a sewer to call home, and Janloon was his sewer.
“You’ve done valuable work for the ROE and earned the chance to start life again somewhere else,” Galo said. “Maybe even be a different person.”
The apartment had been stripped bare except for the furniture. Berglund and one of the remaining soldiers were standing by the door waiting for Galo. Outside, sirens continued to rise and fall in the distance. Bero thought he smelled smoke. He saw the masked Espenian soldier slide his hand down to the military sidearm he carried and glance at Berglund, questioning. Galo gave a tiny shake of his head and met his partner’s impassive expression. A brief argument seemed to transpire silently between the Espenian agents.
Galo said to Bero, in an undertone, “I’m helping you out here, Catfish.”
With a clarity he hadn’t possessed until now, Bero wondered if the Espenians would subdue and abduct him, as they had with Molovni, or simply shoot him. He was a loose end, as expendable to them as everyone in the KJA building. With dull, resigned hatred, he said, “Where am I supposed to go?”
Galo turned toward the door. “Does it matter?”
“I guess not,” Bero said numbly. He followed the handler out of the building, and the masked soldier fell in behind them.
CHAPTER
27
Heaven Has Seen
Shae had finished nursing her baby daughter and was settling her back to sleep when her mother let out a wail from the living room where she was watching television. Shae called out, “Ma, what’s wrong?” When she received no answer, she put Tia down in the bassinet and hurried out to find Kaul Wan Ria with her hands clapped over her mouth, staring at the TV screen. KNB news was showing a scene that Shae did not at first understand. Only when she read the headline—EXPLOSION IN DOWNTOWN JANLOON—did she realize that she was looking at the smoking remains of the Kekon Jade Alliance headquarters.
It took her another two seconds to remember that there had been a KJA meeting this afternoon, that the Pillar and the acting Weather Man were in attendance. Her mother was unaware of this. “Horrible, horrible,” Ria said, shaking her head and sitting down on the edge of the sofa in front of the television. “What kind of people would do such a thing? I hope that no one we know was inside at the time.”
Shae’s legs swayed. She put a hand out and braced herself against the back of the nearest chair. Perhaps she was having a feverish, postpartum nightmare. Perhaps she was mistaken about the date of the KJA meeting. Was it really Thirdday today, not Secondday?
The phone in the kitchen rang. She staggered toward it and picked it up. It was Juen Nu. “I can’t reach the Pillar.” The Horn’s words, and the awful pause that followed them, shattered her denial. “Do you know if he was inside that building?”
Shae heard her own shallow breathing, and her voice, alarmingly weak. “I think so.”
Silence from the other end of the line. Then the Horn said, “Stay where you are, Shae-jen. I’ll send more Green Bones to the house, and all the rest I can spare to help the emergency workers. I’ll call again as soon as I learn anything more.” Another terrible, leaden pause. “Do you have anything you want to say to the clan, if you must?”
“Not yet,” Shae said. “Not until we know who did this.” She had no doubt that whoever was responsible for the explosion had meant to kill all the Green Bone clan leaders at once, but she wasn’t ready to think that her brother and her husband were both dead, and that she was now the Pillar of the clan and a widowed single mother. “Someone needs to tell Wen,” she said. “And the children. Someone has to tell . . .” She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence because it had become hard to breathe. She pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart was thudding hard and irregularly.