Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sun is in his eyes, and Inej has been gone for a month. She's not coming back. You gave her a boat, and her parents, and she is done with Ketterdam. And you. 

Kaz knows these things to be true in the mind that's won him a hundred Barrel fights, but the ache in his chest when he forces himself to confront the truth reminds him that, no matter how small and twisted it is, he still has a heart. He makes his way downstairs to the office that used to be Per Haskell's and looks through the comprehensive intelligence report Roeder left on his desk sometime earlier that morning. Inej would've told him herself, but Roeder is not Inej, and in Ketterdam, that means you fear Kaz Brekker at least a bit. Enough to not give him bad news in person early in the morning. Kaz scans the report; nothing is out of the ordinary except a small footnote hidden at the end of the section of the report dedicated to the Crow Club's competition. Evidence suggests Rollins plans to return to Ketterdam. 

Why wouldn't the fact that Rollins was threatening to come back much sooner than he'd planned on been at the top of the report? Anyone who knew Kaz knew that he'd always had it in for the man, but then, hardly anyone even thinks they know Kaz, and none of them are sleeping two floors up in the Slat after a long night of secret-gathering. Kaz frowned and called for Anika.

"When is Pekka Rollins expected to return in Ketterdam?"

"I hadn't heard he was coming back," she answered, leaning on the doorframe and pulling her fog-yellow braid over her shoulder. "And I just got off the night shift, so--"

"Fetch Roeder." She rolled her eyes and stomped heavily up the stairs. Roeder was blinking sleep out of his eyes when he entered the office, but at least he didn't spout any ridiculous nonsense about having just finished a shift. Shifts were for when there wasn't work to be done, and while there was always work to be done, there was more than usual when Pekka Rollins set his sights on Ketterdam.

"Is this about my note on Pekka Rollins?"

"Damn right it is. Is that really all the information you have on him?" If it is, Kaz desperately needs a new spider. Unfortunately, to the best of his knowledge, Roeder is the best one who hasn't quit the trade to chase slave traders all over the True Sea. And that's another reason I need better intel.

"Based on other merchers returnign after the plague, we have a week and a half, but because it's Pekka Rollins, it could be any time over three days."

"Three days." Kaz tilted his head and considered; there was plenty he could do once Rollins was back in the city to make sure he didn't stay, but there was precious little he could do before that. "You may go."

Chapter Text

Kaz needed a softer mattress, a better coffee supplier, and a new spider. Not necessarily in that order; he didn't need to be able to sleep to run Ketterdam, though it would be easier if the Zemeni hadn't made the price of coffee so prohibitively expensive. There would be good money in purchasing a coffee farming operation in Noyvi Zem and running it in at lower prices...but he wasn't in the market for a new venture. At least, not at the moment. Rollins' return meant he had plenty to keep his gloved hands full.

After wading through another stack of reports on the state of the Crow Club as compared to other clubs in the Barrel, Kaz was more than ready for a break. Naturally, that meant he wouldn't get one. A much as Kaz had longed to be a general, being Per Haskell's lieutenant had left him with far less paperwork and far more time to plot his own affairs. The door creaked, and Roeder stepped in. Clearly off a night's work, Kaz's new lieutenant was still alert, a quality Kaz could well respect even if he'd be lying to say the same of himself. New mattress. Better coffee. The spider would have to wait.

"Kaz?"

"What is it, Roeder?" Kaz tried to look as though he had been busy and not missing Inej; it wouldn't do for the Barrel's collective tongue to flop about something he so wished to keep secret.

"It appears that Pekka Rollins is not coming back to Ketterdam after all." Kaz looked up sharply.

"Why would you say that?" Roeder hesitated. 

"He's packed up his house, alright, but he isn't en route to Ketterdam. He's sequestered with his son in his most isolated country home with a skeleton set of servants and guards. The tickets he booked were given to someone else."

"He planned to come back and didn't. I've never known Rollins to not follow through on anything." Kaz picked up a report on the Sweet Shop: without the miracle of Rollins' return, it wouldn't make the month's rent. "See if the owner of the Sweet Shop building is looking for another tenant." 

"Right." Roeder paused in the doorway. "You don't suppose..."

"What?"

"You don't suppose something scared Rollins off, do you?" Kaz raised a dark brow. 

"I think you'd be the only one to know that, Spider."

"Well...." Kaz put the report down, resting his chin on steepled fingers. What a replacement for Inej, he thought. Maybe he's not as alert as I thought; he must be half-asleep to be idealizing and making suggestions as she does. He shook his head. Did. "There is one person who it could be..."

"Spit it out, Roeder."

"You don't suppose it was her?" Kaz's hands dropped and he stood, hands in gloves, clenched.

"Get out."

Roeder did so, leaving Kaz to wonder if it had been Inej and, if so, why she'd go to such great lengths to keep Rollins away from him.