The Nameless Assassins

Candra Sarnai

In the days leading up to Ash's date with Candra Sarnai, the Inspector started to close in on us. She was seen in Coalridge. She was seen in Crow's Foot. She was starting to ask the right questions of the right people. I tracked her movements through my spy network, while Faith taught the orphans and maintained our cover as altruistic teachers.

Ash, on the other hand, locked himself in his compartment and crammed romance novels.

On the appointed day, approaching Comber's Coffee House, the three of us spied the Inspector's Bluecoat detail already in position on either side of the main entrance. We split up, with Ash hurrying down the street like an infatuated young lover, Faith circling around to the staff entrance, and me lagging a good half block behind either of them. Keeping my hood up and my face down, and wishing that I were literally anywhere else – the Hive's island, the Iruvian Consulate's dungeon, even the House Anixis interrogation chamber would do – I followed Faith through the kitchen and into the back hallway. As soon as they saw us, the restaurant staff swung into action and blocked the view of the hallway from the main room with a flurry of waiters and carts. Squeezing past them, Faith and I passed the lady's room and slipped into a corner where we could peek into the dining area.

True to their word, Salia and Nyryx had packed it with customers, and the apologetic hostess was in the middle of offering Ash and Sarnai a private room. "At no extra charge, of course," she assured them. "I am so sorry about the inconvenience."

"Oh yes, that would be lovely," Ash started to accept, but Sarnai interjected, "No, no, I'd rather not." In her quiet but firm way, she told the hostess, "We'll wait for a table out here."

And there went our plan to get her alone.

It didn't faze Faith one bit. "That's fine," she chirped through my hood into my ear. "I'm sure the café has a nice, dank, dismal cellar that will provide an even more appropriate ambience for Hollowing." (It did. She'd prearranged with Salia to set up the ritual there.) "We'll just wait until she uses the lady's room and grab her then. We can...fill it with poisonous gas. Or trigger the trapdoor into the cellar. Or...how do you want to do this?"

I just tugged my hood down lower. I wanted to be involved as little as possible in this score, and she knew it.

She waited patiently, forcing me to contribute.

As last, I said reluctantly, "It's probably safest if Cricket possesses her."

"And what if she fails?" she nudged, the same way she prodded the orphans towards the correct answer.

Even more reluctantly, I promised, "I can be backup...."

That was all she needed to hear. "Cricket, go into the lady's room and activate the noise-dampening device," she directed. "It should be behind the toilet. Then hide under the sink and possess the Inspector when she comes in."

I'd been so busy wishing myself elsewhere that I hadn't even noticed the little ghost lurking in a corner. Now she compressed herself into a long, wispy, electric-blue scarf and streamed through the keyhole into the lady's room.

While a passing waiter blocked Sarnai's line of sight, Faith hand-signed the new plan to Ash, who was still hovering by the hostess stand.

His eyes flickered in acknowledgement, and then he told his date in a flustered tone, "Oh, well, of course, sitting out here makes sense, that makes sense! I just don't want this to be an inconvenience for you at all."