The Nameless Assassins

Wayan and Kuwat Maha

No matter how much I hated what we'd done to Candra Sarnai, I had to admit that it worked. Our crew had so much heat that the city would have fallen upon us and hauled us off to Ironhook Prison for summary execution – if not for our Inspector ally. Salia indicated that she was willing to collaborate on the contents of "Sarnai's" report, which meant that we just had to supply a scapegoat. After a bit of discussion, during which Ash pointed out that we shouldn't target the Penderyns because Lord Penderyn was one of the Reconciled's "fancy recruits," and Faith observed that the Billhooks had already turned themselves in for our crimes, I suggested Djera Maha's nephews.

"The Hive is certainly powerful enough to have sent assassins against Strangford," Ash thought aloud, "and they are weak at the moment...."

That they were. We'd decimated their leadership and now the Hive factions were busy purging one another. All the infighting gave me an idea. "Two of the Ascendent could have had a power struggle." I couldn't imagine that relations among ruthless, megalomaniac demon-human hybrids tended towards peaceable. "Strangford could have corrupted Marne Booker and sent her to murder Djera Maha, so her nephews killed him in turn."

"I could see the Hive being motivated by revenge," agreed Ash (unnecessarily, given what they'd done to Pickett and Xayah on the mere suspicion that the Lampblacks and Red Sashes had killed Karth Orris). "Do you have a preference as to which nephew we blame?"

Why choose? "I want to take out both. We can get rid of one first and deal with the other later – but I want both dead."

When we raised the idea with Salia, she backed me up. "Wayan and Kuwat Maha do tend to travel as a unit," the information broker told Ash, "so it's plausible that they assassinated Lord Strangford together." She wrote up these "findings," sent them via express diplomatic courier to Imperial City, and prepared to follow herself.

A few days later, the newspapers were all screaming that Imperial Inspector Candra Sarnai had been ambushed on the train by Hive assassins and tragically died of her wounds. The next time we saw Nyryx, she reported that Salia had returned to Doskvol safely and was back at the helm of the Reconciled.

The "Inspector's" death must have lent extra credence to her report, because a few weeks later, the Lord Governor sent the Imperial Marines to storm the Hive's island fortress and arrest Wayan and Kuwat Maha. Within a week, the two hitmen been tried, sentenced to death, and executed – at which point, all the gangs of Doskvol decided that a celebration was in order and threw a massive party at Tangletown.

I approved.

The crew soon had much more to celebrate. Delighted that their son had gotten away with his heinous crime (of being a rich, entitled jerk), the Bowmores happily paid us our eight coin. The infusion of cash enabled us to solidify our hold over Strathmill House, the orphan gang, and assets such as the Orchid Salon – plus hire an expert tinkerer at last.

"I like the idea of dragging in some poor grad student who wants to make a little money on the side teaching orphans!" Faith chirped. "We can post an ad on a corkboard at Charterhall University!"

For once, it was a sensible suggestion. We duly put up flyers and reeled in one Edwina Sevoy, a master's student with the Sparkwrights who needed a lot of outside funding for both her personal spark-craft projects and her massive drug addiction. As part of her salary – with the clear understanding that she would restrict drug abuse to her own time – I negotiated a lower rate on Black Lotus from the Red Sashes.

However, meeting with Mylera turned out to be more awkward than expected, because the Spirit Wardens had taken an interest in the gang after the events on the canal. As a result, Red Sashes kept interrupting us with reports that they'd hidden away this stash of contraband, or cleared out that drug den, or finished taking down all the statues of She Who Slays in Darkness.