{Katarina}
Kat had two leads, and she hated chasing one at a time when she could chase both at once.
The first one was a leak. Somebody kept knowing things they shouldn't. Even with the listener stone dead before it could result in any actual damage, things were still slipping out of her operation. Little things, mostly. Which supplier she'd talked to, which day a cart moved. But somebody was clearly watching her now.
The second was Vessa's word. Janky. The indenture seal on Samara's mom looked off to a trained formation student.
Kat didn't know what that meant yet, but a flawed binding seal meant the binding had a weak point. And a weak point was something Kat could use.
So she wrote two letters that morning. One to Rizzi, down on the Coppara docks, asking very politely about money. One to Signora Valcetti, asking very politely about seals.
Then she sat back and waited, because that was the part she was best at.
