They set out early the next morning cloaked in the cover of darkness. Kazhad said that this was a 24 hour stakeout, so they had a duffel of snacks and drinks as they made our way to Pekka's part of town. Technically Kaz's part of town, as he had taken over Pekka's territory when he left.

The dime lions hadn't seemed to mind. Some of them even joined, and got the Crow on their forearm. Now, they were of course going to be investigated. The Dregs can't have spies in their numbers.

Once they got to the Bar across from the Emerald palace, they hurried into a back alley. Inej nodded at Kaz as she started to climb up the drain pipe that she had scouted out the night before while Kaz slept. Kaz seeming to realize how she had known about the drainpipe shook his head at her and gave her a look. But she ignored it and kept climbing.

As soon as she was up on the roof, she leaned over the ledge and motioned for him to throw the duffel up. He threw it overhanded and it made it halfway up the wall before falling back down into his arms. He did this twice more with the same results and he seemed to be getting pretty salty.

"Put your back into it, Brekker. We ain't got all day." Inej whisper-shouted down to him. With a grunt he heaved it and the bag finally brushed her fingers. Like a snake she shot forward to catch it before it could fall back down. The only problem was that in order to do that, she came halfway off the roof, and was now doing a lower body plank, while the rest of her was in midair. Kaz started to freak out seeing how she was, and he positioned himself under her in case she fell.

Rolling her eyes, she slithered back the rest of the way, and threw the duffel to the side of her.

"If you wanna stop acting like a yellow bellied skiv, I would appreciate it if you started to climb now." Inej whispered down to him. With a glare thrown at her, he started to shivvy his way up the pipe.

"How did you do this?" asked Kaz, as he slipped for the fifth time on the pipe. "There's no hand holds."

"Maybe if you focused harder you could do it." Inej said.

"Bite me." Kaz muttered as he got back to climbing. He finally made it to the ledge and pulled himself up and over. As soon as he was clear from the danger, he lay face down on the roof, Breathing like he just ran the length of Ketterdam and back.

Inej leaned down to his ear, and whispered "You okay?"

He lifted his hand and made a 'so-so' gesture, before letting it fall back onto the roof heavily.

Inej smiled with a sudden idea and leaned down to his ear again, as if she was gonna whisper something else into his ear. Then she nipped at his ear.

Kaz rolled over fast, but Inej was faster as she backed up from him. Kaz stared at her with a level of shock and indignation. She smiled and said "You told me to bite you."

Kaz stared at her, letting the annoyance take over his face and his mood.

"It was a figurative "bite me". Not a command, you heathen." He told her scowling.

"Don't insult me or i'll do it again." She said and after she said that she snapped her teeth together to make a clicking noise. At the noise Kaz's lips twitched upwards into a grin and, his face took on a playful look.

"If this stakeout goes as boring as I think it will, maybe later I'll let you." Kaz purred at her while throwing a wink at her for added flare. Inej's jaw dropped and she watched as he got into a crouch, and headed towards the front of the roof that was facing the Emerald Palace.

"Might wanna close your mouth before a bug flies in." He said not turning around from where his eyes were locked on the lower right window of the palace. Inej crouch-walked to Kaz, and followed his eyes. She felt the air whistle through her teeth, in a hiss, when she spotted Pekka Rollins talking to two boys.

She says boys because they couldn't have been older than twelve and they looked to be malnourished. Only one of them had shoes on and they seemed to fairly new and in good condition. The rest of their clothes were in rags. Kaz voiced what they were both thinking.

"That son of a bitch. He made him a runner." It was painfully obvious, the only good clothing on him being the shoes, which needed to be in good condition for the long distance runs that they have to do to deliver products to customers.

"Why would he trust a boy to do deliveries for him?" Inej asked him without tearing her eyes from the three. Pekka handed the one with shoes a pile of Kruge, and handed the smaller one a wind-up toy dog to play with. She heard Kaz's jaw clamp tight.

"The Stadwatch aren't gonna suspect a kid to have illegal weapons or Jurda. It's the perfect runner. One in plain sight." Kaz flexed his jaw and seemed to be about to explode with rage.

"The Kruge is only a hundred. Twenty on top and the rest is ones. That's why it's so thick." Inej told him, having already assessed the pile of kruge.

Without thinking she asked the next question that came to her mind. "Are they pigeons?"

Kaz nodded and said "And he's gonna pluck 'em.". She saw one of the muscles in his cheek twitch. They watched as Pekka leaned forward to ruffle the smaller boys hair, and they saw how he swatted at Pekka, clearly not appreciating the contact.

"That boy had spunk." Inej said. Kaz nodded in agreement. She looked over at him, to see him cock his head to the side, and he no longer seemed to be with her. Scheming face!!!!!

Kaz grinned slowly. "I refuse to let that boy be like me. So i'm gonna make sure that Pekka doesn't get the chance to pluck them." Kaz rubbed his hands together. "This is gonna be good." He motioned to the ground with his chin, to where the boys had started to walk away from the Palace. "Let's go talk to 'em."

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