“Yes,” Marasi said, feeling sick. “But if I’m right, then she’ll be in a different kind of danger.”
“Indeed,” Waxillium said, subdued. “I should have seen this. Wayne will never let me live it down, once he finds out.”
“Wayne,” she said, realizing she hadn’t asked after him. “Where is he?”
Waxillium checked his pocket watch. “He should be back soon. I sent him out to cause a little mischief.”
8
Wayne strode up the steps into the Fourth Octant constabulary precinct offices. His ears felt way too hot. Why was it that conners wore such uncomfortable hats? Maybe that was why they were so grouchy all the time—walking about the city, picking on respectable folk. Even after just a few weeks in Elendel, Wayne knew that was basically what constables did.
Bad hats. A bad hat could make a man right disagreeable, and that was the truth.
He burst through the double doors, slamming them open. The room inside basically looked like a big cage. A wooden railing in the front to keep people separated from the conners, desks behind for eating food or lounging and talking. His entrance caused a few of the brown-uniformed conners to sit bolt upright, some reaching for revolvers at their hips.
“Who’s in charge of this place!” Wayne bellowed.
The astounded conners stared at him, then jumped to their feet, straightening uniforms and hastily sticking on their hats. He wore one of those uniforms himself. He’d traded for it at a precinct up in the Seventh Octant. He’d left a right good shirt as a replacement, as fair a trade as any man could ask. After all, that shirt had been silk.
“Sir!” one of the conners said. “You’ll want Captain Brettin, sir!”
“Well where the hell is he?” Wayne yelled. He’d picked up the right accent from listening to just a few conners. People, they misunderstood the word “accent.” They thought accents were those things everybody else had. But that wasn’t it at all. Every person had an individual accent, a blend of where he’d lived, what he did for a living, who his friends were.
People thought Wayne imitated accents. He didn’t. He outright stole them. They were the only things he was still allowed to steal, seeing as to how he’d turned to doing good with his life and stuff like that.
Several of the conners, still confused by his arrival, pointed toward a door at the side of the room. Others saluted, as if that were really the only thing they knew how to do. Wayne huffed through his thick, drooping fake mustache and stalked over to the door.
He acted as if he were just going to throw it open, but then pretended to hesitate and knocked instead.
Brettin would outrank him, barely. Really unfortunate, Wayne thought. Here I am, twenty-five years as a constable, and still only a three-bar. He should have been promoted ages ago.
As he raised his hand to knock on the door again, it flew open, revealing Brettin’s lean face. He looked annoyed. “What is this racket and yelling—” He froze as he saw Wayne. “Who are you?”
“Captain Guffon Trenchant,” Wayne said. “Seventh Octant.”
Brettin’s eyes flicked to Wayne’s insignia, then back to his face. There was a moment of confusion, and Wayne could see panic in Brettin’s eyes. He was trying to decide if he should remember Captain Guffon or not. The City was a big place, and—from what Wayne had overheard—Brettin was always mixing up people’s names.
“I … of course, Captain,” Brettin said. “Have … er, we met?”
Wayne blew out his mustaches. “We sat at the same table at the chairman’s dinner last spring!” He was feeling pretty good about this accent. It was a mixture of seventh-son lord and foreman of an ironworks, with just a hint of canal captain. Speaking with it felt like he’d stuffed cotton in half of his mouth and had borrowed the voice from an angry dog.
But he’d spent weeks in the city now, listening in pubs in different octants, visiting the railway tracks, chatting with people in parks. He’d collected a good number of accents, adding them to the ones he’d already stolen. Even when living in Weathering, he’d taken trips to the city to gather accents. You found the best ones here.
“I … oh, of course,” Brettin said. “Yes. Trenchant, I recognize you now. It has been a while.”
“Never mind that,” Wayne blustered. “What’s this about you having prisoners from the Vanishers Gang? Good steel, man! We had to learn about it from the broadsheets!”
“We have jurisdiction here, as the event—” Brettin hesitated, looking at the room full of intrigued constables studiously pretending not to be listening. “Step inside.”
Wayne eyed the watching men. Not a one of them had questioned him. Act like you were important, act like you were angry, and people just wanted to get out of your way. Basic psychology, that was. “Very well,” he said.
Brettin closed the door, speaking quickly and authoritatively. “They were captured in our octant and the crime they were committing was here. We have jurisdiction flat-out. I did send you all a missive.”
“A missive? Rust and Ruin, man! You know how many of those we get a day?”
“Well perhaps you should hire someone to sort through them,” Brettin said testily. “That’s what I eventually did.”
Wayne blew out his mustache. “Well, you could have sent someone over to inform us,” he said lamely.