Broken Rainbow: Big Brother, Tonight Is Mine

On the third night after they wrapped up the operation at Berth No. 3 in the Old Port District, Jin'en stayed at the training grounds until eleven before returning to his room.

He had done two rounds each with the silver rod and the black rod. The black rod's devouring power had grown steadier since that day at the docks. When its tip pressed against the stone target and gnawed into it, the powder fell evenly, no longer fluctuating as it had in the first few days.

He washed his face and pushed open his door. Broken Rainbow was already sitting on the edge of his bed.

She was barefoot, wearing a clean pair of cargo pants. Her white hair was loose, and a braided cord rested on her knees as she wound it around her fingers, loop after loop.

She had probably been there for a while. The water glass on the table had been moved, and a note was pinned beneath it. In Unica's handwriting, it read, "Found the addresses for the three names in the Miguel District. I'll give them to you tomorrow."

Jin'en walked over and put the note away without asking why Broken Rainbow was in his room.

"I'll go to the Miguel District tomorrow," Broken Rainbow spoke first.

"What are you going there for?"

"To look into those three names." She unwound the cord from her fingers and set it on the bed.

"You stay in the house. Mother said Prism will start tracing your connections if you leave. I'll go, Little Red Riding Hood will come with me, and I'll handle anything that happens."

Jin'en sat down at the table and draped his trench coat over the chair back.

Her reasoning was sound, and Inanna's arrangements amounted to the same thing. But he could hear that Broken Rainbow's sentences were shorter than usual tonight. She wasn't drawing out her words or deliberately talking in circles.

"What's with you tonight?"

Broken Rainbow didn't answer.

She rose from the edge of the bed, walked over to his chair, and crouched down in front of him.

That put her eyes level with Jin'en's knees. She tilted her head up to look at him, her green eyes almost too bright beneath the desk lamp.

"That day in the Old Port District, after the man on the pier pulled out, you said the Old Port District connection was broken."

When she spoke, her voice was softer than before.

"If it was broken, it was broken. I didn't think much of it. But while I was practicing with my blade on the back hill this afternoon, something suddenly occurred to me."

"What?"

"The man on the pier was someone Prism left behind to watch the ships."

Broken Rainbow rested her hands on the chair's armrests, her fingertips pressing against the wood.

"He pulled out. That means Prism already knew they couldn't save the Old Port District connection.

Old Zheng boarded the ship, we got the copy back, and the man on the pier ran-of Prism's three people on that Old Port District connection, not one was left."

"Right."

"But does Prism know how that connection was broken?"

Jin'en looked at her without answering.

"Old Zheng ran, and the man on the pier withdrew. All Prism will know is that the Old Port District connection was broken." Broken Rainbow's fingers tightened half an inch on the armrest.

"They don't know who broke it. And they don't know Scarlet Mallow and Mandrake acted together when it happened."

Jin'en understood what she was getting at.

Prism had lost Old Zheng and the man watching the ships on the pier from their Old Port District connection, but they had no way of figuring out why it had collapsed.

Old Zheng moved goods, and the man on the pier watched ships. Neither belonged to Prism's inner circle, and their knowledge was limited.

Prism would think Red Letter was cleaning up the outer network, but they wouldn't be able to piece together how far the cleanup had gone or which people had been targeted anytime soon.

"You're worried Prism will learn about what happened in the Old Port District through other channels."

"I'm worried about you." Broken Rainbow's tone was level, without her usual airy lilt at the end.

She crouched in front of the chair, looking up at him, something weightier than usual in her green eyes.

"That day in the Old Port District, when you stood below the pier steps talking to Old Zheng, the man on the pier hadn't gone far.

He withdrew, but you don't know whether he saw you before he left.

Old Zheng ran, but you don't know what he said to the man on the pier before he ran, either."

Jin'en didn't argue.

What she said was true.

When the man on the pier withdrew toward the Miguel District, Jin'en had been over by the sheet-metal shack. He hadn't seen for himself whether the man had taken another look toward the pier steps before leaving.

When Old Zheng spoke to the man on the pier, the sea wind scattered their voices. Jin'en had only caught a few isolated words, not enough to piece together a full sentence.

"So what are you trying to say?"

Broken Rainbow rose from her crouch. Instead of backing away, she stepped closer, her knees almost touching the edge of Jin'en's chair.

She looked down at him, her white hair slipping off her shoulders to hang over her chest.

