I leave half of the loaf in my apartment, just to make it look like I am still in residence. I eat the rest on my way to Jet's.

When I arrive, I am ushered to the map room. Another sensitive mission, it looks like. Just outside the door, next to the guard, stands Triel on messenger duty. He looks a little rough. He deliberately avoids my gaze as I walk by, lips tightening. Heh.

Standing a few feet to the side are Tav and Falas, two of Jet's newer enforcers. Up-and-comers. Tav is an affable thug; a well-muscled former dockworker who got tired of the daily slog. Rumor is he has a family cached away somewhere. Falas is younger, a fair-skinned murderer with a shock of dark hair above his crystal blue eyes. He's barracuda quick with his two daggers; he prefers to fight two-handed like me. He watches me silently, intently, whenever we work together.

I'm guessing they are here to help me with the job that Jet wants done. I shoot them a perfunctory nod and head into the map room.

Looks like I am the last one to arrive. Again.

Enturi is standing in front of Jet's map table. Great. He glances at me as I come in and for once his little smirk is missing. His face is serious, concerned. Maybe Bolin's death has him a bit rattled. No sign of Lynae. She must still be wound-sick. No fire burning in the fireplace this time either.

"Bolin was mine," Jet says. "And he was useful. I will not abide his death. And I don't appreciate the killer marking one of my men to take the blame."

I don't appreciate it either.

"I suspect Lainath is behind this." That makes sense. Lainath is a rival. Loosely controls the smelter district. It's his men that guard the smelter entrance. Maybe he felt that Jet was pissing in his pisspot by recruiting Bolin out of his territory. Not than an elf, even a ward boss, has any hold over an outsider.

"But," Jet continues, "Before I take decisive action, I want to make sure. You two, take Tav and Falas and question the gate guards who were on duty last night. Find out who came and went. I want to know who visited Bolin between the time Arq was there with the blood rune-" At this, Enturi glances at me curiously. "-and the time when Arq and Triel found the body."

"They'll be off duty now," Enturi remarks. Irritatingly, he seems to be thinking the same thing I am. How do we find them? I don't think dancing into Lainath's headquarters, even if we knew where it was, and asking to talk to his guards is a viable plan.

"Yes, they will," says Jet. "They are most likely sleeping. Vulnerable. And thanks to your recovery of Jeamo's scrolls, I know exactly where they are."

Looks like Jet's not wasting any time putting the information in those scrolls to use. Not that I blame him, under the circumstances. He jabs down at the map on the table with his finger.

"Here," he says. "The second floor of this house has four rooms, each rented out to smelter guards. You'll find the guards you want in the front room on the harbor side. Quietest way in is through the alley door. Got it?"

"Of course," says Enturi. "And when we've got the information?"

"Report back to me. But first, kill the guards. And this time, leave no trace of our hand."

"Certainly," says Enturi unctuously. He turns to me and looks at me sternly. "Do you understand, Arq? Leave no trace." The hell? I stare at him open-mouthed, my face carved with hostility. One of these days I am going to cut his tongue out of his pretty face. We'll see how good of a bootlicker he is then.

"We'll be back," I say to Jet, ignoring Enturi. I return to the audience chamber and cock my head toward Tav and Falas. 

"Come on, then," I say. They fall into step behind me. By the time Enturi exits the map room, we're halfway across the audience room. He has to run to catch up.