Inaya continued to stare at Khos, her expression grim.

Khos held out his hand.

She turned her head away.

"Taite's probably dead," Khos said. "You come with me and maybe you live. You stay here and you get cut up by bel dames. You choose."

Khos walked back to the door and opened it for her.

Rhys waited a tense moment. He saw a complicated play of emotions on Inaya's face. Then she was moving to the door, awkward with her large belly.

Khos followed her out.

Rhys went upstairs and began the painstaking circle of their garret. It took him another half-hour, looking for traps, to convince himself that they hadn't been here. He pulled Kine's papers out of a hole in the floor that he'd covered over with a board and some more debris. He waved away the wasp guard. At least that that had worked this time. had worked this time.

Rhys bundled everything into his pack and headed out. He drove the bakkie to the brothel and then went up to talk to Nyx.

Anneke said she was still sleeping.

"I need to get her up," Rhys said. He made to move to the door, but Anneke stepped in front of him. She barely came to his shoulder, but she had firmed up her jaw. Anneke's stubborn look.

"Let her be," Anneke said. "Unless the f.u.c.king world is burning."

"Taite's sister is here in Chenja. Raine has Taite."

"Raine?" Anneke said.

He heard Nyx's voice from inside, yelling for water and a pot to p.i.s.s in.

Anneke opened the door, and Rhys managed to push past her.

Nyx didn't look much better. One eye was still swollen shut, and her head looked too big. She had herself propped up on one elbow.

"What the h.e.l.l is this? You all want to watch me p.i.s.s?"

"Raine has Taite," Rhys said, "and Taite's sister is here. She needs sanctuary."

"Can I take a p.i.s.s first?"

Anneke brought in the pot, and helped Nyx squat over it. Rhys politely turned away.

"Khos is having her wait in a diner," Rhys said, "but we should bring her here."

Rhys waited until Nyx was done, then turned back. Anneke handed him the pot.

"Go dump this," she said.

Rhys wrinkled his nose and took it out, dumping it in the street. Half a dozen blue beetles lit out from the gutters and began to feed. When he returned, Nyx had been moved to the couch in the main room.

"Don't bring Inaya here," Nyx said.

"We can't-"

"Scout out another safe house. If you're still certain she's not being tagged, bring her there. We'll follow. We can't stay in a brothel forever. Underground or not, there are too many people who know we're here. I don't trust wagging Chenjan tongues."

"And what are we going to do about Taite?" Rhys asked.

"You let me deal with that," Nyx said.

Rhys didn't like her tone. "How are you going to deal with that?" he persisted.

"You let me worry about it."

"We could find a safe house closer to the waterworks," Anneke said. She had picked up one of her guns and begun taking it apart. "That's where the fights are."

"Have you been down there yet?" Nyx asked.

"Not yet," Rhys said.

"When we're packed, I want you and Khos to head down there and report back tomorrow. All right?"

Rhys nodded.

Someone knocked at the door. Anneke picked up a rifle from under the divan and answered. The brothel mistress held a small package in her hands. "This came for you."

"You checked it for organics?" Rhys asked as he pa.s.sed his hand over it.

"Of course," she said. "It came back organic, just not the sort you mean."

Anneke took the package and opened it up. She unwrapped a layer of stained gauze. Her expression was dark. She handed the package to Nyx.

Rhys leaned in to get a better look.

Nyx unfolded the gauze to reveal a perfectly formed ear, too pale to be Nasheenian or Chenjan. Underneath the ear was a note. Organic paper. It had eaten most of the blood. She held it up in her good hand.

"What does it say?" Rhys asked.

Nyx grunted. "Raine wants to swap Taite for Kine's papers. But if he has Taite, he knows we burned all of those."

"The dictation sessions," Rhys said. "Taite told me he was keeping them to see if he could get any names you wanted." Taite wouldn't have known what Rhys had kept.

Nyx grimaced. "And I bet I have a real good idea where they ended up."

Rhys pressed his hands to his face. There was only one person Taite would have given the dictation sessions to. Why else would he have sent her here?

"G.o.d be merciful," Rhys muttered.

"Inaya better hope so," Nyx said, "cause if He's not, Raine is headed right for us."

25.

Nyx had Khos carry her into the bombed-out building he and Rhys had found on the south side of the city. She didn't like being carried, but she didn't like the idea of walking any better. She had him put her down on a tattered divan, and when Anneke was done bringing up the gear, they started playing cards while Rhys and Khos went to go pick up Inaya.