"I'm saying you put yourself out in the open on that trip to the Old Port District." Her voice dropped, but every word was clear.

"When Old Zheng was talking to that man on the pier, you were standing below the steps. Old Zheng could see you, and so could the man on the pier.

Old Zheng ran, and the man on the pier withdrew. Both of them know Mandrake showed up at Berth No. 3 in the Old Port District that night."

Jin'en leaned against the chair back without moving.

"If someone at Prism puts Old Zheng's account together with that man's report, they'll know Mandrake was the one who cleared out the Old Port District connection."

Broken Rainbow took her hands off the armrests and let them fall to her sides, her fingers brushing lightly against the seam of her pants.

"Then they'll investigate you. If they can't find anything through you, they'll investigate the people around you."

"You."

"Me," Broken Rainbow said.

"Or Little Red Riding Hood. It makes no difference who. As long as they're close to you, Prism will probe every one of them."

Jin'en looked at her.

She was speaking differently tonight. She wasn't talking in circles or deliberately wrapping serious words in a playful tone.

She was simply stating something, directly.

"So what do you want to do?"

"What I'm saying is-" Broken Rainbow brushed the white hair hanging over her chest behind her shoulders and moved another half step closer, her knees pressing against the chair's edge.

"I'm not leaving tonight."

Jin'en didn't answer.

"Don't get the wrong idea." Broken Rainbow tilted her head, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly. But that smile wasn't quite her usual look of enjoying a show. Half a canine showed, then disappeared again.

"I'll just sit here tonight. You sleep, I'll sit. I'll stay alert in the second half of the night. If anything happens, I'll move first."

"You're going to sit in my room all night."

"Yes."

"Why not stay alert in your own room?"

"Because my room is on the third floor, and yours is on the second." Broken Rainbow's voice was as flat as if she were reporting coordinates.

"If someone sneaks into the house by climbing up the outer wall, the second floor is where they'll reach first.

There's a floor between us on the third. If something happens here, it'll be too late by the time I come down."

Jin'en looked at her.

Her argument wasn't without reason.

If Prism really did try to infiltrate the house, they would indeed reach the second floor before the third.

But that wasn't the only reason she was sitting here tonight. Jin'en could tell.

"Broken Rainbow."

"Mm?"

"That night in the Old Port District, what were you thinking while you waited outside the port wall?"

Broken Rainbow didn't answer immediately.

She stepped back, sat on the edge of the bed, and picked up the braided cord again, winding it around her fingers.

Only after two loops did she speak.

"I was thinking, if your talk with Old Zheng at the sheet-metal shack broke down and the man on the pier doubled back, you'd have to deal with both sides alone." She unwound the cord, then wound it around again.

"I was outside the wall. It would take time to climb over. Little Red Riding Hood was at the passage entrance, and teleporting over would take time too.

When you were standing alone below the pier steps, there was no one behind you."

Jin'en said nothing.

"You do this every time." Broken Rainbow wound the cord back around her wrist, her voice a little lower than before.

"The night you chased my sister, you climbed through a window into the old building alone to get the negatives.

That night in the Old Port District, you blocked Old Zheng below the pier steps alone.

You put yourself at the final opening. Once everyone ahead has run, you step in.

And once you've stepped in, you don't factor in whether anyone behind you can back you up."

"I did."

"What did you factor in?"

"That you were outside the wall," Jin'en said.

Broken Rainbow's fingers stopped on the braided cord.

"That night in the Old Port District, you were waiting outside the gap in the wall." Jin'en leaned against the chair back, his voice even.

"I knew you were in that position before I went into the sheet-metal shack.

If talks with Old Zheng broke down and the man on the pier doubled back, I'd hold him off while you climbed over the wall to cut off his retreat."

Broken Rainbow looked at him, the light shifting in her green eyes.

"What about tonight?"

"What about it?"

"Have you factored tonight in?" Broken Rainbow rose from the bed and walked back over to him.

This time she didn't crouch. She stood in front of the chair and looked down at him, her white hair hanging low enough for its ends to brush Jin'en's knees.

"If Prism sneaks in tonight, what are you going to do?"

Jin'en looked at her.

She stood in the pool of lamplight, the ends of her white hair gleaming. Her cargo pants were rolled up to mid-calf, and her bare feet rested on the floor, toes slightly curled.

With what she had said tonight, she was no longer talking in circles.

"I'm going to have you return to your own room," Jin'en said.

Broken Rainbow didn't move.

