“Where was the girl found?” I asked Adolphus.
“South of Light Street. Over by the canal. You planning a visit?”
There was no point in explaining to Adolphus the bargain I had struck with Special Operations, not while I still had some chance to make good on it, so I ignored him and turned to Wren.
“Get your coat. I’m going to need you for a while.”
Assuming this would involve something more interesting than carrying messages and getting me dinner, Wren complied with uncharacteristic enthusiasm. Adolphus looked me over, recognizing the outline of metal beneath my clothing.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to visit an old friend of ours.”
Adolphus’s one eye worked to read something from my pair.
“Why?”
“I haven’t had enough excitement today.”
Wren came out wrapped in a hideous wool thing that Adeline had sewn together for him. “Have I told you before how ugly that is?” I asked.
He nodded.
“So long as we’re on the same page.” I turned back to Adolphus. “The boy’ll be back before sundown. Hold anything that comes for me.” Adolphus nodded, sufficiently familiar with my customs at this point to know I wouldn’t volunteer anything else. Wren and I left the Earl and started west.
When Grenwald finally entered I had been sitting in the dark for twenty minutes, reclining in the visitor’s chair, my feet perched on the stained oak desk that dominated the room. I was starting to worry that he had decided to skip whatever daily tasks required his attendance, and I’d be left waiting in his office like an asshole. But it was worth it to see his reaction as he swung open the door, his arrogant demeanor converting to one of abject horror in the span of a half second.
A decade had done much to raise my old superior’s position, although sadly damn little to improve his character or to stiffen the rodent-like set of his jaw. His coat was expensive but ill-fitting, and his once firm body was running to fat at a somewhat greater speed than middle age strictly demanded. I lit a match off the wood and held it to my cigarette. “Howdy, Colonel. What’s the good news?”
He shut the door, slammed it really, hoping to hide this interview from his staff. “How the hell did you get in here?”
I shook the match out with two fingers and imitated the motion with my head. “Colonel, Colonel. I confess I’m hurt. To be addressed in such a fashion by so dear a friend?” I clicked my tongue in disapproval. “Is this how two old comrades reminisce, united by the bonds of our noble crusade?”
“No, no. Of course not,” he said. “I was just surprised to see you. I’m sorry.” That was one of the fun things about Grenwald-he broke so damn easy.
“A drop of water beneath a bridge,” I said.
He set his coat and hat on a rack by the door, playing for time, trying to figure out why I had come and what he needed to do to see me leave. “Whiskey?” he asked as he moved toward a cabinet in the corner, pouring himself a tumbler full.
“I try not to imbibe hard liquor before noon, part of my new life as a burgeoning teetotaler. Knock yourself out, though.”
He did, throwing back his glass in one quick motion, then giving himself another few fingers and sliding past me to assume his chair behind the desk. “I thought, after last time…” He swallowed hard. “I thought we were through.”
“Did you?”
“I thought that you said we were even.”
“Did I?”
“Not, of course, that I’m unhappy to see you.”
I repulsed this concern with a theatrical wave of my hand.
“What is this about?”
“Maybe I just wanted to pop in and give a quick salute to my former commander,” I said. “Don’t you ever feel like reliving old times with your brother officers?”
“Of course I do, of course,” he said, willing to agree to anything I put in front of him.
“Then how come you never return the courtesy? Have you risen so high you’ve forgotten your old subordinate?”
He sputtered something halfway between an apology and an excuse before lapsing into silence.
I let that hang awkwardly between us for about fifteen seconds, trying hard not to laugh. “As it happens, though, and since you’ve so kindly offered, there is something you might be able to help me with-though I hesitate to ask, given that you’ve done so much already.”
“Think nothing of it,” he said coldly.
“Remember that operation outside Donknacht, the day before the armistice?”
“Vaguely.”
“Yes, I’m sure it was only of trifling interest to one so far up the chain of command. Dealing with key strategic and logistical issues, it might be easy to forget the skirmishes that fill the memories of the lower ranks.”
He didn’t respond.
“I need to know the name of every sorcerer involved in that project-everyone who carried it out, and anyone who might have trained them. The Ministry of War will have kept a record.”
“Not for something like that,” he answered, immediately and without thinking. “It was off the books.”
“They have it.”
He scrambled for some excuse to avoid acting the pawn. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to access them. They wouldn’t be held in the general library with the rest of the documents from the war. If they’re anywhere, they’d be under lock and key in the restricted section.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem for an Undersecretary of the Army.”
“They’ve changed protocol,” he insisted. “It isn’t like the old days. I can’t just walk into the archives and walk out with the documents under my arm.”
“It’ll be as easy as it’ll be. Or as difficult. But either way, it’ll get done.”
“I… can’t guarantee anything.”
“There aren’t any guarantees in life,” I responded. “But you’ll try, won’t you, Colonel? You’ll try very, very hard.”
He drained the rest of the glass and set it on the table, then pushed his weasel face toward mine. The liquor was kicking in, flooding him with courage he could never muster sober. “I’ll do what I can,” he said, and the tone of his voice did not fill me with confidence in the outcome of his errand. “And then we’re square. No more of these surprise visits. We’re done.”
“Funny-you said the same thing the last time I was here.” I stubbed my cigarette into his desk, grinding the ash into the finish, then stood and grabbed my coat. “Be seeing you soon, Colonel.”