‘Brothers and sisters,’ she began, and saw Hu’s head jerk round in her direction. ‘We are marching to fight a demon, and that demon is alcohol.’ She took a deep breath, raising her voice. ‘Some of you may never have visited England. Some of you may think of it as a distant homeland, an old motherland that can do no wrong. But my country – the land of my birth – is cursed by alcohol.’
She turned from side to side, making eye contact with members of the audience. ‘You may laugh. But you haven’t seen English gin palaces! Gilded constructions of glass and iron, where the bartenders dole out glasses of ruinously strong pure gin to all-comers! I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. And then I’ve walked outside and seen the drunks slumped in the gutters, begging for one more glass of the vicious liquid! From the highest to the lowest, the richest to the poorest, alcohol is stamped on the face of England like a festering sore. The Members of Parliament are served fine wines in the very House where they debate the law!’ She paused, and to her surprise received a few cheers. ‘The poor mother in her garret watches her husband go out to drink away their savings! When he comes back late at night, staggering and blind drunk, he responds to her pitiful pleas for household money with blows and curses!’
The gangsters were spreading out in a rough circle now, loosely spaced around the podium to block any escape. Hu nodded at her in a friendly manner, then raised his watch and tapped at it, in the traditional gesture for hurry up and finish.
Which was the last thing that Irene intended to do. ‘Let me tell you about the depravity, the debauchery, of the rich and famous of England,’ she declared into a sudden interested silence. Even a couple of the gangsters were listening. ‘Why, only last year . . .’
It was half an hour before she ran out of words. Hu was waiting to shake her hand.
‘Are you going to make a scene?’ he asked softly.
Irene sighed. ‘I’ll come quietly. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a drink?’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
‘What we need is a really good way of disguising you,’ Kai said. ‘Qing Song’s watchers will be everywhere.’ He walked around Evariste, inspecting him thoughtfully. The man was of average height, with dark skin marred by an underlying pallor. His black hair was plainly and unflatteringly styled, and his face had good solid lines, with a firm jaw and strong brow. His clothing was well made and cut to fit him, but showed the traces of too much recent wear and not enough recent washing.
They were in another seedy hotel room, with only a limited amount of time until someone – criminals, police or gangsters – caught up with them.
‘You’re talking as if I haven’t thought about this already,’ Evariste said sourly. He sat on the edge of the bed, propping his unshaven chin on his hands. ‘There’s only so many ways I can change how I look. Especially when some of them have seen me face-to-face.’
‘Bandages, maybe? You could be a wounded war veteran—’
‘No recent wars in this world,’ Evariste said. ‘Or at least none that America’s been in.’
‘I’m trying to be constructive here,’ Kai said. He throttled down a flare of irritation. Evariste had been living off his nerves for weeks now. Kai would simply have to be tolerant. ‘We can’t change your skin colour, and your hair’s too short to restyle. We can’t disguise you as a woman . . .’
‘Wait. Hold up.’ Evariste stared at him. ‘Were you seriously considering that, even for one moment?’
‘I’m just going through the options,’ Kai pointed out. ‘Besides, Irene’s disguised herself as a man once or twice. Though it wasn’t very convincing.’
‘Stop trying to get me to trust you,’ Evariste said. ‘It’s not going to work.’
‘Irene thought we could work together. Are you going to argue with her?’
‘She’s not here to be argued with.’ Evariste glanced at his watch. ‘She’s left us to do the actual work while she goes shopping.’
Kai was about to snarl at him for such casual disrespect, but he sensed the undertones of fear in the other Librarian’s voice. Instead he said, ‘You’re deluding yourself if you think that.’
‘She’s got you as cover, hasn’t she? If Qing Song gets too close, he’ll back off, because he won’t want to mess with another dragon’s property.’ Evariste rolled the final word in his mouth as though he meant to spit it out.
‘That’s wrong in so many ways that I can’t even start to explain how many,’ Kai said.
‘Is it? Hu said other dragons would know that I was under Qing Song’s authority—’
‘How? Because you told them? It’s not as if I can just smell him on you.’
Evariste flinched away, then tried to make the movement look deliberate rather than nervous. ‘Don’t you even try it.’
‘Try what?’
‘Sniffing me.’
Kai folded his arms and looked down at Evariste. Memories of days spent in a street gang seeped into his diction. ‘Lose the attitude. I’m not asking you to like me. I’m telling you to work with me. You’re a professional, aren’t you?’
‘Okay,’ Evariste said. ‘Fine. Give your word – on whatever dragons believe in – that no dragon you know and trust would ever, ever take a hostage and blackmail someone in order to get what he wanted. Or she wanted. Let’s not be gender-specific here. And hey, let’s suppose they think they’re doing it for a really good reason. Can you promise me that none of your nice dragons would do a thing like that?’
Every sinew in Kai’s body wanted to backhand the insolent human across the room. He was not accustomed to being criticized like this. But instead he said, ‘Do you want your daughter back or don’t you?’
Evariste looked at him for a long moment. Then he slumped back onto the bed. ‘Screw you and the horse you rode in on,’ he said. ‘You know I do.’
‘Then get your head out of your—’ Kai remembered that he was royalty. ‘Then pull yourself together and help me. You must have had a plan to get into the Metropolitan Museum.’
‘I had a plan, yes! But that was before someone seeded Museum Mile with a load of thugs who know what I look like. He may not know which museum it’s in, but he saw the early research, and he can be sure it’s in one of them.’
Kai ignored the attitude. He couldn’t understand why Evariste was so hostile to planning the operation. ‘You must have done jobs like this before,’ he said encouragingly.
There was a pause. Then Evariste said grudgingly, ‘Not many. That is, nothing like this. The way you’re behaving, I get the impression you’ve actually done more than I have.’
‘But you’ve got the Library brand.’ Kai had checked that, while Evariste was still unconscious. He preferred to be certain. ‘You’re a full Librarian, like Irene.’
‘Some of us are better at research,’ Evariste said through gritted teeth. ‘Disguise is not my thing. I’m not good with disguise.’
Kai sat down on the chair. ‘You know, it would have helped if you’d said that earlier. Such as when we were planning this.’