“You can just call me Chensina,” Chensina said. “Everyone does.”

Indri nodded stiffly.

The Nemel pointwoman stopped behind Chensina. Knives and Dingo fanned out behind her. 

Their masks were plain white, so all three of them were footsoldiers. Annibale still wasn’t sending officers into North Bank. That probably made Chensina feel a little better.

She didn’t turn around. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah,” the pointman said. Her voice was familiar. “You have something that belongs to us.”

“Mm. I don’t think I do,” Chensina said.

“We’re looking for a necklace. Someone stole it from Ichelebra’s on Old Bridge this morning.”

Fuck. Ouija Board was ambitious.

“I don’t have it. Do you?” Chensina asked.

“I don’t,” I said.

“No.” Indri was trying to catch my eye.

“My friends and I wouldn’t have stolen goods,” Chensina said. “And if we did, we wouldn’t bring them here. We wouldn’t want to make trouble for Jilyu.”

“I don’t believe you,” the pointman said.

It didn’t matter if she believed us or not. Nemel wouldn’t confront us in public, especially here, if they were going to walk away without a fight.

“Believe it or not,” Chensina said, “it’s not here. But I might be able to help you find it. Why don’t we go outside and talk about it there?”

“No. You’ll give it to us now, then you can leave.”

Chensina couldn’t start anything. Since Indri and I were with her, neither could we. Indri’s eyes flicked in circuits around Chensina, me, and the three Nemel, but he seemed to understand.

“Well, we’re done with our food.” Chensina pushed back her stool. “We’re heading out now.” She stood.

Slowly, the pointman reached up and pulled on one of her hoodie strings. Knives and Dingo advanced and formed a semicircle around our table, with Dingo closest to me and Knives closest to Indri. 

The fire escape was on the other end of the deck. The alley next to us was too wide to jump. If I were here alone, I might have been able to climb over the railing and get down to the level below us. If all three of us tried that now, the girl by the dumpsters would have worse things to clean up than a broken garbage bag. Even if we got away, Chensina was a Porfidu officer. The Nemel might hurt or kill some civilians to make a point.

The waiter kid climbed up the stairs. They saw the Nemel and froze.

“Oranjyo,” Chensina called.

The kid— Oranjyo— stopped herself from running back down the stairs. It looked agonizing.

“Could you tell everyone to stay downstairs?”

She nodded and bolted.

A few other people stood.

“Stop,” the pointman called.

Everybody who had started to leave hung suspended in the air, like puppets abandoned halfway through a show.

“All of you, sit back down.”

Chensina still didn’t turn around. “I think you should let them go. What do you think?” she asked me.

“I agree.”

Indri nodded quickly.

“No,” the pointman said. She raised her voice again. “Stay here.”

The deck was silent except for a slow scraping in the alley below us. The girl in the apron was sweeping up broken glass.

Chensina looked at Indri and me. “Let’s go.”

Instantly, Indri was on his feet. I stood and leaned on my polearm.

The pointman drew her sword.

Chensina sighed. She pointed from me to the pointman, then from Indri to Knives. He nodded.

“Last chance,” the pointman said. I was surprised.

“Let us leave,” Chensina said.

The pointman shrugged. “Attack.”

I braced my polearm and lunged.