The Nameless Assassins

Inspecting the Inspector

Now that we had our financial backers lined up, it was time to plan the score. I, of course, already knew about Ash's plot to have a Reconciled possess the Inspector, and (after so much exposure to Faith) had grudgingly accepted it as a semi-reasonable way to control the official report. So when Ash convened the crew in the railcar common room, I thought I knew what he was going to say.

He opened with a predictable, "Murdering the Inspector will just bring more Inspectors down on us," which was a conclusion I'd also drawn. But then he continued, "I strongly support Hollowing the Inspector and having Salia take over." As he spoke, he looked expectantly at our Hollowing expert, who was slumped down so far in her chair that she was on the verge of sliding onto the floor.

Faith, on the other hand, was watching me very closely from under her eyelashes.

For her benefit, I maintained a neutral, level tone that would have done Father proud. "Do we need to Hollow her? It seems unnecessary – " Since ethical arguments carried no weight with my crewmates, I tacked on the ending, " -ly risky."

Relieved that I hadn't started screeching (yet) about how horrible Hollowing was and how it was not something our crew would ever do – in the face of all evidence to the contrary – Ash reminded me, "If she finds us, we will be burned at the stake or worse."

"And you think Hollowing her will help?" Despite my best efforts, revulsion crept into my voice, but I thought that my point still stood: There was no scenario in which the Immortal Emperor calmly accepted that sometimes, in the line of duty, his servants would get ripped out of their own bodies.

Brightening at the prospect of a good fight, Faith bounced out of her chair, trotted over to the bar, returned with a bag of canal-weed chips, and popped one into her mouth. It made a very loud crunch, aided by the fact that she kept her lips ajar.

Ignoring her theatrically rapt attention, Ash informed me, "They won't find out that she's been Hollowed."

And how did he expect the Reconciled to keep up that charade? "Do you think Salia will pretend to be this Inspector forever? Because eventually she's going to have to wrap up the investigation and return to Imperial City."

Ash waved a hand, dismissing such minor details as planning for the long run. "Oh, she can disappear along the way and return to her own body, or whatever she prefers."

"And at that point, someone 'murders' the Inspector?"

Crunch. Faith's head swiveled between Ash and me, like someone watching a badminton game.

"I guess I haven't thought that far ahead," he confessed. "I was thinking that Salia could stay the Inspector for a bit of time – we would benefit from having someone in that position and feeding us information." Before I could remind him that the leader of the Reconciled had her own long-term projects, none of which involved playing mole for an assassins crew, Ash went off into a fit of histrionics. "Isha, I agree that loss of life is something we should avoid if we can – " (really?) – "but the safety of Doskvol – of Iruvia –of practically everyone we know – depends on stopping Dunvil, and we will not succeed at stopping Dunvil if this Inspector puts us and our address and our allies into her report and says, 'Oh, by the way, we need to eradicate them because they're murdering members of the Church!' That will not be good for our health. I agree that idle Hollowing isn't something we should engage in, but you have to admit that we don't exactly have the most peaceful of reputations."

Which was both true and contradicted his statement about avoiding loss of life where possible. "Yes," I stated, "and somewhere, we have to draw the line."