“It must be a plaguing good one,” Ibb said, leaning back in his chair. “I thought we’d agreed to let the heat die down after last time.”

Yora shot him a sour look. Gyre cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“I think this might be worth our time,” he said. “Kit, say your piece.”

“It’ll definitely be worth your time,” Kit said, grinning. “If you’re bold enough.”

Gyre watched the rest of the crew while Kit explained what she needed. Ibb’s eyes widened at the mention of fifty thousand thalers, and Sarah perked up when she heard about the stasis web. Yora kept glancing between Kit and Gyre, and Nevin just stared at the table.

“That … is quite an offer.” Ibb looked down at his hand and pretended to pick grit from under a fingernail. “If it’s true, of course.”

“You don’t trust me,” Kit said, her voice pleasant.

“Of course not,” Ibb said.

“Halfmask vouches for you,” Yora said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. But we need more.”

“Then you’re not interested?” Kit said. “Fifty thousand would buy a lot of food and firewood, wouldn’t it?” Yora’s face twitched, indicating a hit.

“Assuming the money really exists,” Ibb said. “I admit that I’m tempted, but I would need ten percent in advance, and the rest deposited in a Moorcat Bank escrow account.”

“Done,” Kit said immediately. “That seems only fair.”

“It’s not that simple,” Yora said. “We don’t do mercenary work.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ibb drawled.

Yora sighed and looked at Sarah and Nevin. The arcanist spread her hands.

“It seems … plausible,” Sarah said. “Scavengers have dug up active stasis webs before, and they usually fetch a high price, since whatever’s inside is likely to be intact. You’d need a destabilizer to open one, at least if you haven’t got a centarch handy to cut the web off.”

“What’s inside this one?” Yora said to Kit.

“The device is called the Core Analytica,” Kit said. “It’s a cube about a half meter on a side, fragile, nonvolatile. That’s all I can tell you. Raskos has the stasis web stashed in his private warehouse.”

“And the destabilizer?” Ibb said. “You mentioned we’d need to acquire that first.”

“Yes. I have a location for it, but I’ll need your help to get there. It’s in the deep tunnels.”

Sarah frowned. “How did you get its location, then?”

“That I can’t tell you,” Kit said, still smiling. “Sorry.”

“Fifty thousand thalers buys an awful lot of ‘no questions,’” Ibb said contemplatively.

“Nevin,” Yora said. “You know the defenses around Raskos’ warehouse. Can that part be done?”

The green-haired youth looked down at the table, shifting uncomfortably under everyone’s scrutiny.