"There are so many of them." Bolton stood with his arms crossed over their haul, which filled the entire room and then some. "If they were worth money, I'd be rich."

In fact, Sayed's entire apartment was filled with massive piles of gems from the sewers. There was hardly room to walk around in the two rooms, and the small kitchen area even had its own pile of gems.

"I think you mean we'd be rich," Alex whispered as he looked over them all.

"No, he didn't." Erin shook her head beside him, her arms crossed as she looked over the piles. "How can we tell which ones are ours."

"Oh, I have our last two," Alex said, holding the remaining purple and green stones between his fingers. "We don't know which one is his."

Clatter.

"Does it matter, brother?" Sayed came from the next room, knocking over a pile of stones and sending them cascading to the floor. "We should smash them all at once and be done with it!"

"That would be a problem." Jean stood in the doorway, leaning on the edge. "Think about what happened when Alex broke the first. He was swarmed by a wave of spiders."

"But we defeated the spiders. There should be no more." Sayed raised a finger.

"It's still risky." Li Wen leaned back in the chair beside the window, far from the gems. "If we break them all at once, that's practically asking whoever controls them to come and get us."

"Miss Malone," Jean said, nodding. "Her underlings have made her name very clear."

"So, what do we do?" Alex said, looking over the gems.

Clink. Clatter.

"Gem Rain!"

Mari exploded out from the central pile, still in her hooded red robe, her hands splayed out wide. Alex closed his eyes and massaged his temples as Erin immediately went in to grab her. They needed to decide, and they needed to decide soon.

"How did you even get under those?" Erin fussed after her, and Alex opened his eyes as she did.

He had broken his own gem and seen Mister Deadman break three during the fight. He knew exactly how easy they were to break. All it would take was a significant impact against a stone wall or the ground to break all of them open. Part of him didn't believe it could be that simple."

"What about your curse?" Jean turned on Bolton while Alex thought through the plan. "Could you nullify the curse holding the gems?"

"One by one, sure." Bolton shrugged, rubbing at his arms. "But that would require letting go of my current self. Then you'd have to convince me to do it to them. It would take time and might just alert the missus to our activities."

He said that with a slow drawl that sounded condescending to Alex, but he brushed that aside. The plan was already forming in his head, and while it was insane, it should work. He let go of his temples and shared a look with the rest of his crew.

"Guys, I have an idea."

Mister Tyson stalked down the street with his hands in his pockets, crossing through people going about their day like nothing had happened. That was an effect of Miss Malone's curse. It tended to overwrite any feelings or severe discrepancies over time, so long as the person affected didn't stay near something jarring.

With the only major damage topside the counting house, that meant that as long as people weren't near it for long, they went about their day.

There was a safe in the middle of the street and two Knuckles outside. Mister Foley was taking care of their recovery, moving them to the nearby covered cart pulled by a single horse. They had to keep up with the aesthetics of the city, and Miss Glory needed a place to lie low until they needed her.

Skitter. Skitter.

In the shadows and alleys around them, a hundred spiders followed. They weren't near the numbers the operation had before, but they would be enough to put down the ones causing trouble. The four remaining Fingers just needed to find them.

Tap. Tap.

"Tyson, darling, you want to look at this." Miss Brooke stepped out from the counting house, her heels echoing through the darkness.

"Just a minute," Mister Tyson said, holding up a finger.

Three Hell Knights lay in the street. The Hell Knights were the elite of the guards, picked by the king himself before Miss Malone took over. Tyson narrowed his eyes. How had they gotten involved in the fight?

"More questions than answers." He shook his head, starting toward the hole that had been the counting house's door.

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Skitter.

The spiders swarmed on the ceiling inside, where there was a ceiling remaining. Mister Tyson only followed them long enough to see where Miss Brooke was pointing. An older man in a pinstripe suit lay on the ground, surrounded by piles of coins.

"Mister Deadman." Mister Tyson reached up and adjusted his small white hat as he looked over the downed Finger. "To think this is where you'd finally meet your end."

"It looks like the poor thing was crushed," Miss Brooke said, stepping beside him and leaning down over the man. "I don't think he'll be rising again."

"That much is obvious." Mister Tyson sighed, his eyes roving the room. "The coins had to play into him being crushed, and if it's metal, I have a prime suspect."

"We should never have left them alive," Miss Brooke said, shaking her head. She rose and put her hands on her hips.

"You know why we need to keep them breathing." Mister Tyson gave her a sidelong glance. "Don't go acting without orders, or you'll find yourself on the wrong end of the Hand."

"Do you think he followed orders to the end?" Miss Brooke flashed him a white smile. "Or do you think he fought for his life? We all have to make choices, dearie."

"I think we're shipping the dead man back to Miss Malone either way," Mister Tyson said, turning to the door. "Foley, you got another one in here!"

