Ariel had no more information about Kryl’s whereabouts. Or perhaps it was rather that she simply had no more information she wanted to share. Either way, Sham had learned all he could from the Church of the Loopkeepers. It was time to change tack.

Still Sham had no idea where Kryl might be hiding from such terrifying enemies as the Legion. But he knew someone who might.

And, all things being equal, he knew exactly where she would be tomorrow afternoon.

Riot would enter Kryl’s apartment just before evening, gun in hand, her attitude cold and suspicious. But, thanks to the loop—or the Loop, capital L, as the Loopkeepers called it—Sham was going in with more information this time around. He knew how to convince Riot that he knew Kryl. Or, failing that, he now knew exactly where she kept her gun, and how she would fight. This time around, Sham would be on more of an equal footing, even with his natural disease-caused disadvantages.

So Sham ambled home for rest, to wait until the following day. There were no trams this far north in the city, and so his only transport option was his own two feet. Though such exertion would pay havoc on his body, he could have a long night of sleep to recover.

And then, tomorrow, he’d figure out just where the fuck Kryl had got to.

Day 2

[HARDENED LIVER] DETOX: SUCCESS

The pain grows. Physicality wanes. The fog begins to clear. Continue on like this and you might just change yourself.

It was just like before. On this morning on the previous Loop, he’d succeeded at the very same skill check, it having been the same number of hours—Loops excluded—since he last drank. Which meant…

Pain.

No hangover, sure, but aches, pains, lethargy, and all to just the same overwhelming extent as in the previous Loop. Any movement took incredible mental effort, his condition exacerbated by the sudden shock to his system of lowering blood alcohol levels.

Sham pulled himself from his bedclothes, slick with sweat, and hobbled over to the rusty basin as best he could. He splashed cool water on his face, on his body, and pain no attention to just how wet his floor was getting. There would be time to deal with these things later.

Later.

Sham looked outside. The sun was still rising in the sky. He had a few hours yet before Riot would burst into Kryl’s apartment.

A few hours during which he could rest.

Day 2, Attempt 2

Kryl’s apartment was, to Sham’s untrained eye, exactly as it had been at this time on the previous Loop. The door had been bashed in, the latch torn away from the wall but the frame otherwise untouched. Sham pressed the door open, slipped inside, and let the hinges swing it back into place.

His put his hands on his knees, semi-crouched, as he tried to return his breathing to normal. After all, three flights of stairs was more than enough to knock the wind out of him at the moment.

This time around, Sham knew exactly where to head to find Kryl’s dirty secrets: the chest of drawers in his bedroom. The middle drawer, specifically. He pulled the contents from inside and chucked them onto the floor, not concerned with preserving their almost pristine appearance.

There was no map, this time around. Either Kryl had taken it with him, or he’d never drawn it to begin with. Not in this Loop, at least. But Kryl’s pursuing of the Target had to have begun in the Loops, didn’t it? He couldn’t have known about her plans before they had begun. So maybe he hadn’t drawn it this time around, and he was trying a different plan of action.

‘Or maybe he just wants to refer to it, this time. You don’t have enough information to know…’

Sham pursed his lips, casting these thoughts out of his mind for a moment, and reached to pull the drawer’s false bottom free.

The vials had changed, too. Where before there had been two, this time there was only one. The Charm vial remained, and the Luck was gone. Which made sense, and confirmed Sham’s theory on how Kryl had escaped the Legion.

He’d escaped with dumb luck. The same dumb luck that Sham had previously used to enter Asa’s warehouse.

‘A shame.’

‘Yeah,’ Sham replied to the voice ringing around his head. ‘Was looking forward to using that again.’

Still, that wasn’t why he’d come. Or wasn’t the main reason he’d come, at least. Riot could still shed some light.

He returned to the main living area of Kryl’s apartment, and surveyed it. He tried to reimagine the events of the last Loop.

MEMORY UNLOCKED (RECOLLECTION)

A woman stands in the doorway, making little attempt to hide the revolver in her left jacket pocket. She demands to know who you are—a question you’ve been asking yourself for decades—but finds herself ill-satisfied with your answer. A fight breaks out. You collide with this stranger, sending you both tumbling to the ground. The woman is faster, and grabs the dropped weapon before you overcome the pain erupting in your hip. But there’s other ways to fight; you grab the small table by the entryway, throwing it at your assailant. But she doesn’t drop the weapon. And she points it at you.

