Free City of Burning Shadows (Apocrypha: The Dying World) by Barbara J. Webb Page B

Miroc apart, that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
    “What do you need me to do?” I asked.
    “Continue the investigation. Get answers to the questions I asked and anything else Spark and Copper know about the Jansynians.”
    Easy enough. Except for the fact I’d be trying to sneak around under the nose of the people who knew everything, saw everything, and last night had demonstrated a willingness to kill.  
    I called Micah. As soon as possible, we were going to have to figure out a safer way to get in touch with each other. I told him we needed to meet.
    “No problem,” he said. “Meet me in a couple hours, the same place as before.”
    “Is that safe? After last night?”
    “We won’t be staying.” He hung up.
    I found Iris in the library again, a ginger cat curled up on the rug. Her head lifted as I came into the room and she shifted back to person-shape, although her hair retained the cat’s orange and white stripes. I held in my laugh.  
    “Amelia told me she was sending you back out.” Her skin moved through several shades before settling into a deep-desert brown that actually worked with the orange. “You up for this?”
    “Honestly? I have no idea. Any chance you could back me up?”
    She stretched, still moving like a cat. “I can meet you over there in a bit. I’ve got a couple things of my own to take care of this morning.”
    “The city council thing?”  
    “Yeah. It’s gotten complicated. Threats of…” She put a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “Nothing you need to worry about. You’ve got plenty to keep you busy.”
    On that, we were in total agreement.
    #
    With a couple hours to kill, I could check in on Spark at the safehouse and ask her my questions before I talked to her sister. It wasn’t that I expected them to give me different stories. I just wanted to be thorough.
    I walked out with Iris and turned to the tube station as she took to the air. I continued underground. I’d passed the ticket machines and video booths and was just about to the turnstile when I saw the first Jansynian face.  
    It wasn’t like they blended in. Milk-white skin and silver-white hair made this woman seem to glow in the artificial underground light. I backed away from the line of people heading towards the platform, but she looked in my direction and I saw her lips move.
    The mid-morning station wasn’t so crowded I could easily get lost, but I made a go of it anyway. I pushed my way through a clump of people coming up from an arriving train and dodged down a hall towards the orange line. If I could get to that train—
    No, another ghost-white face ahead of me. Were they on every platform, waiting? This guy was on alert and he spotted me as soon as I rounded the corner. So much for that escape.  
    “Ash Drake.”
    A voice behind me. I spun. A Jansynian stood right behind me. On the shoulder of his dark jacket was a logo I recognized—Desavris Intercontinental. They were the big fish in Miroc’s Jansynian pond. Seana had always spoken of them with reverence. Desavris controlled the entry point into the Crescent, which meant every other corporation had to work through them or with them. And now, it seemed, they were after me.
    As I hesitated, I caught sight of another white face approaching from the left. I looked back over my shoulder and spotted a third. Closing in. I was caught.
    “Please come with us, Mr. Drake.” His hands were empty, but I could see the outline of a gun under his jacket. Reassuring, in a way. If they wanted me dead, they could simply have shot me.
    I appreciated they hadn’t grabbed me, either. Jansynian security was nothing if not polite. “Where are we going?”
    “Our director wishes to see you.”
    Which meant they wanted to take me into the Crescent. Kaifail knew if they meant for me to come out again. “I’m actually on my way to another appointment, but I’m happy to check my calendar for a more convenient—”
    I stopped at the unmistakable prod of the