Page 73 of Our Violent Ends
“And isn’t that mightily tiring?” Kathleen demanded. “We destroy each other because we wish to be the only ones in this city, and we care little how much the other will hurt. How do we live like that?”
Silence. Roma’s expression was tight, like he suddenly couldn’t remember how he got pulled into this conversation. Above them, the clouds were blowing in, gathering with thickness to prepare for what would be a storm.
“I am sorry.”
Now it was Kathleen’s turn to blink. “Whatever for?”
“For not having a solution, I suppose.”
Was he really, though? How could any of them truly be sorry when they did nothing to stop it?
“It is no good to be sorry,” Kathleen said plainly. She knew clear as day that Juliette had realized this a long time ago. That was why her cousin had never put into effect any of her plans. Why her cousin had always brushed the topic away, had resisted from engaging directly, speaking of her parties and speakeasies instead in her letter replies. “So long as the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers have hope for a future where they are the only mighty power, the blood feud lives on.”
Roma Montagov shrugged. “Then there is a solution. Destroy the gangs.”
Kathleen lurched, almost colliding with the wall that they stood alongside. “No,” she said, horrified. “That might be worse than having a blood feud.”
That would be unending grappling, rulers ousted at every turn or politicians who lied at every moment. No one would be as loyal to this city as gangsters were to it.No one.
It was then that the sound of smashing glass interrupted Kathleen’s train of thought, and her gaze whipped up to find a book falling through one of the third-floor windows. There was a shout from inside the building, then a whole series of footsteps thundering up—a voice that sounded like Tyler calling for backup.
“There is our cue,” Roma Montagov said, already striding for the entrance.
Heart pounding, Kathleen made to follow, goose bumps rising at the back of her neck. She was always on edge when she had to perform tasks that could get her in trouble, and breaking into their own Scarlet labs was certainly more troublesome than going undercover at Communist meetings.
“Best to hurry,” Kathleen warned. “There’s no telling how long Juliette can hold Tyler’s attention away for.”
They descended into the lab quickly. It was pitch-dark. Kathleen squinted in haste to avoid colliding with a worktable, her hands groping about to find her way. Roma did not seem to have the same problem, pulling a small burlap sack from his coat and using the thinnest stream of moonlight coming from the windows to light his way. He made fast work of taking samples from the mountain in the center of the lab. The texture was as malleable as clay, as light as dust.
“Miss Lang, where are the papers?”
Kathleen wrinkled her nose, still squinting without much success. “They made almost a dozen copies, so they’re all around us. Just make sure you find a complete set, not duplicates of the same page.”
Roma set down the burlap sack and dug into his pocket again, coming out with a small box in his hand. Kathleen didn’t register what he was doing until there was awhoosh!sound and a flame burst to life between his fingers, eating up the matchstick.
“Are you mad?” Kathleen hissed. “Put that out! The vaccine isflammable.”
With a grimace, Roma pinched the match out. “No fuss,” he said. He reached for a stack of papers right beside him. “I think I’ve got it.”
Kathleen huffed, wiping a thin sheen of sweat from her forehead. She had had one job—to watch him—and this place had almost gone up in flames.
Above them, there came the rumbling of more footsteps. The sound of glass shattering again echoed inside the building, and then, almost scaring the life out of Kathleen, a fast tapping came on the windows to the lab. When her gaze whipped to the moonlight, she found Juliette gesturing frantically for them to hurry.
“You have everything?” Kathleen asked Roma.
Roma gestured to the materials in his hand. “Thank you for aiding a White Flower break-in, Miss Lang.”
Juliette waited outside impatiently, half thinking that it would be Tyler emerging before Kathleen and Roma did. The timing could ruin this whole scheme. All it would take was Tyler freeing himself from the bonds that she had secured over him, bonds that she had secured rather hastily after attacking him from behind with a bag over his head. Time had been of the essence: it was more important for her to get out than it was to keep him tied down all night.
At last Kathleen and Roma emerged from the restaurant, stepping back into the busyness of Chenghuangmiao. At the same moment, there was a shout from above, loud because of the broken window. A few late-night strollers glanced up but did not pause, paying no heed to the strange events that occurred in these places.
Abang. Tyler had freed himself.
“I’ll try to keep him distracted,” Kathleen said, already moving back in the direction of the restaurant. “Both of you, go!”
They didn’t need more prompting. Side by side, Roma and Juliette kept a steady, nonsuspicious pace until Tyler burst out from the building, bellowing into the night and asking for the intruder to show himself. By then enough time had passed that they had faded into the crowd and could pick up speed. Though there weren’t as many people here in the night as in the day, it was enough cover to blend in and step into an alleyway out of Tyler’s sight utterly.
“Come on,” Juliette whispered, forging ahead. The alley walls loomed alongside them, tall and foreboding. “Remember your bargain, Roma. Find me the Frenchman.”
