Since then, he’d managed to coax her out for drinks a few other times, and once, they went to see a late-night horror movie. He wasn’t able to get any further on those occasions either, nor learn anything useful about her to satisfy the Espenians.
One evening, Bero waited in an alley outside of the Little Persimmon, hoping to catch her alone as she walked back to the subway, or follow her to where she lived. When twenty minutes passed and she still hadn’t emerged, he went back up the stairs to the lounge. The room appeared to be empty but he could hear voices. When he walked behind the bar, he discovered a small room—perhaps an ample storage closet, or a space where musicians and performers could retreat between sets, or simply an eccentric secret area. Instead of a door, the entryway was covered by a hanging purple curtain, but it was not drawn all the way across, and through a gap, Bero could see Molovni, Guriho, Otonyo, and Ema talking in low voices, standing around large pieces of paper spread out on a table.
Perhaps the stories about the nekolva having jade abilities were true because Molovni turned around and flung the curtain open. Bero leapt backward at the man’s ferocious glower. “What’re you doing back here?” the Ygutanian demanded. “Meeting’s over.”
“I think I dropped my keys near the bar earlier,” Bero lied quickly. “Anyone seen them?” He made a show of looking around the bar and the bench where he’d been sitting. Ema rolled up the papers on the table, but not before Bero glimpsed a map of Janloon and handdrawn building blueprints. Guriho came over to help Bero look. Molovni’s hooded eyes followed Bero with suspicion.
“None of us have seen your keys,” Ema said. “We’ll let you know if they turn up.”
Bero pretended to be disappointed, then said, “So, what were you guys talking about? Whatever it is, I can help, you know. What’s the plan?”
Molovni put a large hand on Bero’s shoulder and guided him back toward the stairs. “We’re still working on it, friend.” The foreigner’s grip was strong, as strong as a Green Bone. “If we need help, we’ll surely ask you.”
After that, Bero arrived early to the clanless meetings or stayed late, hoping to overhear more of what the ringleaders talked about, but he didn’t have any more luck catching them in their discussions. It seemed Molovni and the others had moved their private meetings to some other time and location.
Bero couldn’t figure out why they didn’t trust him. Maybe they thought the clans were watching him, even though he’d quit his job at the Double Double casino a long time ago. Did they lump him in with that obnoxious tool Tadino? Perhaps they considered him a risk because he’d been picked up by the police for vandalism in the past. He’d been good about keeping his head down lately, though, hadn’t he? It was possible they simply didn’t like him.
For a while, Bero was stuck providing the Espenians with whatever information he could glean from the general meetings, such as how many people showed up each week, which ones Molovni talked to, how the clanless were recruiting and fundraising. Eventually, by dint of his regular attendance and persistent interest, he managed to become the secretary of the Clanless Future Movement, which meant that for the past year, he’d been responsible for recording attendance at the meetings, taking and keeping notes of the happenings, and maintaining all the secret membership lists. It was easy enough to make copies of all these documents and pass them along to Galo and Berglund on a regular basis. This steady stream of mundane but detailed information had been enough to keep the ROE military intelligence goons sated, and Bero’s paychecks flowing, which was the most important thing.
Still, Galo and Berglund wanted more. They suspected the Ygutanians were supporting the aspiring Kekonese revolutionaries with money, guns, and other resources, and they wanted hard proof. They wanted a breakthrough.
From the other side of the exhibit room, Berglund caught his partner’s eye and made a surreptitious gesture to finish up the conversation.
Galo turned back to Bero. “If this Ema woman has influence with Molovni, she could bring you in. Try to get close to her again.”
Bero sneered at how easy Galo made it sound. “I’d like to, believe me.”
Galo glanced at Bero with undisguised irritation. “You should try to become her friend, get to know her, not just get under her skirt. Where exactly does she work? Does she have ties to Ygutanian interests? Details. This is of national importance.”
The Espenians had emphasized on several occasions that Ygutan wanted to encourage, manipulate, and take advantage of the nascent but growing anti-clan social movement in order to create political instability in Kekon. If the clans were thrown out of power, then jade would flood the market. Ygutan and its allies could acquire it more easily, instead of depending on illegal contracts and stingy black market middlemen. Civil unrest in Kekon might lead to a more pro-Ygutanian regime and a renegotiation of existing jade export contracts with the Republic of Espenia.