‘Now. Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Kryl?’

She wasn’t one of his kidnappers, then. Not unless this was a clever ploy to shift the blame, but it didn’t feel to Sham like a lie. He’d told lies, he’d lived them, and this wasn’t one of them.

‘I said—’

‘Yes, yes,’ Sham replied, ‘I heard you. Can I lower my hands first?’

‘No.’

‘Hm.’ His forearms were aching. Bodies weren’t designed to be held up for this long—and he suspected anyone who said otherwise was a damned liar.

‘The quicker you tell me who you are, the quicker you can leave. As long as it’s the truth.’

The truth. What was the truth, here? That Kryl was involved in some kind of conspiracy that would lead to the destruction of Haven’s seat of government in seven days? That wasn’t exactly a believable story, even without mentioning the time travel. So if Sham couldn’t say that, then…

[HEART OF JANUS] A PERSONAL CONNECTION: SUCCESS

Look. Look around you. There are clues, here, that you’ve not yet considered. There’s a lie that fits the pattern.

He sized up the room around him. No daguerrotypes on the walls meant no attachments. Kryl lived alone. But in a fancy place like this—one which he’d be forgiven for describing as a “bachelor pad”...

‘I know him through a friend of mine. A woman.’

The gun-toters stare softened a tad. The doubts were fading. ‘A woman?’ she repeated. ‘What woman?’

‘I, err…’ he scrambled for a name. ‘Edna!’ Strange choice. That was his mother’s name.

‘He never mentioned an Edna,’ the woman replied. There was a hint of distress to her tone. What was she to Kryl? A lover?

Sham dialled it back, not willing to provoke a woman with a gun pointed at him. ‘I dunno how close they were,’ he said. ‘Maybe you met her? Shaved head?’

The woman shook her head. ‘Why’d you come here, then? If he was just a friend of a friend?’

Sham shrugged, allowed the lies to spill forth. ‘Heard he was missing. Came to investigate.’

‘Oh yeah?’ the woman asked, lowering her weapon. ‘And just what are you supposed to be? Some kind of police officer?’

Sham licked his lips, considering his response for a moment before answering. ‘In another life, yeah.’

‘In another life,’ the woman repeated. ‘Right.’

Sham was relieved to see her thrust her weapon back into her pocket.

‘Seems we’re on the same side, then. But I don’t trust you. And I don’t expect you to trust me, either.’

‘That sounds like a fair arrangement,’ Sham replied.

The woman nodded. ‘Good. Let’s go.’

‘I haven’t finished looking about. I got—’

The stranger sighed loudly enough to cut Sham off. ‘I fired my weapon about two minutes ago. My unlicensed weapon. Police will be here any moment. And I don’t wanna be here when they do. Something tells me you don’t want to be, either.’

Sham pressed his lips together, considering the woman in front of him for a moment. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

The woman led them to a restaurant far fancier than Sham had ever stepped in before. The floors were devoid of dust, the paintwork fresh, the smell of the food wafting through the air as though carried on the wings of messenger gods. Sham looked around the establishment, feeling out of place, as he took his seat. Even the chair he sat in felt too comfortable for someone of his social standing.

‘The name’s Riot,’ said the woman across the table from him, her hand held forward, stiff, machine-like.

‘Yeah,’ Sham replied, already struggling to suppress the smirk as he took Riot’s hand. ‘Cos you’re such a—’

The glare the woman shot him was piercing enough to shut him up mid-sentence. ‘Don’t,’ she said, whipping her hand backwards. ‘My parent’s poor taste does not reflect in the least on my personality.’

The time traveller smiled through this barked order. ‘Sham,’ he said. ‘My name.’

A woman in a smart dress arrived at their table side to thrust menus in their hands. Sham smiled his thanks while Riot kept her eyes trained squarely on him.

‘What is it you want?’ his new acquaintance asked.

‘Do you… do you mean to eat, or…’

The woman’s eye twitched. Sham was getting to her. He took some small satisfaction in this. ‘I mean,’ she continued, ‘What are you doing here? Why investigate? What do you want with Kryl?’

‘I could ask you the same question,’ Sham shot back at her. ‘You got something to do with all this? The way I see it, there was plenty more trinkets to go back and steal. You might’ve been there for him, but there isn’t anything stopping you returning.’

‘Me? A petty thief?’ Riot replied. ‘Do my clothes make me look as though I need the money?’

Sham took a moment to look her up and down. She was, indeed, wearing finer clothes than any he had ever possessed. The leather jacket was one thing, but beneath this outer layer he could see the soft texture of real cotton shirt, the shining brass buckle of a belt purchased not in any of the harbour district’s stores.

‘Forget it,’ Riot continued. ‘I wasn’t looking for an actual assessment. As for Kryl? I just want him home. I just want… I just want everything back to how it was. I want ordinary. I want the natural order. That’s—’

‘Gods, your parents did name you badly, didn’t they?’ Sham interrupted.

‘I said don’t.’

Sham was spared the possibility of retort by the attentive waitress appearing at their table once more.

‘Have you had a chance to review the menu?’ she asked of the table.

Sham nodded to his dining partner. ‘Whatever she’s having.’

‘I’ll take the stew,’ Riot replied.

The waitress nodded and quickly left them to it.

‘Stew?’ Sham asked.

‘You’re a grown man, you could’ve chosen for yourself.’

‘Didn’t know we were having a full sit-down meal, did I? Thought we were just hiding out. Keeping low. Looking back fondly on the time you almost shot me.’

‘Twice.’

‘What?’ Sham asked.

‘Almost shot you twice.’

