At night, Lungmen was even more dazzling than it was by day.
The neon lights painted the city in dreamlike colors. Roya stood looking at the road that divided the slums from the city proper, a soup dumpling from Lin Yuhsia's box hanging from his mouth.
"I heard your engagement to Ch'en Hui-chieh is ending."
"Mm. The news will probably spread next Monday."
Lin Yuhsia leaned casually against the railing, sword in hand, watching Ch'en lead the officers back from patrol in the slums and return to the Guard Department to clock out.
"So? Feeling down?"
"Not really." Roya crumpled the empty paper bag in his hand. "It was fake to begin with, so there's nothing to be upset about. If anything, I think once I lose this fiancé title, one day she might really drive Chi Xiao straight through me and give Lungmen's citizens the catharsis they've all been craving."
With a flick of his fingers, the paper ball arced cleanly into a trash can.
Lin Yuhsia rolled her eyes, knowing perfectly well that Roya had used his power for something this utterly pointless again.
"Then why don't you just tell her the truth?"
"And let her know that the uncle who looked after and protected her all through childhood was actually an Ursus spy who betrayed Lungmen—and even intended to assassinate her?"
Roya let out a faint breath.
It was late autumn now.
Nights in Lungmen were cold.
Who knew how many people would freeze to death again this winter.
"Even if I told her, it wouldn't change anything. Frankly, whether she stared at me in disbelief or broke down crying, I wouldn't find either one especially satisfying. I had enough trouble comforting you the first time."
When it was confirmed that Old Liu truly had been an Ursus spy, Lin Yuhsia had refused to believe it.
To both her and Ch'en, Liu Hui had been almost like family. As children, they had always gotten all kinds of treats from his fruit shop. During the New Year, he'd hand them thick red envelopes and warn them not to let their parents know.
Who could have imagined that such a man had betrayed Lungmen?
The first thing Lin Yuhsia showed then had been disbelief.
The second had been understanding what sort of end awaited him.
That was the first time Roya had ever seen her cry, and so he had gone alone when the time came to act.
Old Liu's betrayal had not been for greed alone. His family was in Ursus's hands. Both he and Roya knew that Ursus could not be trusted—but in the end, there had been nothing to do except gamble.
"I didn't need your comfort."
"Yes, yes. Not like you were the one who hid behind me when firecrackers went off—ow!"
Roya sucked in a sharp breath as Lin Yuhsia's slender hand twisted hard into his waist.
"Enough talking. Time to work." Lin Yuhsia withdrew her hand. "That Ursus spy has decided to leave tonight. He contacted some cockroaches in Lungmen and arranged to use an old drainage route."
"He managed to keep his nerve until now. I'll give him that."
"Don't arrest him right away. Trace the people handling the handoff behind him. Best if we can figure out which duke still has designs on Lungmen."
Who would believe there wasn't some Ursus grand duke pulling strings behind this if someone had dared move against Ch'en Hui-chieh?
Roya and Lin Yuhsia both understood the principle of using a long line to catch a big fish. Otherwise, they would never have let the man remain at large until now.
"Achoo."
Ch'en Hui-chieh sneezed, then stared at the punk in front of her in disbelief.
"A-Fa, are you serious?"
"Yes. That Ursus guy lives next door to me. I've seen him meeting other Ursus people several times. And those medicines—there's no way he got them casually."
As one of the informants Ch'en had cultivated in secret, A-Fa knew the connection between her and Big Sister Hoshiguma, and so he took her instructions seriously. Only yesterday Ch'en had asked him to investigate the pharmacy that Roya frequented. Today he already had results.
"I asked around among my brothers in the slums. Looks like he plans to leave Lungmen tonight, through the drainage system. Someone should be taking him out."
"Tonight..."
Ch'en glanced at the date.
It was Friday—the exact day Roya always went to that pharmacy.
