Ryuu shrugged and leaned against the desk, his hand resting near the newspaper. “The note in his pocket just said that the folder was left in his deposit box anonymously.”

“Were you invited to the reception ball for the Linasian princess tonight?” Aina asked.

“Yes, they want me to officially present the diamond to her since it came from our mines,” he said with a frown. “Why?”

She grabbed the newspaper, scanned the details below the headline, then unfolded the paper and showed them the front page, her hands shaking a little. What she was about to propose was bigger than any job she’d ever taken from Kohl.

“Bautix must be tired of frying small fish. What’s the only thing that could be more profitable to him than sparking conflict between Sumeranians?” When no one answered, she said, “If he kills the Linasian princess at this reception ball, where there’s supposed to be so much security, it will look like it’s something our government orchestrated, and that’s cause for war. Sumerand has been out of the international arena since the civil war, and Linash has had its own problems. They barely trust anyone outside of their country. We’re both trying to make allies now, but Bautix is going to use this opportunity to turn more profit than he ever has before. It’s called the Black Diamond Project, right? The news article said she’ll receive the jewel at midnight. I bet that’s when he’ll strike. He wants to make a scene, and this is his best opportunity.”

“Do you think the rest of the Sentinel knows?” Raurie asked. “Would they be in on it with him, or do you think we should warn them about what he’s planning?”

After thinking for a moment, Aina shook her head. “I don’t think the general of any country’s military is supposed to have a side job selling guns to anyone who pays. I know the warehouse where a lot of the sales go through. Most of the city’s criminals get their stuff there. But its operations are so big that no one knows who really runs it. If it’s him, and he’s arming all the city’s gangs and tradehouses as well as the army and Diamond Guards, don’t you think that’s a conflict of interest? But whether they know or not, we don’t exactly have time to set up a meeting with them and find out. The reception ball is tonight. I say we stop the assassination and then see who in the Sentinel is on our side.”

She rushed her words near the end, adrenaline pounding through her as fiercely as during any fight. If they let the princess die and risked a war starting, only more people would die, and the person orchestrating it all would get away with it. Her head cleared, her mistakes of last night momentarily forgotten. Maybe this was something she could do right.

Instead of being a blight on this city, she could be a cure. Instead of being a tool to men like Kohl and Bautix, she would knock them down and put them in their place.