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It is late but he hasn’t had the time to put her to sleep. Thus, when Sevika comes in from the Drop, Jinx is lying in his lap, clutching the toy rabbit she might be getting a little too old for.
“I’ve got news, boss.” Sevika shoots them a long and pointed look.
“You can talk while she’s here,” he allows. He won’t be forcing Jinx to get up just because he needs to hear something.
“It’s about the thieving. We know who’s responsible.”
“Good. Will you take care of it?”
“I believe you should do it personally, boss. It’s Deanna’s brother. We think she knows and is covering up for him.”
“Is that so?” He stops skimming through the list of Shimmer transports to fully focus on Sevika. “Well… that explains why she has been so unsettled during our last meeting.”
“Yeah, thought it might.” Sevika steps in place, switching the way her arms cross on her chest. “We have it confirmed he’s currently out at Sonder’s, betting on the fights.”
Silco cards his fingers through Jinx’s hair, loose from the bath she took earlier. “Currently?”
“By the morning he’ll know we’ve found him out.”
“I realise,” Silco hisses. Though displeased by it, he shifts, carefully lifting Jinx’s head off his lap.
But the girl he worries he could wake up is already well conscious. She props herself up on her pillow and stares up at him, huge blue eyes pleading. “Does this mean you have to go?”
“Mhm.” He can feel Sevika scoff but doesn’t manage to catch her doing that.
“Why?”
“Because something needs to be taken care of it.”
“Okay, but why?” Jinx asks again, scrambling up sleepily. She leans her head against his side, a silent means of persuasion.
He puts his hand on her shoulder. “It’s simple: you cannot plant seeds in a dirty town. Nothing will grow if they’re dead or stolen from you by the time they sprout. Thus, you cannot let your town get dirty if you want to see the crop from what you’ve planted,” he explains. “And this city has a habit of dirtying itself when it isn’t watched closely, with a dagger to its throat. Whenever you see it’s doing that, you need to clean it up. Like I will have to, now.”
She listens with curiosity, he notes. Smart little girl; his smart little girl.
“Aha.” She hums thoughtfully once he’s finished. “Can I go with you?”
“You should be asleep, young lady.”
“I’m not gonna fall asleep when you’re away, anywhoo.”
“Going to – and anyhow,” he corrects, a matter of principle. She might have to grow up amongst people who speak like that, but there’s no reason she ought to. “Are you sure you can take it? It might turn out rather gruesome.”
“I don’t mind,” she asserts, though he sees her bite her lip.
“Alright,” he concedes. “But you are to tell me when it is too much, so Sevika can get you back home immediately. Is that clear? Now go get yourself a jacket – it’s cold outside. And do something about your hair if you could. We don’t want it getting in the way.” The girl nods, then scurries to her room too prepare.
He, meanwhile, has to turn to his grumpy underling. “Surely, I have not just heard you groan, Sevika. Shall I remind you that if you let anything happen to her, the same will happen to you.”
“As if she hasn’t already—” done enough,’ she tries to say, but he waves her down.
“Your old refrain is tiring,” he replies, putting on his coat. “Besides,” he lowers his voice, standing closer to her now, “I wouldn’t want her to hear this if I were you. Not with her knack for explosives. There’s still one arm you could lose.”
The source was right. He is at Sonder’s, Jabel, the thief. Judging by his hurry to leave when he sees them, he is aware what he has done, too.
Jinx is with them and charges first despite what Silco told her about keeping behind him or Sevika until the place is clear. She shoots through a wall with the gun he gave her, and Silco almost forgets her insubordination because it’s accurate – about two inches from the ear of the scum.
Sevika yells for others to get out, then ties the man down while Silco shows Jinx around. She’s never been here, and properly so. But she ought to know the place’s nooks and crannies before she has someone cornered in it. These are fundamentals.
They find a room for their talk, courtesy of the owner. When Jabel’s already in it, bound to a chair and a little broken, Silco and Jinx come in to begin their talk. During which Jabel stares at Jinx so much, Silco is inclined to ask him about it. But then, if he did and the answer displeased him, he would have to kill him. That would get him Deanna on his back, which he cannot afford right now. So instead, he gives Jinx the gun again, hoping the man will learn to behave himself when he sees her with it.
“So you thought you could carefully take morsels for yourself – that no one would ever realise, did you?” he asks the tied man.
Jabel tries to protest but shuts up when Silco raises his hand – signalling Jinx to lower hers to the level of the captive’s head.
“—And did you know one of yours tried to engage the Enforcers, or is this news for you?”
“I’ve not—” Jabel refutes, weakly.
“You have not known? Oh, I suppose you must not be speaking to each other much, over your drinks. I have a feeling he’ll be dead by tomorrow,” he goes on. Ren is on it since the afternoon, and she always does a good job when she has enough time for it. “Misfortunes, they never tend to come singly.”
