“Perhaps,” said Ana. “But if she really is our killer, she’s clever, and skilled at evasion. She used dernpaste to hide her features, and knew how to move across country quickly. And we’ve no idea where she is now. But we now seem to really be getting somewhere, boys! We possibly have a who. Kind of think we have a how—for, presumably, Jolgalgan came to one of these secret meetings of Engineers and poisoned them all there. And thanks to your and Miljin’s work yesterday, Din, we also have a when—the Engineers were poisoned eight days before the breach, the date of their last meeting, the sixth of Kyuz. Now we just need the where. And Strovi here has already given us the materials we need to solve the rest!” She turned her blindfolded face to him. “These orders are from every fernpaper miller in the city, correct, Captain?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Strovi. “All we could find.”
“And we’re looking for big orders. All conducted on or about eight days before the breach—the day of the poisoning.” She pursed her mouth, chewing on an especially tough piece of gristle, then said, “There are, I think, four options.”
Strovi looked startled. “Y-you’ve already read them all, ma’am?”
“Our conversation was interesting, Captain,” she said. “But not so interesting as to occupy the whole of my attention…” Still blindfolded, she snatched up four different papers, walked over on her knees, fumbled to find Strovi’s legs, and then stuffed the papers into his lap. Then she leaned forward to search the top one with her fingers until she pointed to a line. “This mill here—Ostrok’s? See it? Order for four panels, nine days before the breach.”
Strovi looked positively alarmed to have Ana invade his space so thoroughly, her head hovering over his knees as she pressed her index finger into the papers atop his crotch. “Ahh. Y-yes, ma’am,” he said. “I see it.”
“And then this one here.” She jabbed at the paper, hard. Strovi twitched. “Rakmon. Six fernpaper panels, ordered five days before the breach.”
“Y-yes, an—”
“And then this one.” Another jab, this one very hard. Strovi yelped slightly.
“Ana!” I said.
“Mm?” she said. “What is it, Din?”
“I rather think he believes you. Yes, Captain?”
Strovi nodded vigorously. “Y-yes. Very much so. Totally do, ma’am.”
“Oh,” she said mildly. She slid out from his lap and waved the papers about, yawning. “Anyways. These are the first three options that fit the timeline that Din has so helpfully provided. But I don’t think any of them are the best candidates.”
“But…are you suggesting, ma’am,” said Strovi, still shaken, “that you can remember all of the fernpaper orders I just gave to you? And you can just summon up any one of them in your memory as you please?”
Ana grinned. “I remember and analyze all things interesting, Captain. And this has kept me interested. Thus far, at least.”
I smirked, for I was familiar with this line. But I wondered—was Ana actually an engraver? Was that her augmentation? Was she now mentally summoning all the words she’d read with her fingers as she’d lain on that floor? Yet that didn’t seem right. Though engravers like myself could instantly recall huge amounts of information, we couldn’t make the wild jumps of intuition that Ana seemed so prone to.
“I will say I am more interested in what’s not on these lists,” Ana continued, “than what is. There are a few shops, Strovi, that did not respond to your inquiries. Despite you sending some goddamn Legionnaires to their doorstep. Including this shop,” she said. A finger stabbed out, nearly piercing one parchment on the floor. “The fernpaper miller Yonas Suberek. This man did not answer your summons and was marked absent.”
Strovi looked bewildered. “Ah…I was not there for that inquiry, ma’am, so I will have to take your word for that. But all we can do is inquire. We can’t compel people to be present and answe—”
“And yet!” she said. She ripped another parchment out from the pile and slapped it with the back of her hand. “His neighbor was another miller. Fellow by the name of Linz Kestip. Now, Kestip dutifully gave you all of his most recent fernpaper orders…including one order that actually came from his neighbor, this absent Suberek! A transfer of inventory, in a way, from Kestip to Suberek. For six fernpaper panels! That’s quite a lot. This is the fourth order I mentioned. And this is our best candidate.”