Chapter 21 · A Debt Before Birth

The file's still open on my screen when Leah walks in.

I don't hear the bell. Don't hear her boots on the tile. I just look up and she's standing three feet from the counter, staring at the monitor like she can read it backward.

"Early shift," I say. Click the window shut. "Thought you had audits downtown."

"I did." She drops her bag on a chair. Doesn't sit. "Finished them."

"Coffee?"

"No."

Ink flaps down from the ceiling beam and lands on the espresso machine. He tilts his head at Leah, then at me. The feathers along his neck are ruffled. He knows.

Leah crosses her arms. "You want to tell me why my name's in a Council archive dated seventeen-oh-three?"

I freeze. My hand's still on the mouse.

"Because I saw the list," she says. "Last night. Someone left a terminal unlocked at the records hall. Funny how that happens."

She's lying. The records hall doesn't leave terminals unlocked. But I don't call her on it because the truth's worse—she hacked it, or someone fed it to her, and either way she knows.

"Which list," I say.

"The stolen debts. Yours." She steps closer.