He wasn't going to move the body. That kind of work was beneath someone like Mister Tyson. He was fit to give out orders and fit to spy, but actual work? That was for those beneath you.

He left the counting house behind, Miss Brooke following him as Mister Foley stepped inside. In the shadows, he was aware of the spiders crawling across the walls, but no one was there to recapture. What he needed to do was head down into the sewers and check on the gems.

"Best to delegate that." Mister Tyson turned to the wagons. "Miss Glory!"

Clink. Crack-tsh.

As he said it, a red glittering stone fell from the sky, slamming into the ground and shattering to pieces before his eyes. A moment later, a burst of smoke rushed out of it, slithering through the sky like a widening stake until it was out of sight.

Hiss. Skitter.

At the same moment, from the shadows, a spider hissed. Then another one. Several spiders scrambled up the walls, scurrying in different directions as another stone crashed into the ground down the street.

Clink. Crack-tsh.

"What in the—"

Hiss.

Spiders exploded from the nearby counting house, one rushing for the broken stone down the street while others raced across the walls. Mister Tyson put it together, but he was already too late. He didn't even know what he could do.

Someone had gotten to the gems, and had decided that the best way to get rid of them was to throw them from a high place. As each gem landed, it set off the defensive nature of the spiders, and they raced to the location to try and find the person who broke them to recapture them. Without the direct control Miss Malone held over them in the castle, they had those two commands. Capture anyone not part of the organization to remove and later their enemies. Defend and recover anyone who broke free.

Slap.

Mister Tyson slapped the side of his head as people in the street dropped to their knees. Of course, if someone was breaking them randomly, then people would drop as their memories were restored. It was the worst-case scenario.

"Tyson, darling." Miss Brooke leaned over beside him, a black umbrella open to shield her from the possible downpour. "I think we have a problem."

"You don't know the half of it." Mister Tyson ran his gloved hand down his cheeks.

The spiders could be out in such force because of the amount and strength of memories Miss Malone had consumed. The second problem would soon rear its ugly head, and Mister Tyson had no way to stop it. Things were about to get much worse unless he knew where the gems were raining down from.

Clink. Crack-tsh. Clink. Crack-tsh. Clink. Crack-tsh.

The sprinkle of gems had turned into a torrent across the street, presumably the city. It was too late. He might have been able to have Miss Brooke grab some and stop them with a sudden surge of water. Maybe Miss Glory could have caught a few, but they hadn't been prepared. A sinking feeling dug into Mister Tyson's gut as he realized the plan was falling apart.

Crack-tsh.

The last gem fell on the street, and the torrent ended. Mister Tyson didn't have to guess what was about to happen. He already knew. One stacked tower fell into another into another. Everything was tumbling down.

Hiss.

One of the spiders that hadn't run off yet suddenly burst into a black flame, quickly being reduced to ash on the wall. With so many people under her control lost, the spiders could no longer be maintained. In moments, Miss Malone would be reduced to the fewest number she could manifest, about ten.

It wouldn't nearly be enough.

Stomp.

"It took months to build this operation." Mister Tyson slammed his shoe down into the dirt. "Dammit!"

He had to pivot. They would have to devise a plan and rebuild the entire operation from the ground up. This side of the operation was lost.

"What's going on, Tyson?" Miss Brooke asked.

"Miss Glory, go and collect as many Knuckles as you can," Mister Tyson snapped out his order in a tone that allowed no argument. "Miss Brooke, help her. I don't care how dirty you have to get!"

"Understood." Miss Glory slunk out from beneath the wagon, her vines pulling her down the alley toward a nearby sewer entrance.

"I don't like it." Miss Brooke quirked her lips. "But I understand that it is an emergency."

Sploosh.

She dropped down into a puddle that rolled across the ground and beneath the wagon, following after Miss Glory. Mister Tyson stood stock still, his fists clenched as he tried to pull himself together. However, he already knew who he had to blame. Just like on Aherlow, the name of the one who had turned his world upside down was Ortega. In Tartarus, the Military Police base on Aherlow, Ortega had ruined a long-term spying operation by happenstance.

Now, he was wrecking the entire operation on Grim Aegis. The question was whether he intended to do it or was just unknowingly a thorn in their sides.

"We should have killed him, regardless of the cost to the prince."

The words burned in Mister Tyson's mouth, and he knew they were wrong. Without the prince, they would have no control of the way into the Core. They would have no operation unless there was another heir with the curse's power. It didn't change that he dearly wanted the words to be true.

"I got him." Mister Foley came up behind him, pulling Mister Deadman's body along the dirt toward the cart. "Never thought that I would be dragging Mister Deadman to a cart. What's wrong?"

Mister Foley turned on him, the heat burning through his cheeks as he prepared to release his anger. He may not have a way to solve the problem, but he would be thrown into the abyss if it was only his problem.

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