‘Hmm,’ Sham mumbled to himself, and began preparing for Riot’s arrival.

There was work to be done. Armed with the knowledge of the previous Loop, Sham knew that there were small things he could change that might just make the difference in how today’s events would unfold.

‘Who are you?’ the woman called out from the doorway, her voice just as curt as before.

There she was. Riot. That same short woman, almost Sham’s age, yet far more intense. Her glare seemed to pierce Sham’s skin, and the phrase “shooting daggers” came to mind.

It was strange; Sham found an emotion stir within himself. Something about reliving this event… something about having to reintroduce himself to Riot, to start over with her, it bothered him. Made his stomach ache.

‘Who are you?’ Riot said again, her tone unchanged from the first time around. Almost unnaturally similar, in fact. First time around, Sham had thought this consistent tone was representative of the cutthroat nature of the woman, but now that he knew her better, he could tell that it was a conscious act. This consistent tone meant that she was nervous. Was scared.

Sham gestured with his raised hands for Riot to take a step back, that he wasn’t going to do her any harm. It did little good. ‘It’s OK,’ he said, his voice as calm in tone as possible. ‘I’m a friend. Of Kryl’s.’

‘From work?’

‘Heard that before…’

Nope. Not this time. Sham had once already walked into the trap of answering that question in the affirmative.

‘No,’ he said, and left it at that. If he provided no more information, then there was nothing for Riot to doubt.

[HEART OF JANUS] A NEW FRIEND: SUCCESS

This woman has doubts. But something about the way you answer, something about the way you hand out so little information… that’s what convinces her. This fits her mental profile of Kryl’s friends.

Riot’s hand shifted in her pocket, her fingers widening, her grip loosening on her hidden weapon.

‘Sit,’ Sham said, gesturing to a plush settee positioned so that it faced him in his armchair. ‘We’ve got stuff to discuss.’

Riot approached slowly, her eyes fixed, unblinkingly, on Sham. She slowed as she grew close. ‘I’ll stand, thank you,’ she said, her voice firm.

Sham shrugged. ‘Suit yourself.’ It was his turn, now, to reach into his pocket.

At the sign of movement, Riot’s left hand whipped back inside her jacket, reaching for her weapon.

‘Ah, ah,’ Sham cried out, widening his hands and moving them back into the air. ‘I’m unarmed. Just got something to show you. Something of Kryl’s.’

Riot nodded. ‘Slowly.’

‘Course.’

Sham took his time in reaching one hand back to his jacket, and then pulled out the vial from his inner pocket. He placed it gently on the coffee table between them, a clink of glass on glass echoing gently around the otherwise quiet living room.

Riot narrowed her eyes. ‘What’s this? What am I looking at?’

‘Please. Like you don’t know.’

The woman pursed her lips. ‘I can assure you: I do not.’

Sham sighed. Course she didn’t know. Posh people like her didn’t need to know. They had all the education, all the wealth, and none of the desperation that might drive someone to use this stuff.

‘Then why does Kryl have it?’ Recollection muttered.

Sham’s lip quivered at the thought; he had a point.

‘Well?’ Riot prompted.

‘It’s boono. You know: impure—’

‘—skill buffs,’ Riot finished for him. ‘Right. I’ve heard of it. But why are you showing me your illicit concoctions?’

Sham shook his head. ‘I’m not. They’re Kryl’s. Hidden in a secret compartment under his underwear drawer. That’s why he’s not here. Got people after him. Bad people.’ There were a few lies in there, of course. Sham didn’t quite know why the Legion would be after Kryl. He suspected it was less to do with the boono—why would the Legion, of all people, waste their time on that?—and more to do with the whole timeloop of it all… But the pieces hadn’t quite slotted together yet.

A pause. Riot considered Sham curiously. ‘Why—’

‘Would he have them?’ Sham attempted to finish for her.

‘—Are you going through his underwear drawer?’ Riot actually finished.

‘I…’ Sham started, then caught himself when he realised he had no good answer. Scrambling, he murmured, ‘Kryl. Told me where to find them.’

[HEART OF JANUS] A NEW FRIEND: FAIL

You’re losing her. This is a woman suspicious by nature. And something’s telling her Kryl wouldn’t have strange men going through his underwear.

Riot’s hand drifted back to her left jacket pocket, and to the weapon that dwelled inside.

