Inanna: Jin'en, are you going to betray me too?

Jin'en parked the car in the concealed bay in the backyard.

Broken Rainbow was already waiting at the side corridor's hidden door, her bare feet on the threshold and a braided cord wound once around her wrist.

When she saw Jin'en get out of the car, she didn't ask about the old building. Instead, she said, "Mother stood outside your room for ten minutes. She just left."

Jin'en kept walking, heading into the corridor.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing." Broken Rainbow followed, keeping her voice very low. "She just stood outside your door, looking at it. Then she turned and left. Unica passed by while delivering documents. Mother told her to leave them in the study, but didn't have her call you."

Jin'en pressed against the document envelope and negatives inside his coat, checking that they were still in place.

"She knows."

"No telling how much." Broken Rainbow tilted her head to look at him. "Is there anything you brought back that she can't see?"

"Yes."

Broken Rainbow didn't ask which item she couldn't see. She merely unwound the braided cord from her wrist and looped it twice around her fingers.

"Then have you worked out what to say?"

Jin'en paused at the stairs.

"Half of it."

He went upstairs toward the study. Broken Rainbow didn't follow.

When he reached the study, the door stood ajar, warm light seeping through the gap.

Jin'en knocked twice on the doorframe.

"Come in."

Inanna sat in an armchair, her long silver-white hair unbound and falling behind her shoulders.

Several sheets of paper lay spread across the low table before her. They weren't documents, but handwritten notes. Jin'en recognized them-the two Unica had retrieved from the mailbox.

"Close the door."

Jin'en shut the door and stood across the low table from her.

Inanna didn't look up. Her fingers pressed along the edges of the two notes.

"You went to the old building at the Bridge District docks tonight," she said.

"I did."

"What did you get?"

"Negatives. Photos Old Zheng took of Scarlet Mallow, and a few of Daffodil... plus an unnumbered badge." Jin'en took the triangular piece of metal from his pocket and set it on the low table.

Inanna picked it up and turned it over.

Her fingers paused for a beat when she saw that the back was blank.

"No number."

"Right. Old Zheng used it as a location marker. It doesn't belong to an official member."

Inanna set the badge down and looked up at him.

"Where are the negatives?"

"On me."

"Give them to me."

Jin'en didn't move.

Inanna watched him, her red eyes dark in the warm light.

"Jin'en. I said, give them to me."

"I can give you the negatives." Jin'en spoke quietly, but every word was steady. "But there's something I need to say first.

"Old Zheng left three life signs in the old building, two on the first floor and one on the second.

"The two on the first floor were guarding things. The one on the second was going through files.

"When I went in, the document envelope and negatives were in separate places."

"So you took both." Inanna finished for him.

"Yes."

"And Old Zheng?"

"He wasn't there."

Inanna leaned back in her chair and tapped the armrest once.

"How many people did you take to the old building tonight?"

"Broken Rainbow came along. She didn't go inside."

"And Porsette?"

"She waited at the alley entrance."

Inanna didn't respond immediately.

She stared at Jin'en for several seconds, then pushed the two notes across the low table toward him.

"The first one was slipped into the mailbox. You didn't go to the courtyard to look at the bare tree until the next day.

"The second was slipped under the door. You went to the old building that very night."

She tapped the second note. "You'd already decided to go when you received this. You didn't come ask me."

"There wasn't time."

"There wasn't time, or you never intended to ask?"

Jin'en didn't answer.

Inanna rose from the armchair.

She was half a head shorter than him, but once she stood, the difference put her eyes level with his chin.

She didn't approach. She stood in front of the chair, watching him across the low table.

"You told me Prism was investigating you. But once your investigation led to Old Zheng, you took every step on your own.

"The old building, the docks, the freight station, the eastern warehouse-you took Porsette and Broken Rainbow and cut off Prism's lines in the Bridge District one by one. Then you stand here telling me the negatives are on you, and you aren't ready to give them to me."

"I didn't say I wouldn't."

"You're bargaining." Inanna's voice barely shifted. "First you tell me what you've done, then you decide whether to hand over the negatives. This isn't a report. It's a negotiation."

Jin'en reached inside his coat, pulled out the negatives and document envelope, and set them on the low table.

"The negatives are here. Old Zheng photographed Scarlet Mallow and Daffodil, but he didn't get Porsette.

"The label on Mandrake's roll of negatives had no name. Old Zheng took those on a whim, from a very low angle, at the corner of Halfwidth Street in the Bridge District."