‘Right. Yes. That’s my point. We’re not exactly old friends looking to catch up, are we?’

Riot shrugged. ‘Well, I’m hungry. Eat or... don’t. It’s of no consequence to me.’

Sham raised his eyebrows, crossed his arms, and leant back in his chair. It supported his lumbar area beautifully, all but eliminating the aches and pains therein. What had he done to deserve such luxury?

‘You didn’t answer the question.’

‘Yes, your clothes look—’

Riot’s nostrils flared. ‘I think you know that’s not the question I was talking about.’

It was true. He did know that. And he wasn’t gonna get away with not answering, it seemed. This woman was very capable of zeroing in on the information she wanted.

‘Well?’

Sham sighed. ‘Look, OK? It’s not your Kryl I’m after. I just heard he might have some information about our mutual friend.’

‘Edna,’ Riot clarified.

He didn’t know that she wasn’t called Edna. ‘...Yes. Her. That’s all I’m here for, alright? No robbery, no kidnapping, nothing.’

Riot leant forwards, her brown eyes staring into Sham’s. Searching for something. The truth? ‘Who is she to you?’ she challenged him. ‘A lover?’

‘The opposite.’

The woman raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m not sure I know what—’

‘I’m just…’ Sham continued, nipping that train of thought in the bud. It had been a poor answer. ‘She’s going to do something bad. I’m just trying to stop her.’

Silence fell over the table as Riot considered Sham’s explanation, broken only by the waitress returning and placing a bowl down in front of each of them. The aroma put the hungry time traveller into a kind of trance.

‘I think I believe you,’ Riot finally said, between delicate slurps of stew.

Sham was a lot less delicate with his own slurps. ‘Good. It’s the truth.’

The woman across from him nodded, and her eyes fell to her own bowl. They each continued the meal in silence, Sham allowing his mind to drift away from the quests just for a moment and instead enjoy the delicious food that he certainly wasn’t going to be able to afford. That was a problem for later.

‘Are we done, then?’ the time traveller finally asked of his dining companion after he’d consumed the very last morsel of food.

‘Done?’

‘You said you believe me. That I’m not involved with Kryl’s disappearance. That means I can go? Cos I’m running on the clock here.’

Riot seemed confused. ‘I wasn’t forcing you to be here.’

‘You… you kinda were,’ Sham replied.

‘How?’

‘The—’

Sham trailed off as the waitress returned with a bill written in a beautiful hand. He smiled gratitude and then waited for her to amble away once more.

‘The gun,’ he finished.

Riot narrowed her eyes in answer, but said nothing.

‘Right, then…’ Sham mumbled, standing from the table and pushing his chair out, an uncomfortable screech of furniture leg on tile echoing around the restaurant.

‘You’re forgetting something,’ Riot said, nodding to the bill.

Sham held up his hands, palms out.

‘You’re not paying,’ Riot said. It was a statement rather than a question, yet her tone still somehow conveyed surprise.

‘I’m not from the Sunrise District.’

‘Harbour?’

Sham didn’t grace the question with a response. ‘I’m guessing from you leading us right to this joint that you are from this district. And that means you got money. And that means…’

‘I’m paying.’

‘Yes.’

[POISE] CITIZEN OF SUNRISE: FAIL

Let’s be real: you were never going to pass this one. You look like what you are.

Riot sighed, rolled her eyes, and shook her head—the holy trifecta of disappointed looks. It was as though Ma was back from the dead. She threw some coins—well, a lot of coins, and certainly more than Sham had ever paid for a meal—onto the metal tray in front of them, and then looked back up to her new acquaintance.

‘I found someone who said Kryl was with the Loopkeepers,’ she said. ‘Do you know who they are?’

Sham nodded. ‘Some church. People hate ‘em. Formed a little over a week ago, out of the blue. Just like—’

‘No.’

‘No?’

Riot shook her head again. ‘No, not a week ago. Yesterday.’

Oh, right. Yeah. That was how time worked now, apparently.

‘Out of nowhere, too. Never heard of anything like it. Dozens of people suddenly finding faith? It shouldn’t happen. Not like that.’

‘Maybe they all witnessed a miracle,’ Sham suggested, a sly smile crossing his face.

‘So you’ve spoken to them too?’ Riot asked, eyebrow raised.

‘What? No. I was just making a joke. You’re saying there was a miracle?’

‘I’m saying they’re saying there was.’

Sham leant in across the table just in time for the waitress to retrieve the coins and place two small chocolates in front of them. The sight of their colourful foil wrappers distracted him—only momentarily—from his next question. ‘What kind of miracle?’ he asked.

Riot held her hands up to the heavens, palms up, mocking the gods. ‘Rebirth,’ she said. ‘Of a sort. A new lease of life, at any rate.’

‘I don’t understand what that means.’

The woman sat forwards, her brown hair falling over her face as she leant in conspiratorially. ‘They’re saying they know the future,’ she whispered. ‘No. That’s not right. They’re saying they’ve lived it.’

Ah.

‘I know,’ Riot continued, prompted on by Sham’s paling face. ‘It’s madness. But that’s a facet of the human condition, isn’t it? We’re all prone to insanity, given the right pressure. Just unfortunate that so many share in this… delusion.’

Delusion? Madness? No.

Though Sham kept his expression neutral, his eyes unreadable, he revelled in possessing the truth that was lost on the woman sat across from him. These Loopkeepers weren’t insane. Far from it. In fact, they might be the only damned people around with a clear enough mind to see the truth.

‘Fucking Loopkeepers…’ The same voice reverberated around his mind once more.

Maybe he needed to get that voice looked into.