‘Don’t…’ Sham started, but the revolver was already being raised. ‘Oh, for…’

At least he’d prepared for this. That entryway table he’d launched at Riot last time around—the one light enough for Sham to lift but still bulky enough to do some damage—he’d moved it. Placed it at his side just in case Riot got suspicious again. Located it in arm’s reach so that he could…

Sham launched the table across the room towards the armed Riot. Once again, the table didn’t break, but the heavy thud with which it made contact was hard to hear. Riot tumbled towards the floor, but yet again she kept her weapon gripped firmly in hand.

Sham wasted not a second in rushing to her side, this time around. Already was Riot leaping to her feet in that agile, fluid movement as Sham arrived in front of her. But, in this Loop, he didn’t make for the revolver—that was a fool’s game—and instead twisted his right arm around so that his elbow made solid contact with the armed woman’s nose.

‘Guh,’ Riot mumbled as blood began to pour from her nostrils, and there was another heavy thud as the revolver, finally, was dropped to the ground.

Sham reached for it. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘I didn’t want to have to do that.’

Riot grabbed for her nose, trying to stem the blood—to little effect. The liquid dripped down onto her shirt, strewing a pattern across it. Her eyes snapped to Sham, narrowed. ‘My… This was an expensive blouse!’

‘As I say, I didn’t want to have to do that,’ Sham repeated, pushing the revolver into his inner jacket pocket. He held his hands up into the air to demonstrate that they were empty. ‘Look. No weapon. I’m really not here to cause trouble. And if you’d just believed me—’

‘What?’ Riot snapped at him. ‘So you’re punishing me for not trusting you?’

‘No! Look, Riot, I’m really just…’

Riot’s eyes narrowed. Sham trailed off.

He’d realised what he’d done.

‘...How do you know my name?’ Riot asked.

Sham licked his lips, scoured his mind for a response. ‘Kryl. He’s a friend.’

A pause. ‘You’re saying he mentioned me. By name.’

‘Yes.’

‘More detail than that required, I think…’

‘Should he not have done?’ Sham continued. ‘We’re… close. Talks about all his lovers with me.’

Riot paused again, studied Sham with gazes up and down his body, as though searching him. Finally, though, she sighed. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘If you know him so well, then where is he?’

Sham shook his head. ‘Don’t know. That’s why I came here. To figure out where he might be hiding. But you, being so close and all, you might have some ideas, yeah?’

‘I might…’ Riot murmured, tilting her head back to try and stop the flow of blood. ‘But how do I know I can trust you?’

A suspicious woman indeed. Even at the best of times. Much more so when she’d just been elbowed in the face. It’d take quite the act for Sham to earn her trust.

Sham reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out the revolver and placed it gently on the coffee table.

[HEART OF JANUS] THE GAMBLE: SUCCESS

Riot’s eyes shift from the revolver, to you, to the revolver again. But she doesn’t move. Doesn’t jump to pick it up, to fire it. This gamble might just have paid off.

Sham nodded towards it. ‘It’s all yours. Take it. I’m really not here to hurt you, OK?’ He stifled a gulp; there was a risk here, sure. A risk that Riot might pick up the weapon, might unload a round through his skull. But how risky could that be in the midst of a timeloop? He could always start right over again.

‘Unless you only reset when the explosion kill you…’ Recollection whispered. The suggestion wasn’t exactly helpful.

Still Riot didn’t move, so Sham raised his hands in the air in exasperation, and ambled off into Kryl’s bedroom. There, he grabbed a clean shirt from the resident’s wardrobe, and returned to Riot with it.

The revolver, now, was in her hand. But not, at least, being pointed at Sham.

‘Here,’ he said, chucking the shirt to Riot. ‘For you.’

The armed woman nodded a thank you, and began pushing her arms into the sleeves. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Say that I trust you: what now?’

‘You tell me where your boyfriend might be hiding.’

Riot considered these words for a moment, nodding to herself. ‘I… I can do better than that.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yes. I can show you.’

Sham forced a smile, but could feel it not coming out as convincingly as he’d conceived it. Still, he went for it anyway. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Let’s do that.’

Riot gestured for the exit, and Sham went where he was summoned.

‘Sure,’ Sham went on, ‘No time like the present.’

‘One last thing,’ Riot said as Sham reached for the door handle. ‘You should know: I’m not his girlfriend. I’m his sister.’

Sham turned just in time to see the butt of Riot’s revolver flash before his eyes.