“Bunk,” said Kaz, disgust in his voice. “Probably quality counterfeits.”
“So then how do we get the money? Rob the city? Rob the Council?” Jesper sat up straighter, hands drumming eagerly on the table. “Hit twelve vaults in one night?”
Wylan shifted in his chair, and Matthias saw the disquiet in his expression. At least someone else in this band of miscreants was reluctant to keep committing crimes.
“No,” said Kaz. “We’re going to make like merchers and let the market do the work for us.” He leaned back, gloved hands resting on his crow’s head cane. “We’re going to take Van Eck’s money, and then we’re going to take his reputation. We’re going to make sure he can never do business in Ketterdam or anywhere in Kerch ever again.”
“And what happens to Kuwei?” asked Nina.
“Once the job is done, Kuwei—and any other convicts, Grisha, and disinherited youths who may or may not have prices on their heads—can lie low in the Southern Colonies.”
Jesper frowned. “Where will you be?”
“Right here. I’ve still got plenty of business that requires my attention.”
Though Kaz’s tone was easy, Matthias heard the dark anticipation in his words. He had often wondered how people survived this city, but it was possible Ketterdam would not survive Kaz Brekker.
“Wait a minute,” said Nina. “I thought Kuwei was going to Ravka.”
“Why would you think that?”
“When you sold your Crow Club shares to Pekka Rollins, you asked him to send a message to the Ravkan capital. We all heard it.”
“I thought it was a request for aid,” said Matthias, “not an invitation to bargain.” They had never discussed giving Kuwei to Ravka.
Kaz considered them with some amusement. “It was neither. Let’s just hope Rollins is as gullible as you two.”
“It was a decoy,” Nina moaned. “You were just keeping Rollins busy.”
“I wanted Pekka Rollins preoccupied. Hopefully, he has his people trying to chase down our Ravkan contacts. They should prove difficult to find, given that they don’t exist.”
Kuwei cleared his throat. “I would prefer to go to Ravka.”
“I’d prefer a pair of sable-lined swimming trunks,” said Jesper. “But we can’t always get what we want.”
A furrow appeared between Kuwei’s brows. The limits to his understanding of Kerch had apparently been reached and surpassed.
“I would prefer to go to Ravka,” he repeated more firmly. Kaz’s flat black gaze fastened on Kuwei and held. Kuwei squirmed nervously. “Why is he looking at me this way?”
“Kaz is wondering if he should keep you alive,” said Jesper. “Terrible for the nerves. I recommend deep breathing. Maybe a tonic.”
“Jesper, stop,” said Wylan.
“Both of you need to relax.” Jesper patted Kuwei’s hand. “We’re not going to let him put you in the ground.”
Kaz raised a brow. “Let’s not make any promises just yet.”
“Come on, Kaz. We didn’t go to all that trouble to save Kuwei just to make him worm food.”
“Why do you want to go to Ravka?” Nina asked, unable to hide her eagerness.
“We never agreed to that,” Matthias said. He did not want to argue about this, especially not with Nina. They were supposed to set Kuwei loose to live an anonymous life in Novyi Zem, not hand him over to Fjerda’s greatest enemy.
Nina shrugged. “Maybe we need to rethink our options.”
Kuwei spoke slowly, choosing his words with care. “It’s safer there. For Grisha. For me. I don’t want to hide. I want to train.” Kuwei touched the notebooks in front of him. “My father’s work can help find—” He hesitated, exchanged a few words with Nina. “An antidote for parem .”
Nina clasped her hands together, beaming.
Jesper tipped back farther in his chair. “I think Nina may be about to burst into song.”
An antidote. Was that what Kuwei had been scribbling about in his notebooks? The prospect of something that might neutralize the powers of parem was appealing, and yet Matthias couldn’t help but be wary. “To put this knowledge in the hands of one nation—” he began.
But Kuwei interrupted. “My father brought this drug into the world. Even without me, what I know, it will be made again.”
“You’re saying someone else is going to solve the riddle of parem ?” Matthias asked. Was there truly no hope this abomination could be contained?
“Sometimes scientific discoveries are like that,” said Wylan. “Once people know something is possible, the pace of new findings increases. After that, it’s like trying to get a swarm of hornets back into their nest.”
“Do you really think an antidote is possible?” Nina asked.
“I don’t know,” said Kuwei. “My father was a Fabrikator. I am just an Inferni.”
“You’re our chemist, Wylan,” said Nina hopefully. “What do you think?”
Wylan shrugged. “Maybe. Not all poisons have an antidote.”
Jesper snorted. “That’s why we call him Wylan Van Sunshine.”
“In Ravka, there are more talented Fabrikators,” Kuwei said. “They could help.”
Nina nodded emphatically. “It’s true. Genya Safin knows poisons like no one else, and David Kostyk developed all kinds of new weapons for King Nikolai.” She glanced at Matthias. “And other things too! Nice things. Very peaceable.”
Matthias shook his head. “This isn’t a decision to be made lightly.”
Kuwei’s jaw set. “I would prefer to go to Ravka.”
“See?” said Nina.
“No, I do not,” said Matthias. “We can’t just hand such a prize over to Ravka.”
“He’s a person, not a prize, and he wants to go.”
“Do we all get to do what we want now?” asked Jesper. “Because I have a list.”
There was a long, tense pause, then Kaz ran a gloved thumb over the crease of his trousers and said, “Nina, love, translate for me? I want to make sure Kuwei and I understand each other.”
“Kaz—” she said warningly.
Kaz shifted forward and rested his hands on his knees, a kind older brother offering some friendly advice. “I think it’s important that you understand the changes in your circumstances. Van Eck knows the first place you’d go for sanctuary would be Ravka, so any ship bound for its shores is going to be searched top to bottom. The only Tailors powerful enough to make you look like someone else are in Ravka, unless Nina wants to take another dose of parem .”
Matthias growled.
“Which is unlikely,” Kaz conceded. “Now, I assume you don’t want me to cart you back to Fjerda or the Shu Han?”
It was clear Nina had finished the translation when Kuwei yelped, “No!”
“Then your choices are Novyi Zem and the Southern Colonies, but the Kerch presence in the colonies is far lower. Also, the weather is better, if you’re partial to that kind of thing. You are a stolen painting, Kuwei. Too recognizable to sell on the open market, too valuable to leave lying around. You are worthless to me.”
“I’m not translating that,” Nina snapped.
“Then translate this: My sole concern is keeping you away from Jan Van Eck, and if you want me to start exploring more definite options, a bullet is a lot cheaper than putting you on a ship to the Southern Colonies.”
Nina did translate, though haltingly.
Kuwei responded in Shu. She hesitated. “He says you’re cruel.”
“I’m pragmatic. If I were cruel, I’d give him a eulogy instead of a conversation. So, Kuwei, you’ll go to the Southern Colonies, and when the heat has died down, you can find your way to Ravka or Matthias’ grandmother’s house for all I care.”
“Leave my grandmother out of this,” Matthias said.
Nina translated, and at last, Kuwei gave a stiff nod. Though Matthias had gotten his way, the dejection on Nina’s face left a hollow feeling in his chest.
Kaz checked his watch. “Now that we’re in agreement, you all know what your responsibilities are. There are a lot of things that can go wrong between now and tomorrow night, so talk through the plan and then talk through it again. We only have one shot at this.”
“Van Eck will set up a perimeter. He’ll have her heavily guarded,” said Matthias.