Arkady raised his hand. “Which is where I came in. For the past couple of months, I’ve been working at Allegra doing general office admin. It gave me a chance to get close to staff, especially the Head of Accounting Olivia Dawson. Very smart woman. Workaholic Mundane, divorced, no kids, not easy to get close to. But I wore her down.”
Miles rolled his eyes.
“We went out after work a few times,” Arkady said. “She was fond of unwinding with a drink or four and amenable to a sympathetic ear about how her entire life is bound up in the company. She also got very hostile whenever Jackson’s name came up in the course of chatting about current events. Apparently, there was no love lost between them while they worked together. Last week, she made a throwaway comment about an ‘insurance policy’”—Arkady did the air quotes—“and that certain people weren’t as smart as they thought they were. Frieden is dead, so it’s likely she was referring to Wu.”
“If she collected evidence to protect her butt,” Priya said, “she may well have named names.”
“So lean on Olivia,” I said.
“We intended to,” Miles said. “But she died late last night in a car accident.”
“Foul play?” Rafael asked.
Miles shook his head. “Drinking and driving. Not her first time.”
“She didn’t deserve that,” Arkady said.
Miles spread his hands wide.
“You’ve searched her home and office, I take it,” Rafael said.
Arkady nodded. “Thoroughly.”
“There may be another way to find this proof, should it exist,” Levi said. “A Bookworm, but they’re so rare as to be an urban legend.”
“What’s a Bookworm?” I said.
“They have the ability to burrow into any printed material anywhere in existence,” Levi said.
I raised my eyebrows at Rafael, who’d rolled his eyes. Hard. “If you’re going to impersonate a fifteen-year-old girl, Attendant mine, you might want to wear less tweed.”
Rafael glanced down at his brown blazer with the elbow patches. “Tweed is a perfectly adaptable fabric and Bookworms are barmy as hell.”
“Do you know of one?” I said. “Why aren’t we using them to get more intel on Chariot? We could gain access to Isaac’s correspondence and find out where they’re hiding the scrolls.”
“Did you not hear the part about them being exceedingly rare? And we did use one. Or rather, attempt to,” he said. “About thirty years ago when Vishranti was the Jezebel. This was the first Bookworm we’d found since we learned of their existence about three hundred years ago.”
Priya tugged on his sleeve. “Thirty years isn’t so far back. Could you find this person again?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t. He was murdered by parties a little too interested in his skill set.”
“Damn,” I said.
“While it’s true that Bookworms can find any information printed that is currently in existence,” Rafael said, pushing his glasses up his nose, “the important caveat is that their skills don’t apply to anything digital.”
“Even printed information had to yield something on Chariot,” I said.
“Certainly,” Rafael said, “but it was about a hundred years out of date. Chariot knows about the existence of Bookworms as well, no matter how rare they are, and took appropriate measures to cover their tracks.”
“And the barmy part?” Miles said.
“Data overload,” Rafael said. “Their lucid moments are far and few between. Sad, really.”
“All that notwithstanding,” Levi said, “exceedingly rare doesn’t mean nonexistent.”
I shifted, stretching out my back. “If Olivia’s insurance policy was stored on a laptop or something, you’re shit out of luck.”
“It’s not,” Priya said. “I searched every device she was connected to.” If Priya couldn’t find it with her badass hacking skills, then it didn’t exist digitally.
“Based on things Elke’s heard,” Levi said, “she’s of the opinion that a Bookworm currently exists. If one is alive, there’s someone who’d be interested enough in their abilities to have their location.”
“The Queen?” I said. “Ask her yourself.”
“I tried. She denied knowing anything, but knowledge is power, right? You have a more personal relationship with her, and she might share information with you that she’s reluctant to hand over to me,” he said. “Pursue that avenue. Find me a Bookworm.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, then caught himself, like he’d exposed some chink in his armor.
Levi was desperate. Provincial parliament was disbanded for the summer, but that hadn’t stopped the Untainted Party from strengthening alliances for when the bill went to First Reading in the fall session. His best chance at derailing this ploy to remove Nefesh self-governance was to stop the legislation before parliament was recalled.
I worried my teeth against my bottom lip. If Levi wasn’t after a Hail Mary, would he have brought me in at all? He hadn’t requested assistance with any case since he’d dumped me, so how strong was our professional alliance?
“We’ll do our best,” Rafael said. “Right, Ashira?”
“Yup.” This stupid new sofa hurt my ass.
“Thank you. Do you have any updates to share?” Levi said, without bothering to look to me for the information. Rafael had become the de facto liaison between Team Jezebel and Levi.
Rafael finished his tea. “Ash found a possible new member of the Ten.” His synopsis on Deepa Anand didn’t mention how I’d found out about her, but from Levi’s assessing gaze, he suspected.
“Priya,” Rafael said, “can you look into her?” He shared my theory about each of the Ten bringing something valuable to the table. “Deepa’s death may expose more of them.”
“Sure.” Her shoulders slumped.
“Tell them, Priya,” Arkady said.
I leaned over Rafael and tapped her knee. “Pri?”
She spun her empty mug in her hands. “There’s only one of me, and I feel like I’m being pulled between the House and Team Jezebel. I can’t do it all.”
She’d confided in Arkady about this instead of coming to me? My magic danced under my skin, but my emotions were tempered by how warily Priya watched me.
“You shouldn’t have to,” I said. Priya had every right to set boundaries. “We had a deal, Levi, and it wasn’t that you monopolize all her time.” Was this his plan? Undermine me by taking my team members out of the picture?
“I allocated my resources to the most pressing threat,” he said. “The legislation.”
“The digital trail is dead,” Miles said. “And overloading Priya to the point of burnout doesn’t do anyone any good. Least of all, House security.”
I smirked and Levi’s expression hardened. Bitten in the ass by his Security Chief’s devotion to his duty.
“Priya is all yours. Are we done?” Levi arched an eyebrow.
Rafael glanced at Priya, who gave him a wan smile and nod. “I believe so,” he said. He didn’t know about Nicola and the bamah yet. I’d fill him in after I told Levi.