Sundial stared out at the Arctos skyline through the large window of Silk’s new 18th-story office, and wondered, not for the first time, what she was doing with her life. She was great at dealing with the sorts of problems she could infiltrate, exfiltrate, and purloin her way out of, but that didn’t seem to be a useful approach here. If a girl buys you tickets on an intercontinental flight and has you move in together, does that mean she likes you? Or were they just fleeing the country as friends?
Her thoughts were interrupted when the front door was kicked in with a loud BANG, and a tall muscular woman with a face mask and a pistol stormed into the room.
“Hands where I can see ’em! Sundial Votive, the Reliquary would like a word with you. Now come along quietly, or –”
As Sundial turned startled to face the door and raised her hands slowly, she heard a faint sound from the window behind her, and felt the blade of a knife held against her throat.
“Sundial Votive, my employer sends their re—” The quiet voice in her ear stopped abruptly. “Anchor?”
“Tulip, what the hell are you –”
The two intruders stared at each other.
“Anchor, you said this was going to be a nice little vacation, no work stuff!”
Anchor stared pointedly down at the knife in Tulip’s hand.
“… Okay, yes, point taken, but look, the money on this contract was way too good to just pass up!”
“So was mine. And the Reliquary was very clear they want her captured alive –”
“Well I’ve got an anonymous client who absolutely wants her dead, so –”
All three of them turned as the elevator gave a ding, and Silk stepped into the hallway carrying a little bag of pastries.
“Oh, don’t mind me,” she said, leaning against the now-empty doorframe. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Anchor and Tulip stared at her, then turned back to glare at each other as Sundial desperately mouthed pleas for help.
“Well, I’m absolutely not letting my job end in failure while you get the win!”
“And I’m not crazy about that prospect either. Look, let’s just both drop this one and both take the hit, ’s only fair.”
“Yes, let’s. You can take me out to that casino buffet, and we’ll call it even.”
“Hang on, why am I the one who owes you an apology? You’re the one who showed up with those airship tickets all excited about a lovely getaway or whatever, I would’ve just made this a solo business trip –”
“And missed our anniversary?”
The two stormed out of the office past Silk and into the elevator, still bickering.
“Well, that was exciting,” said Silk.
“Awhaaah…” Sundial replied eloquently.
“Shame about the door, but it shouldn’t be too hard to reattach.”
“Why… How… Are the Cloaks going to… Wait, the Cloaks don’t contract out, who else wants me dead?!”
“Oh, Tulip? Don’t worry, that one was me.”
“… you …”
“Before we left, I got wind that the Reliquary were reaching out to Anchor. That woman’s a damn machine, there’s no way I could cover our tracks well enough to throw her off. So, I took out a contract on you with her wife. They’re both way too proud to ever lose to each other, so they’d just have to both quit and say they lost the trail. Plus, Tulip’s used to open contracts, and the only thing she hates more than losing is someone else winning, so she’s definitely already destroyed whatever trail we left behind way better than I ever could. A couple stolen files here and there, maybe a customs officer getting into a tragic accident, and now nobody else has any shot at finding us either, even if they weren’t terrified of pissing off those two.”
Sundial stared, shellshocked, at Silk and what was left of the door.
“Still, I didn’t realize things were that messy between them. Some people really need to learn to communicate better.” Silk held out the paper bag. “Anise croissant?”