“It’s not like—”
Jinx hits him with the gun, strongly enough to get him to spit blood, but not knock him out.
“Not like what?” Silco mouths, which she repeats after him. “Not like you stole from us?” she gathers her own momentum, her messy braids twirling around as she circles the chair. “Not like you’re lying to us?”
Silco takes it from there, proud. “Not like you have been making your dirty little deals on the side while you thought us blind?” He leans to him, his healthy eye narrowing. “Have you no loyalty?”
As agreed upon, Jinx knocks on the door. Sevika walks in, cuts through the ropes binding the man. Before he falls to the floor, she drags him up, her metal arm on his shoulder. Jabel stays on his knees, a gag pushed onto his mouth, so he cannot interrupt. She holds him like that while Silco moves behind his back, taking the gun from Jinx as he gives her his dagger.
“You’re ready for this, Jinx,” he assures when she eyes the weapon apprehensively. This, he knows, stems from her fear she cannot do anything right. He has never heard something so untrue.
“Right,” she smiles bravely, though he is more than sure all of this scares her. “Right, right, Jinx can, I can.” She bares the dagger like she bares her teeth.
“You think yourself a little above everyone, from what I gather,” Silco speaks to the man again, “but the truth is, you’re a dirty sewer rat, Jabel. Living on stolen scraps that you hide in the gutter… Surely, you know how rats ought to be treated.”
Jinx leans over the captive, grimacing in a way she must think scary, but which Silco finds rather endearing. Jabel has no reason to share that opinion, and he watches the dagger in her hand with a panicky squint.
“You’re a dirty sewer rat!” she repeats with a little too much enthusiasm, then glances at Silco. “Like that?”
“Yes, yes, like that. Except you need to go with it a little slower. You need to make him aware you are in control.”
“Oh. But surely, you already know that,” she waves the dagger inches from Jabel’s face, stabbing the air so that he automatically cringes, “you dirty sewer rat.”
“Better.” Silco saunters over to her. “See?” he points with the gun. “This here is the artery. It’s where you want to cut to kill. And that tendon right there? That’s where the vocal cords run – the easiest place to get through to them without using much strength. Above or below, you can cut to leave a scar, as a reminder of what you could have done.” The man is mumbling all the while, jerking his head away until Sevika’s metal fingers tighten on the back of his neck. “Now if you wanted his head, for any reason – you’d probably have to ask Sevika for help. But this would be the slash.”
Silco feigns the swing and Jinx, bless her, gawkily repeats, indeed grazing Jabel with the blade while she does. The man opens his eyes, clearly expecting more blood than he sees, and his breaths grow rapid from relief.
“Okay. So which one are we doing?”
“Neither of those. I just wanted to show you.”
“Fun. What, then? Surely, we’re doing something.”
“Ah,” Silco smiles to himself, “we certainly are.” He gestures for Sevika to yank the gag out of Jebel’s mouth. “Are you interested in continuing our …collaboration?”
“—Yes—yes, of course, anything you—”
“Then give me your hand,” Silco tells him. “So we can shake on it – your loyalty, from now on.”
For no reason whatsoever, the man proves reluctant. Yet he does not have much choice. His hand is pinned to the table while he squirms, fighting against the hold Sevika has on him. It isn’t until he hears the off-safety click that he settles down.
“Careful, now,” Silco instructs, watching over his Jinx as she bends to the hand on the table. “Although he stole, we don’t want him losing the whole hand – he might need it if he plans to do better in the future, and won’t you, Jabel? If so, I suggest you hold still now. Only the trigger finger, Jinx.”
Jinx closes her eyes when the dagger hits skin. Beginner’s mistake. Blood splatters her front because of it – she’ll have to bathe again when they come back. Jabel screams and struggles, and the next hit does not land on the knuckle it ought to, but another one.
“M’sorry!” Jinx cries out, not to the captive but to Silco, looking up as though she expects him to yell.
He does not. Instead, he comes to her aid, asking if she would like him to guide her hand – which she does. The cut is clean, this time, fixing the mess she has unwittingly made of Jebel’s fingers.
The man’s short on breath when they’re done. Clearly, not enough so, as he manages to blurt out, “You said it’d be one,” in his stream of pained curses.
“Well,” Silco drawls, wiping Jinx’s arm with a handkerchief he pulled out of his pocket, “I have told you not to move. It was her first time, after all – and everybody makes mistakes. The secret is not to repeat them. You, especially, would do well to remember that. Next time her hand might slip on your throat, and we would not want that, now would we?”
He leaves the man for Sevika to sort out, while he and Jinx walk out of the room. As soon as they’re out of sight and earshot both, he speaks. “You did well, dear girl.” With that, he ruffles her hair.
She cringes away, making a face, but he catches a glimpse of a proud smile on her lips.