And according to A-Fa, the owner of that pharmacy had only arrived in Lungmen about a year ago, no more than a week apart from Roya himself.
As all the clues came together, Ch'en felt a suspicion begin to form.
After a moment's thought, she took out her communicator and dialed Roya's number.
"Hello? What is it?"
The background on his end was not especially noisy. Faintly, she could hear car horns. It didn't sound like he was in the city center.
"Are you free? I want to discuss the matter of dissolving our engagement."
"What is there to discuss? From now on I'll just save the cost of two meals a day. Unless you're planning to reimburse me?"
"Fine. I can do that."
"Actually, never mind. I've got something to deal with right now. I'm over in the slums."
Roya hung up.
The reason he'd said he was in the slums was simple: in Ch'en's eyes, he was a man incapable of doing anything good. If he said he was in the slums, she'd only assume he was up to no good. Less likely to arouse suspicion that way.
"So Ch'en Hui-chieh owes you a year's worth of meals. Does that mean you owe me half a year's worth too?"
Lin Yuhsia remembered perfectly well that Roya had been freeloading off her dinners for six months now. From initial irritation to gradual acceptance and now automatically setting aside an extra helping, even she had to admit that habit was a terrifying thing.
"Then I'll just put your name down as my heir in my will. Happy?"
Roya shot her a look, adjusted his hat and sunglasses, touched the cat ears on the hat, pulled on his mask, and walked straight into the clinic before him.
The clinic was clean—not at all the sort of filthy black-market place one might expect.
But today, the owner was not out front like usual.
"Doctor Andrei? You in?"
"Here, here."
An utterly ordinary Ursus man who looked to be about thirty came out from the back room. He was not wearing his white coat today.
"It's you again, Mr. Noah."
Doctor Andrei was fairly familiar with this customer by now. "Noah" had begun frequenting his business around a year ago. He was talkative and spent money freely, always buying large quantities of medicine.
"Yep. Same as usual this time. Sedatives and painkillers and the like. If you happen to have suppressants for Oripathy, even better."
"The first two I've already got set aside for you. As for the last one..." Andrei shrugged and pulled out two boxes of medicine from beneath the counter. "My advice is not to buy it. It's all fake anyway."
The boxes contained a mess of supplies: sedatives, painkillers, even hallucinogens.
"That's a lot... I can't use all this myself."
"They're a gift."
Andrei pointed toward the room behind the clinic.
"I was packing my bags just now. I won't be running the shop anymore."
"That's a shame."
Roya did not refuse the gesture.
"I hope we'll meet again."
"Haha. If there's ever a chance, you can come find me. My hometown's near Chernobog."
"What a coincidence." Roya's interest sharpened at once. "I'm from Chernobog too."
In that sense, perhaps they really were countrymen of a sort.
Though Andrei could tell at a glance that Roya was not actually Ursus—the man's accent sounded more like Great Yan or Victoria.
"Not really." Andrei smiled. "When are you leaving?"
"As soon as I finish packing."
"That so..."
After thinking a moment, Roya removed the necklace from around his own neck and handed it to Andrei.
"Then take this as payment for the medicines."
The necklace looked expensive.
Andrei saw nothing strange in the exchange. Today was the day Roya usually came, and he had always worn that necklace, saying it brought him luck.
Tucking it into his pocket, Andrei pressed down the strange reluctance in his chest.
"Goodbye, my friend."
"Goodbye."
Roya cradled the medicine and smiled as he bid farewell.
"Maybe we'll meet again sooner than you think. At the very least, after we die, we should end up in the same place."
Andrei felt vaguely as though there was a deeper meaning in those words, but he did not suspect anything.
He simply assumed Roya was some gangster enforcer. The gangs always had a heavy need for medicines like these, after all. There was never a shortage of open and covert violence in the underworld.
As for meeting again?
In all likelihood, they never would.
Perhaps only after death.
After all, what destination awaited a gangster thug and a spy, if not hell?
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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