Ana’s fingers paused as she found some curious phrase in the text, like a tangle in a loom. “But…these manifestations were slightly different from Blas’s.”
“All shoots emerged from the torso,” said Uhad, “but we did notice these tended to emerge lower. From the middle of the back rather than the top near the neck, as with Commander Blas. We’re not sure why. Nusis is working on it.”
Nusis nodded cheerily, as if examining why plants might burst from someone’s back and not their neck was the most exciting thing in the world.
“They didn’t die at the exact same time, either,” said Uhad. “We’re working off of witness reports here, but there appears to have been a nine-or ten-hour window between the first death and the last.”
“This would suggest,” said Nusis, “that they were infected with the dappleglass spores at different times.”
“Do we know much about their movements the day before they died?” asked Ana.
“We know enough to know they haven’t been all in the same place,” said Kalista lazily. “No overlap in station duty, patrols, projects…It all makes tracing the point of contagion damned hard.”
Ana flipped a page over and moved on to the next, reading it with her fingers. “Do we have lists of their known associates?”
“Not yet,” drawled Kalista.
“Have we interviewed any friends or comrades?”
“Not yet,” said Kalista. “We haven’t interviewed anyone at all. Most of the work we’ve done in Engineering is to try to predict and stop the next attack.”
Ana’s brow furrowed. “Next attack?”
“The operating theory,” explained Uhad, “is that Engineering officers are being targeted. Perhaps in hopes that their inevitable bloom might damage our fortifications, causing another breach, but…after some analysis, we think this somewhat unlikely.”
“I assume,” said Ana, turning to Nusis, “because planning when dappleglass blooms inside someone is utterly fucking mad?”
Nusis’s cheery smile dimmed. She glanced at Uhad, who gave the slightest shake of his head—Ignore it.
“Ah…correct,” said Nusis. “It would be impossible to time a bloom with any accuracy. The nature of a body, the person’s diet, movement, activity, not to mention the number of spores inhaled…these all would affect the growth rate of the dappleglass.”
“And the dead didn’t all work on the walls,” sighed Uhad. “So the idea that someone poisoned ten random Engineers in hopes that some would work in the area where this strut was located—and then, on top of that, that the dappleglass within them would bloom at the exact right time to damage this one exact strut…Well, the idea’s a little preposterous.”
“But they were all Engineers,” said Kalista. “And all lower officers—princeps and signums and captains. That’s who spends most of their time inside the walls.”
“Yet no commanders, like Blas was,” said Ana.
“No,” said Uhad. “But there seems to be a targeting here, a selection. We just can’t see the sense of it yet. Blas was murdered with great intent. We must assume the same for these ten.”
Ana was rocking back and forth in her chair very fast now, flipping over page after page of parchment with her fingers, until she came to the very last one. Her face was tight, expressionless. I was reminded of a barge pilot trying to navigate a narrow canal.
“I would like a list of all witnesses to the deaths,” she said finally.
“That can be done,” said Uhad.
“And I want a list of all the living assignments of the dead going back one year,” said Ana. “As well as a list of who was residing in the same facilities at those times.”
Kalista snuck a wary glance at Uhad. “That’s a tremendous amount of information,” she said.
“But you Engineers have it, don’t you?” said Ana. “The Empire simply loves to write shit down, and I’d assume the living arrangements of the Iyalets here in Talagray would be well recorded.”
“I can get it,” said Kalista reluctantly. “But…it’s a lot. And, as you can expect, the Engineers are overtaxed right now. Might I ask why you need it?”
“To save us all some goddamned time,” said Ana, grinning. “We want to talk to everyone who could know something, yes? Seems wise to start with who’s been physically around the victims for weeks and months.” Then she casually added: “As well as who they might have been fucking. Living arrangements often reveal such relationships—who’s followed who, month after month. Tricky to slip into someone’s bedroom through a window. Better to be in the same building. And lovers, of course, are vital sources of information.”