Inanna glanced down at the document envelope and negatives without picking them up immediately.

"Old Zheng's people saw your face in the old building."

"The two at the third-floor stairway did. The two on the first floor didn't come up."

"Where are those two from the third floor now?"

"I let them leave through the side door."

Inanna pressed her fingers against the edge of the low table.

"You let them go."

"Their orders were to guard things, not chase people.

"Once released, they'd go back to Old Zheng. He should already know the old building has been emptied out."

"So Old Zheng will run."

"He will," Jin'en said. "But before he runs, he'll have to deal with whatever he hasn't had time to pass on. He still has Prism contacts. He won't run empty-handed."

Inanna watched him. The corner of her mouth moved in a faint curve, but that smile was unlike any he knew.

"You're using Old Zheng to fish out Prism's roots."

"Yes."

"You never intended to hand the negatives back. You intended to use them as bait and make Old Zheng come get them himself."

Jin'en didn't deny it.

Inanna withdrew her fingers from the table's edge and rested them on the document envelope, but didn't open it.

"Jin'en, do you know what I dislike most about you?"

"I know. I'm like Daffodil."

"No," Inanna said. "Long before Daffodil left, I knew she would.

"She couldn't hide things. Her hands would shake before she acted.

"You're different. You calculate every step, then stand here explaining it all to me, point by point, as though you're making a report. But every step has already been taken."

She pushed the document envelope an inch toward Jin'en.

"Keep the negatives. Keep fishing for Old Zheng. But remember one thing."

Jin'en looked at her.

"Prism is investigating Porsette. When you used Porsette as bait, she was standing outside the library.

"When you used Old Zheng as bait, Broken Rainbow was following fifty meters behind you.

"Every step you take has someone underneath to cushion it." Inanna's voice dropped lower. "You calculate well, but don't forget, you aren't the only one in Red Letter's Garden who can calculate."

Jin'en took back the negatives and document envelope.

"I know."

"What do you know?"

"I know you're watching." Jin'en tucked the items inside his coat. "You stood outside my room for ten minutes, not waiting for me to return and report. You were waiting for me to return so you could see whether I'd come to you first."

Inanna didn't answer, but her fingers went still on the armrest.

"I'm back. I brought everything back, too." Jin'en headed toward the door. "I'll keep following Old Zheng's trail. Before tomorrow, I'll give you a definite answer on how many active lines Prism still has in the Bridge District."

He pulled the door open, and the corridor's dim light spilled through the gap.

"Jin'en."

He paused.

"How many teleportation coordinates have you had Porsette save already?"

"The Bridge District, Miguel District, Unheard-of Bay, the secondhand market, the docks, the back alley of the old building, the freight station," Jin'en said. "Everything that needed saving."

"Then she can leave the estate."

Jin'en turned around.

Inanna still stood behind the low table, her long silver-white hair falling behind her shoulders, her red eyes fixed on him.

"You've cut off so many of Prism's lines in the Bridge District that the remaining people will pull back.

"Once they do, Porsette's coordinates will become even more valuable to them.

"You can use Old Zheng as bait, but he can't be the only bait."

"You want her to leave the estate as a second bait."

"I want her to leave the estate, but not as bait." Inanna's voice barely shifted. "Prism wants Porsette's coordinates, and Porsette needs a reason to leave the estate.

"You had her save so many coordinates. What's the point of saving them if you won't let her use them?"

Jin'en stood in the doorway, his hand resting on the frame.

"If you let her leave, I'll have to go with her."

"If you go with her, Prism will figure out your patterns."

"Then I won't," Jin'en said. "She leaves the estate, and Broken Rainbow goes with her. Broken Rainbow's illusions can suppress perception types, and her blade can finish things. I'll stay at the estate, where Prism can't trace me."

Inanna watched him for two seconds.

"You'll send Broken Rainbow out with Porsette and stay at the estate yourself."

"Yes."

"You trust Broken Rainbow to protect her."

"When Broken Rainbow can't protect her, Porsette can escape on her own," Jin'en said. "She didn't save all those coordinates for nothing."

Inanna said nothing more and waved a hand.

Jin'en left the study and closed the door.

Broken Rainbow was still leaning against the wall by the stairs, the braided cord wound around her fingers. She straightened when she saw him come out.

"Finished talking?"

"Finished."

"Did you give her the negatives?"

"No."

