Page 36 of City of the Lost
I shrugged. “As you asked so nicely, sure. But my friends get to leave. This is my case. You don’t need them.”
Rowan sucked in an exasperated breath. “I hardly think—”
“Deal,” Hon said, cutting him off.
Yeah, I liked this chick.
“I’m coming with you,” Azren said.
I shot him a meaningful look, the heck-no-you’re-a-Shedim-and-need-to-stay-off-their-radar look, but he returned it with a blank stare.
Hon looked to me, and I shrugged. If I protested too much, it would look suspicious. “Fine, let’s get this done.”
* * *
We were hustledstraight from a black, unmarked van, through an underground parking lot, into a lift, and onto a claustrophobic floor with no windows and several tiny interview rooms.
Rowan Adams was silent the whole way, but Hon and her companion, Leo, kept up an easy banter that spoke of years of familiarity. Rowan ushered us into a small room containing a table and four chairs.
“Sit.”
Oh, man. That dude seriously needed an enema or something. Azren pulled out a chair and waited.
“I think he’s being chivalrous,” Hon said with amusement.
Azren’s eyes twinkled. He was so taking the piss right now, but it alleviated the tension bubbling inside me. I parked my butt with a smirk and Azren took the seat beside me. Hon and Leo leaned up against the wall and Rowan stationed himself by the door. I guess we were waiting for the big guns, and sure enough, with a neat clip of court shoes, Loraine Vincent entered the room a moment later. Head of Collective Operations, the woman was a stone-cold machine. She also had a thing about recruiting me, which was so not going to happen. She inclined her head in Rowan’s direction, and he stepped out and closed the door behind him.
Loraine pulled out the seat opposite us and slipped into it. She fixed her pale gray eyes on us, and her lips tightened a fraction.
“How many have you killed?” she asked.
O-okay. We were diving straight in, it seemed. “Not sure. A lot. We lost count tonight.”
She pursed her lips. “And how did you ... come across them?”
This was the tricky bit. She couldn’t know about the Shedim case, and that Noir and I had gone into the Underground to look for them. In fact, Noir had to stay out of this completely. I shrugged. “Chasing a lead on another case led me to the Underground, and there was a breach in Southside.”
The slight twitch in her left eye was the only indication that this information bothered her.
“I sealed it back up best I could, but I think that’s how they got out.”
“What case were you working on that would lead you to the Underground?”
I smirked. “Come now, you know I can’t divulge that. Client confidentiality.”
The left side of her mouth quirked. “Okay, Miss Bastion. I’ll buy that you stumbled across the Lost in the Underground. What I don’t understand is why you never reported it to the proper authorities?”
Oh, I was so ready for this question. “Proper authorities? You mean the people who locked up a bunch of Lost in the Underground in the first place? The ones that lied to the city about it?”
She pursed her lips, looking like she’d bitten into a lemon.
I gave a little derisive snort. “If you can cover up something like that, imagine what you could do to someone who found out about your little secret.” I sat back and crossed my arms. “I kept my mouth shut and helped to clean up your mess, and honestly, I thought you guys were on it too, but obviously not.” I glanced at Hon. “You seem busy with your metal monster problem. So, yeah, I’ll accept a hearty thank you in the form of cash or check.”
Leo chuckled, not bothering to hide his mirth.
Loraine, however, was not so amused. She studied me with her impregnable stare for a long beat and then dropped her gaze to reach into her bag and pull out a sheaf of papers. She dropped them on the table and then slid them across to me with an index finger. Her nails were cut short and blunt, just like the woman.
The papers got a cursory glance. “What’s this?”
