Shadowmaster

Brita turned on Phoenix again, ignoring her question. “If you’re not human, you have to be with Aegis,” she said. “You’re here to find and expose Sammael, and whatever Bosses you can take down with him.”

“You’re Sammael’s lieutenant,” Phoenix said. “If you’re so sure about this, you have an obligation to tell him, don’t you?”

“Why are you so eager for him to find out?” Brita asked.

“Why are you so willing to keep it from him?”

“Because...” Brita nearly trembled with anger. “You know why.”

“Could it be that you think I might let him know about enemy Bosses sending envoys to his lieutenant? He might wonder how often you’ve done this before.”

“You have nothing on me,” Brita snarled.

“Does he know you’re not quite human, either?”

Brita froze. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You were out there with no light, and it’s dark as pitch in here. You aren’t wearing a headlamp, but you saw me as soon as you walked through the door.”

Lips pressed tightly together, Brita rearmed the alarm system. “You’re wrong.”

“I doubt it. It’s true that you don’t look like a dhampir, and you aren’t a Daysider if you can see so well in the dark, but—”

“A Daysider?” Brita raised a clenched fist. “You’re calling me one of them? Is that what you’re saying?”

Brita did an excellent job of feigning rage, Phoenix thought. A reaction like that couldn’t easily be faked.

But why would someone neither human nor dhampir nor Daysider, evidently unknown to Aegis, be in the Fringe working for a Boss who happened to be an Opir agent?

It couldn’t be a coincidence. She and Sammael had worked too closely together to hide from each other. No...Brita knew what Sammael was, and she was working with him...working to help the assassin prepare for his strike.

Phoenix knew he had to be a Daysider, and that Brita was just as potentially dangerous as Sammael. He was still almost certainly the one in charge, but that was little comfort under the circumstances.

But what was she? She had human coloring and seemed to lack the sharp incisors, but she could easily be hiding her teeth under caps. She could be a blood-drinker.

Or was she, like Phoenix, more human than Opir? She obviously wasn’t a serf. Why would the Opiri, who despised humans, use someone like her to forward their designs? “I’m not calling you one of ‘them,’” Phoenix said.

“But I’m calling you an Aegis operative,” Brita said.

“Now you’re the crazy one,” Phoenix said. “Sure, I’m not completely human. But some of us don’t want to work for Aegis, and the only way to avoid that is to get out of the city.” She met Brita’s gaze. “I’d guess it’s the same with you, isn’t it?”

“I saw you run right toward the fire, right into danger, when you were supposedly trying to escape the Enforcers,” Brita said, jerking up her chin. “I know you’re in the Fringe to locate Bosses and turn them over to the government.”

“You know?” Phoenix asked mockingly. “Sammael has harbored the same suspicions, hasn’t he? Why hasn’t he taken action?”

“Because...because you...”

“Have him under my spell?” She snorted. “If I were after the Bosses, I’d have had two of them right where the Enforcers could find them. You’ll notice I didn’t alert them.”

“Because maybe you wanted to catch more than two fish.”

“But I haven’t tried to escape, and by now—if you were right about me—I’d have realized that my odds of exposing any of the other Bosses would be just about impossible. Maybe we should just agree that you aren’t ready to defect to another crew and I’m not here to betray Sammael, and go on about our business as if nothing has changed.”

“No deal.”

“Even if I tell him what you were doing out there with one of The Preacher’s crew?” Phoenix sighed. “Look, I’m not asking you to trust me. Just let me get out of the city.”

“Not good enough.”

“What do you want, Brita? I was right before, wasn’t I? It’s not just a matter of your own survival and freedom. You may not be Sammael’s lover, but you’re more than merely his lieutenant.”

Brita seemed ready to object, but suddenly her shoulders sagged and she looked away.

“I owe him a lot,” she said. Most Bosses use people who aren’t members of their crews like disposable objects. The Scrappers, everyone who tries to survive here in the Fringe, don’t matter except when they can be useful. And since Bosses only recruit the strongest and meanest people in the Fringe, it’s always the weakest who end up being victims.”

“And you used to be one of the victims, even though you’re more than human? You must have grown up having to hide what you are.” Phoenix rubbed her lower lip. “What is that, anyway? Not Opir, not dhampir, not Daysider....what are you?”

They stared at each other. Brita finally broke the impasse.

“Sammael took chances on a lot of us,” she said. “But we learned fast, and pretty soon we were as good as the other crews. Maybe better, because we didn’t take anything for granted.” She ran her hands through her spiked hair. “If it matters to you at all, Sammael gets food and other necessities to the Scrappers, keeps the worst-off from starving. He holds back some of our booty just for that, even if it comes out of his share.”

“You make him sound like a paragon of virtue.”

“He can be as ruthless as any of the others if he’s riled enough. I’ve seen him take down two Bosses, which is why not even The Preacher messes with him, big as he talks. But he’s one of the good guys, if someone like you can see anything past what you’re taught by your government masters.”

“Not my masters.”

“So you keep saying. But now your excuse is that you just want to get out of working for Aegis. It’s all lies.”

“It doesn’t matter what I’ve done or who I am. I’m not here to expose anyone. Sammael will sell me what I need because he can use what I’ll pay him. And once I’m outside the city, you won’t have to worry about my motives, will you?”

“If you even plan to leave the city.”

“We’re talking in circles now, Brita,” Phoenix said. “But tell me...does Sammael know what you are?”

She waited for a tense, extended moment for Brita to inadvertently betray her true relationship with the Daysider. But Brita’s answer was firm and simple.

“No,” she said. “And I will kill you if you tell him.”

“Then we do understand each other.”

Brita stared at Phoenix for a long time. “I’m going to show you something,” she said. “I want you to see this before you go back and betray him to the Enforcers.”

“I told you I’m not—”

“I’ll have to take you outside the Hold.”

“I don’t think Sammael will like that, do you?”