The Final Wager

8

"Hi, Lu," Avary whispered. Her face moved slightly, as if she were attempting a smile that she was too weak to finish. Luis's skin tightened and he thought he could feel his heart break.

"Shush, Avary. Save your strength, you'll need it. I'm going to find a cure for you."

Her chin moved an inch: a nod. Luis adjusted the makeshift IV and held her hand as she drifted into an uneasy sleep. He didn't want to leave her even for a moment, but Mattis had a promising lead about the Chairman. Luis extricated his fingers and kissed her dry, too-hot forehead before slipping out. He glanced down at his newly-recharged implant—there were advantages to working with an upper—and hurried his steps.

Mattis was waiting for him on the corner two streets away, looking out of place and on edge. He fell into step behind Luis without saying anything until they arrived at a level transfer.

"Are you sure about this?"

Mattis snorted. "Am I sure that I think a new senator is the chairman of a secret cabal developing their own diseases? Of course not. But it's the best we've got, isn't it?"

Luis nodded, watching the dark visage of Lower City sink away beneath them. "The devices are in place?"

"As many as I could plant. If this turns out to be nothing but a tryst, maybe we'll at least be able to blackmail Senator O'Kelly into talking."

"If we have the time." Luis could still feel Avary's frail fingers in his hand.

Mattis did not reply, and they made their way in silence to what Luis had dubbed HQ—their rented hideaway in what passed for a bad neighborhood in Upper City. They both slipped on a pair of headphones, settling in to listen to static and the passing chirp of an odd bird. Luis had almost fallen asleep when the sound of a woman's voice jerked him into alertness.

"Gawain, you're late," she snapped.

"Nicknames?" Luis mouthed to Mattis, who rolled his eyes in reply.

"Sorry, Chairman." That sounded like Senator O'Kelly, although the faint brogue he normally affected was missing.

A long silence followed that, and Luis worried that perhaps they'd moved on to a different location or activated a sounding, but eventually the woman's voice came again, crisp and commanding. "That's done, then. First order of business, Bors?"

"Chairman, Perceval will be speaking first about Project Damsel."

This turned out to be about fundraising for an upcoming campaign, which while interesting for the various illegal tactics employed, did not help Luis's hunt. There were five or six different speakers—he only recognized Senator O'Kelly and the Chairman, the recently-elected Senator Kern—and they seemed to have an elaborately formal method of conducting their secret meetings. Luis couldn't help but laugh when he heard them refer to themselves as the "Knights of the Round."

"Gawain, what is the status of the Black Death?" the Chairman—Luis couldn't think of her as Senator Kern—asked at last.

"Moving forward admirably, Chairman. After our initial infection failed to take hold last time, I personally ensured there were enough changes made to—"

"You tire me, Gawain." Luis could hear the warning in the Chairman's voice. O'Kelly was apparently not a favored knight.

"Yes, Chairman. This time the infection has taken hold. Current estimate is that over a dozen are showing symptoms, and it is poised to spread quickly. We could see as much as a sixty percent cull rate amongst the undesirables."

"See to it that it does not fizzle out this time, Gawain, before you try my patience further."

"Yes, Chairman. I will have a detailed report for you tomorrow, and I will personally track the progress of the epidemic. We have lost track of patient zero. We believe she is already dead."

"Very well. Bors, is there any further business?"

The rest of the meeting was filled with administrative makework that Luis barely heard. It was ludicrous. It was impossible. There was no way that a secret society of Upper City senators was planning an epidemic to cull the Lower City, but when Luis saw the expression on Mattis's face, he knew that he had not misheard.

"Fuck," Mattis whispered. "Just fuck."

"You can say that again." Luis pulled off his headphones and threw them against the wall. "I'll kill them."

"Assassinate a senator? We wouldn't stand a chance, and anyway, it wouldn't stop this. We need a plan, Luis. Take a few deep breaths, and we can figure this out."