better than ever. Everybody's happy. It was your plan. And I never cared about being the boss."
"But you hate him," said Bean.
She hesitated. "It feels like he's always laughing at me."
"How do you know what little kids are scared of?"
"Cause I used to be one," said Poke. "And I remember."
"Ulysses isn't going to hurt Achilles," said Bean.
"I know that," said Poke.
"Because you're planning to find Achilles and protect him."
"I'm planning to stay right here and watch out for the children."
"Or else maybe you're planning to find Ulysses first and kill him."
"How? He's bigger than me. By a lot."
"You didn't come out here to pee," said Bean. "Or else your bladder's the size of a gumball."
"You listened?"
Bean shrugged. "You wouldn't let me watch."
"You think too much, but you don't know enough to make sense of what's going on."
"I think Achilles was lying to us about what he's going to do," said Bean, "and I think you're lying to me right now."
"Get used to it," said Poke. "The world is full of liars."
"Ulysses doesn't care who he kills," said Bean. "He'd be just as happy to kill you as Achilles."
Poke shook her head impatiently. "Ulysses is nothing. He isn't going to hurt anybody. He's all brag."
"So why are you up?" asked Bean.
Poke shrugged.
" You're going to try to kill Achilles, aren't you," said Bean. "And make it look like Ulysses did it."
She rolled her eyes. "Did you drink a big glass of stupid juice tonight?"
"I'm smart enough to know you're lying!"
"Go back to sleep," she said. "Go back to the other children."
He regarded her for a while, and then obeyed.
Or rather, seemed to obey. He went back into the crawl space where they slept these days, but immediately crept out the back way and clambered up crates, drums, low walls, high walls, and finally got up onto a low-hanging roof. He walked to the edge in time to see Poke slip out of the alley into the street. She was going somewhere. To meet someone.
Bean slid down a pipe onto a rainbarrel, and scurried along Korte Hoog Straat after her. He tried to be quiet, but she wasn't trying, and there were other noises of the city, so she never heard his footfalls. He clung to the shadows of walls, but didn't dodge around too much. It was pretty straightforward, following her - she only turned twice. Headed for the river. Meeting someone.
Bean had two guesses. It was either Ulysses or Achilles. Who else did she know, that wasn't already asleep in the nest? But then, why meet either of them? To plead with Ulysses for Achilles' life? To heroically offer herself in his place? Or to try to persuade Achilles to come back and face down Ulysses instead of hiding? No, these were all things that Bean might have thought of doing - but Poke didn't think that far ahead.
Poke stopped in the middle of an open space on the dock at Scheepmakershaven and looked around. Then she saw what she was looking for. Bean strained to see. Someone waiting in a deep shadow. Bean climbed up on a big packing crate, trying to get a better view. He heard the two voices - both children - but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Whoever it was, he was taller than Poke. But that could be either Achilles or Ulysses.
The boy wrapped his arms around Poke and kissed her.
This was really weird. Bean had seen grownups do that plenty of times, but what would kids do it for? Poke was nine years old. Of course there were whores that age, but everybody knew that the johns who bought them were perverts.
Bean had to get closer, to hear what they were saying. He dropped down the back of the packing crate and slowly walked into the shadow of a kiosk. They, as if to oblige him, turned to face him; in the deep shadow he was invisible, at least if he kept still. He couldn't see them any better than they could see him, but he could hear snatches of their conversation now.
"You promised," Poke was saying. The guy mumbled in return.
A boat passing on the river scanned a spotlight across the riverside and showed the face of the boy Poke was with. It was Achilles.
Bean didn't want to see any more. To think he had once believed Achilles would someday kill Poke. This thing between girls and boys was something he