Broken Rainbow tilted her head.

"She didn't want them?"

"She told me to keep them and fish for Old Zheng."

Broken Rainbow wound the cord back around her wrist. The corner of her mouth lifted, revealing a canine, but she didn't laugh.

"She actually let you keep fishing."

"She let me keep fishing, but told me to send you and Porsette out as another line."

Broken Rainbow's smile faded.

"What does that mean?"

"Starting tomorrow, take Porsette out of the estate. The Bridge District, Miguel District, the docks-take her around the places where she's saved coordinates.

"No ducking away, no hiding. If Prism's people follow, deal with them. If you can't, Porsette runs."

Broken Rainbow stared at him for two seconds.

"You're not leaving the estate."

"If I leave, Prism will be able to trace me.

"They're investigating me through Porsette. If I don't go out with her, they can't get a lead."

Broken Rainbow unwound the cord from her wrist, looped it twice, then wound it back around.

"You're having me take her out as bait while you sit tight in the estate."

"Yes."

"Aren't you afraid something will happen to me and Little Red Riding Hood out there?"

"If something happens to you, Porsette can run.

If Porsette can't run, you can hold them off." Jin'en headed toward his room. "All those days you two spent practicing together on the training grounds weren't for nothing."

Broken Rainbow followed, half a step behind him on his right.

"Brother."

"Mm."

"Half of what you told Mother tonight was a lie."

Jin'en turned his head to glance at her.

"Which half?"

"You said you trusted me to protect her." Broken Rainbow's voice was level. "What you trust is Porsette's ability to run. You're not sending me along to protect her. You're sending me to watch her run. Only when she can't run will you step in."

Jin'en reached his room and pushed the door open.

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes." Broken Rainbow stood in the doorway without going in. "The way you protect people is always to work out how everyone else can escape first, then block the last opening yourself.

It was the same that night our sister left, when you chased after her to give her money."

Jin'en sat on the edge of the bed, took off his trench coat, and draped it over the back of a chair.

"What are you trying to say with all this?"

"That you shouldn't put yourself at the last opening every time." Broken Rainbow untied the braided cord from her wrist and set it on his desk. The white cotton cord curled into a heap on the desktop. "Tomorrow, I'll take Little Red Riding Hood out of the estate. Stay here. Don't follow. But if you realize neither of us can hold them off-"

"I'll come."

"You said it."

"I said it."

Broken Rainbow turned and left. The sound of her bare feet on the wooden hallway floor faded into the distance.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Jin'en pulled the document envelope and negatives out of his trench coat and put them in the bedside drawer.

The silver markings on his right wrist were quiet, his palm clean.

Tomorrow, Porsette and Broken Rainbow would leave the estate, and he would stay put inside.

Old Zheng wasn't going anywhere, and Prism's lines would pull back one by one.

He closed his eyes without undressing.

Six the next morning, at the training grounds.

By the time Porsette arrived, Broken Rainbow was already in the middle of the grounds, her bare feet on the iron-sand surface, her blade beside her knee and the braided cord winding between her fingers.

"We're leaving the estate today." Broken Rainbow didn't look up. "We'll follow the coordinates you've saved, starting in the Bridge District. The library entrance, the corner of the secondhand market, the alley behind the docks. Make a circuit. No need to hide."

Porsette stood before her, her hood still down, her gilded eyes on Broken Rainbow.

"Prism's people will follow."

"They will."

"Will you be behind me or ahead of me?"

"Behind." Broken Rainbow wound the braided cord back around her wrist and stood up. "You go your way, I'll go mine. If you feel someone watching you, don't look back. Teleport straight to the next coordinate point. I'll intercept whoever follows after you teleport away."

Porsette thought for a moment.

"What if more than one person follows?"

"Then it depends on how fast you can teleport." Broken Rainbow tilted her head to look at her. "How many people can you take with you in one teleport?"

"Just myself. If I take someone, the radius shrinks to a third of what it was."

"Then don't take anyone. Run on your own. I'll cover the rear.

Once you've escaped, wait for me at the next coordinate point. I'll come find you when I'm done."

Porsette nodded and put her hood on, pulling its edge down to just above her eyebrows.

"Sister."

"Mm."

"When you're covering the rear, what if they have a perception type and your illusions can't suppress them?"

Broken Rainbow picked her blade up off the ground, turning the sheath once in her palm.

"If I can't suppress them, I won't. No need for illusions when a blade can solve it."