"If you sit here all night, you won't be rested enough to investigate the Miguel District connection tomorrow.

If Prism really sneaks in and you're tired, your reactions will be a beat slow. Better to get enough sleep in your own room."

"Even without enough sleep, I react faster than you." Broken Rainbow's lazy drawl returned, but her eyes weren't smiling.

"Big Brother, don't try to shut me down with that 'it's for your own good' routine. It won't work."

Jin'en stood up.

Broken Rainbow didn't retreat. There was less than half a step between them, and she had to tilt her head up to see his face.

"You want to stay?"

"I do."

"You can stay," Jin'en said.

"You take the bed. I'll sleep on the floor."

Broken Rainbow tilted her head.

"You sleep on the floor, I sleep in the bed, and then someone sneaks in at midnight. Who wakes up first, you or me?"

"You."

"There you go." Broken Rainbow untied the braided cord from her wrist and set it on the table. "You take the bed, I'll sleep on the floor. You stay alert in the second half of the night, and I'll watch the first half. We'll take shifts."

Jin'en watched her set the cord on the table and said nothing more.

He walked to the wardrobe, pulled open the door, took an old blanket from the bottom shelf, and tossed it onto the floor.

"Use the blanket. The floor's cold."

Broken Rainbow glanced down at the blanket, then looked back up at him.

"Big Brother."

"Mm?"

"You really are no fun." She walked over to the blanket, crouched down, and shook it out across the floor. "I say I'm staying tonight, and you really do just lay out a blanket."

"What else do you want to do?"

Broken Rainbow finished spreading the blanket and sat on it, looking up at him.

The lamplight fell across her from the side, and the light in her green eyes was a little softer than before.

"There's plenty I want to do," she said, her voice softening, the last syllable drawn out.

"But you-I'll say ten things, and you'll shut me down with one. I'll take eight turns, and you'll walk in a straight line. If I actually tried anything, you'd throw me out the window."

Jin'en sat on the edge of the bed and took off his shoes.

"Good that you know."

Broken Rainbow lay down on the floor, pulled the blanket up to her shoulders, and turned her head to look at him.

Jin'en leaned against the headboard without taking off his clothes, his right hand resting outside the covers, palm down.

"Big Brother."

"Mm?"

"That day in the Old Port District, when you were standing below the pier steps, I actually stood outside the gap for a little longer before climbing over the wall."

"Why?"

"I was listening." Broken Rainbow tugged the blanket up over her chin.

"Listening for a fight on the pier. I only climbed over once I heard there wasn't one. If a fight had broken out, I'd have climbed straight in without counting."

Jin'en turned his head and glanced at her.

She lay on the floor, wrapped tightly in the blanket with only her face showing, her green eyes half-open in the spill of lamplight.

"Go to sleep," he said.

Broken Rainbow said nothing more.

After ten minutes or so, her breathing evened out, but Jin'en knew she wasn't asleep-she never truly fell asleep while keeping watch in the first half of the night. Her breathing was shallower than usual, and her limbs weren't as relaxed as they would be in real sleep.

Sometime after two in the morning, a very faint sound came from the hallway.

Jin'en opened his eyes. Broken Rainbow had already sat up on the floor, the blanket bunched on her knees, her right hand on her sword hilt.

"Someone's here," she said in a low voice.

Jin'en spread his Spatial Perception, sweeping the hallway and the area toward the atrium.

One living presence, near the stairs. It hadn't headed toward the second floor's east wing, only paused at the turn in the stairs before retreating.

"It's the night patrol," Jin'en said.

"Unica. She comes down from the third floor to make a round at this time every day."

Broken Rainbow released her grip on the hilt.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I only just found out she patrols at this hour myself." Jin'en leaned back against the headboard.

"I never noticed before."

Broken Rainbow lay back down and pulled the blanket up over herself.

"Brother."

"Mm."

"Tomorrow, when I get back from looking into those three names in Miguel District, you'd better give me a definite answer."

"What definite answer?"

"A definite answer means-" Broken Rainbow rolled over to face the bed, with only half her face and a pair of green eyes showing above the blanket.

"Before you walk into a trap alone next time, tell me first. Don't leave me guessing outside the wall."

Jin'en looked at the bundle wrapped in a blanket on the floor. She had said so much tonight, taken seven or eight roundabout turns, and in the end, it all came back to this.

"All right," he said.

Broken Rainbow closed her eyes. This time, her breathing truly settled into an even rhythm.