Nyx didn't want to make any decisions until she could recognize her own face in a mirror. She needed to run a swap for Taite, she just didn't know what kind. Raine wouldn't have asked about transmissions unless Taite had told him they existed, and there was only one person Taite would give those to without ratting her out by name.

She heard them on the stairs before she saw them but didn't look up when Inaya arrived.

Inaya came in yelling, quite a thing considering she had just come up four flights of stairs.

"You bring my brother back, you black b.i.t.c.h," Inaya said. She was still pretty. Fat and dirty, yes, but pretty.

"Black?" Nyx said. "I'm not black."

"-or I swear to every saint-"

"c.o.c.kroach brown," Anneke said. She crowned her king, and swapped Nyx for an ace.

"-I'll tear out your heart-"

"Cheap whiskey brown," Anneke said. "We always end up with three extra aces. Who does that, huh?"

"-and strip out your bones-"

"I like being cheap," Nyx said. "Anneke's the black one. What's this? Did you just steal my king?"

"-from your skin and grind them-"

"That's an illegal move. What are you talking about?" Anneke said.

"I'm just saying you're pretty dark."

"-and grind them. You hear me? Grind them-"

"What's this? I told you, look at it, that's another ace. That's five aces in this deck."

"-into flour and pound you into bread!"

"Are you done making dinner?" Nyx asked Inaya. Bread sounded real good about now. Food of any kind sounded good. What sounded less good was getting yelled at by some dumb pregnant Ras Tiegan. She took back her king and swapped out another ace. "I win," she said.

Anneke pounded the table.

Inaya's face was flushed. It wasn't often Nyx saw anybody that color. Inaya kept her fists clenched. "I swear-"

"I heard that already. Sit down before you bust something."

"Nyx," Rhys said. He moved protectively toward Inaya, which just p.i.s.sed off Nyx more. He called Nyx G.o.dless, but Taite's sister with her Ras Tiegan b.a.s.t.a.r.d of a kid was virtuous? b.a.s.t.a.r.d b.a.s.t.a.r.d was a bad word in Ras Tieg. She wondered if Rhys knew that. "I think that maybe-" was a bad word in Ras Tieg. She wondered if Rhys knew that. "I think that maybe-"

"It's fine," Nyx said.

Inaya didn't sit, but started clutching at her belly. She clenched her teeth and started huffing through her nose.

"Yeah, hey, sit, would you?" Nyx said. A sudden sense of alarm sped through her. Pregnancy. Babies. Oh, f.u.c.k.

Rhys went over to Inaya and helped her sit. Her whole body went taut, and she cried out.

"Oh, s.h.i.t," Nyx said.

Rhys put a palm to Inaya's belly. "How long?" he asked.

She thrashed on the couch, then went still, came back. "I don't know."

"That's all right." He looked at Nyx. "We'll need a midwife."

"With what money?" Nyx held up her right hand. "I'm still missing fingers and you think we can afford a midwife?"

"We won't find a respectable Chenjan woman who would do it," Khos said. "I could take her back to the brothel. It'll be tricky, but they know about babies."

"Don't worry about it," Anneke said, rolling up her sleeves. "I'll do it."

"What do you know about babies?" Nyx asked.

"My mom was a breeder, remember? Multiples are hard. Singles are easy." She eyed Inaya over. "I gotta have help, and Nyx ain't doing it."

Inaya's eyes widened, and Nyx remembered she was Ras Tiegan. Modesty and all that. Worse than Chenjans.

But the white girl grabbed Rhys's hand, looked him in the face. "Taite trusts you," she said. "Help me."

"Sure then," Anneke said, and started waving around her hands. "You and Khos wait outside, Nyx. Rhys?"

"I'll heat some water," Rhys said.

Oh, h.e.l.l, Nyx thought.

Nyx and Khos sat in the main room and played cards and smoked a cheap cigar. They listened to Inaya shrieking. The room was stifling. The two of them swapped a sweat rag to wipe the damp from their faces. A swarm of flies circled at the center of the room.

At dusk, Khos went out and brought back food for everyone. Inaya was still shrieking when he got back.

Khos leaned toward Nyx over the remains of dinner, and whispered, "You think she'll die?"

"No more likely than with any other woman who gives birth." She traded one of her cards. "Kid might die, though. No inoculations." She had promised Taite inoculations, she realized, back when she believed they'd all live to bring in this note. She looked at her mangled right hand. She already knew they wouldn't make it out whole.

"But women still die doing it, right, even in Nasheen and Chenja?"