"Is this line secure?" Kingston had arrived at Elle's apartment a little while ago, under the cover of darkness. The rebels were numerous, but far more scattered than would be ideal; Elle had the only secure telephone in the area. It was suspicious enough if he was seen entering the building in the early hours of the morning; it would be even more so if their conversation was overheard.

There was a laugh from the other end of the phone, followed by a woman's familiar, somewhat amused voice. "Of course it is. I'm not that willing to die for this rebellion."

"Yeah, okay," he said, a bit embarrassed. Kingston was glad that Elle had ducked into the kitchen to grab some food, sparing him from a week of relentless teasing. "Did you get the papers?"

"I'm looking at them right now. All the guards in this palace is incompetent, except for their captain. He's cute. Kind of your type, actually. But we did have some trouble getting past him."

"Really?" That was a surprise. The southern rebels had told them that palace security was airtight; clearly their information was not reliable. Of course, they were lacking in good informants nowadays, with double agents everywhere. Just a few months ago one of their most important insiders in the police had turned out to be a traitor.

"Like I said. Only competent guard out there." She paused for a moment. "You know Mariana's in the Selection, right?"

No, Kingston had not known that. "The traitor's daughter. She can't be that obtuse, can she? She's got to know that the southern rebels have a hit out on her."

"Oh, she thinks she's clever. Fake name and fake papers. Guess how I found out."

"Some kind of rookie mistake?"

The woman on the other end of the line laughed again. "She used the exact same last name. Same spelling. I took one look at the paper and knew it was her. Besides, she pretty much gave herself away by having a loud argument with your agent."

"Lovelace? She signed herself up; Elle and I had nothing to do with it."

"Losing control over your little rebellion so soon?" Kingston wasn't really sure if she was teasing or not. It wasn't as if the statement was wholly untrue.

He sighed. "Okay, look. Lovelace is crazy. If I kick her out, she'll go and do something stupid." Kingston thought about that for a moment, realizing that their rogue agent had consistently pulled poorly thought-out stunts in the past. "Well - something even worse than what she's doing now. We try to rein her in."

"Hmm." She didn't sound particularly convinced. "If she fails to keep her cover, this whole rebellion could come crashing down around us. If she's going to be an effective spy, she has to realize that this rebellion isn't just about vengeance "

"I'll work with Elle on it." he promised. "Speaking of covers, how's yours holding up?"

'Not bad. I haven't done this in a while, so I made some mistakes. But like I said - everyone here's pretty much oblivious."

Kingston looked at the clock. It was almost three in the morning; it would be late over in Angeles too. "Before I hang up, I just need to know one thing. When are we getting the papers?"

"Soon. Send a runner or something; I'll give them the letter when I can. Or send a carrier hawk."

"That was one time, and it would have worked in theory," he grumbled. "Alright. Stay safe, Mui."

"You too," she said, and then the line went dead.

Hey guys!

Wow, has two weeks gone past already? I'm awful, I know. Thanks for sticking with me, even through these terribly inconsistent update schedules. Since there was a lot of mystery surrounding the events of the last chapter, and since the next chapter isn't quite ready yet, I thought I'd write another interlude to see the murder and the follow-up in a very different perspective. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

- Brenn