Nazarin will be there, guarding the King. I’ll be on my own, trying to move close enough to watch and record from another angle. Nazarin said I didn’t have to go, that he could do it alone; but I can’t back out now, not when we’re so very close to the end. If there’s anything connected to the Hearth, I’m the best person to figure out what it is and who’s behind it on the other side of the bay.

Yesterday was a long day. I didn’t have to go to the Verve lounge, at least, and with luck, I’ll never have to set foot there again. It was more training, more last-minute information. I picked through the information on Veli Carrera, or Ensi in a previous life, wondering what he was like back then. Sudice betrayed him, but he didn’t have to turn to crime. Yet he did.

Now it’s Wednesday. The last night of having to do this.

No more watching people’s Verve dreams. No more pretending to be Tila and losing more of the Taema I used to be each day. No more putting myself in danger.

That’s the plan.

The King of the Ratel doesn’t often get his hands dirty, but it seems he’ll attend this drop personally. It’s clever that Ensi stays out of things as much as possible. Nazarin has seen so many crimes over the past year in his time with the Ratel; but it’s always other people. If they were arrested, nothing would really change. They’d be replaced the next day, and Ratel business would continue as usual. We still only have proof of Malka killing someone. We don’t have direct proof of Ensi doing anything illegal. Hopefully, in fifteen minutes, we will.

The pier appears abandoned, but the Ratel own it, and no one trespasses. The cranes, built in water, tower over us like strange mechanical beasts. Dotted around the pier are reinforced docks, stacked with rusting cargo bins. I’m hidden behind one, dressed in a black Kalar suit. I’ve been here half an hour, waiting and watching; Nazarin gave me a gun, now tucked into the small of my back. The air is cold, and I shiver. The green glow of the algae in the water lends everything a sickly tinge, but it’s enough light for me to see.

They haven’t arrived yet. I worry that I’ve messed up and read the notebook wrong, or that Ensi changed it at the last moment and Nazarin couldn’t tell me.