The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth Read Free Book Online Page B

were deep in discussion, speaking something close to another language as they discussed how the deals could be made to work. Fool tuned them out, looking instead at the Sorrowful beyond the windows. They were gray under the layers of dirt on the glass, reduced to shapes rather than people. He knew that Elderflower and the representatives of Heaven could trade for hours now, coming to agreements on the numbers taken and received, on the individuals Elevated or Lowered (
never Fallen, though
, he thought briefly,
never Fallen
), on the grease that would move the wheels of the give-and-take. They would repeat it every day for the next six days, until after seven days of trade and countertrade the delegation would return, those chosen would be Elevated, and Hell would welcome new inhabitants from Outside or Above. Sometimes, Fool would be asked to contribute to the discussions, to say whether he knew or had opinions on individuals, numbers, types of person, but mostly his presence there was, he suspected, to even up the numbers. He was Elderflower’s Balthazar.
    In the square, the Sorrowful watched, silent and still.
    The train stank of unwashed flesh and sweat and dirt but they used it anyway, not having time to walk. They found a space in the second carriage,managing to get one seat so that Summer could sit. It was touching, really, thought Fool, watching Gordie offer the seat to Summer and trying to pretend that it was merely a thing that he did as a colleague and not as a lover. Summer knew that Fool had guessed about their relationship, but it was clear that Gordie still thought Fool was in the dark about it. It was typical of the man’s naïveté, thinking that Fool wouldn’t see; they lived in tiny rooms in the building that also served as their offices. Fool heard them sometimes, in the night, heard the creak of the bed or the patter of their feet as they crept to each other’s rooms. There were only the three of them, three Information Men for the whole of Hell, so working out who the creeping feet belonged to hadn’t taxed his skills of deduction too much. Having a relationship with a fellow officer wasn’t forbidden, but Summer and Gordie didn’t want to reveal it for the same reason that Fool wouldn’t talk about the fact that he liked his job; it paid to keep even the tiniest of happinesses secret.
    â€œHave you got it with you?” Gordie asked suddenly. Fool didn’t need to ask what he meant: the feather.
    â€œYes,” he said. It was in his inside pocket, safe. He carried it with him everywhere now, unwilling to let it go far from him. He liked the way it felt when his fingers trailed over it or when it brushed against his skin through the thin material, and he tried to ignore the joy in case it marked him out in the eyes of the Bureaucracy.
    â€œCan—” Gordie began, and Fool interrupted.
    â€œNo. Not here, not among people.”
Can I see it again? Can Summer see it? Can I hold it again?
Fool could hear the queries as clearly as if Gordie had spoken them aloud.
    â€œOh,” Gordie replied, obviously upset. Summer touched his hand, briefly, and Fool understood that she was telling him,
It’s okay, he’s right, I’ll see it later.
    â€œIt’s from Balthazar, isn’t it?” asked Gordie after a moment.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œHe’s a warrior, one of the angels that patrolled the borders of Heaven when Hell was different, when there was a war. He’s one of Heaven’s greatest weapons.”
    â€œYes,” said Fool again, thinking of the heat of him, the flame that climbed from his hands. He touched the feather again, just for a fragmentof time, and felt its strength, its purity. Creatures of beauty that were weapons, blue flashes, dead bodies with no souls and eyes that pleaded from somewhere back in the past, from when they were alive and whole; it was too big, made no sense. The feather was cool against his