Inside Man

  I know it’s rude to stare, but I couldn’t help it. “You?”

  He nods. “I was in it from the start,” he says.

  “I don’t remember you at meetings.”

  “I never went to any. After all, we all knew it wasn’t going to succeed, before we even started. So we had to find a new definition of succeed. I like to think of it as playing the long game.”

  “You,” I say.

  “Absolutely. Unimpeachable loyalty. Captain of the hosts of heaven, who put down the rebellion and led the traitors in chains. What better inside man could there possibly be?”

  “But we lost. You beat us.”

  He smiles serenely. Can’t help it, I guess. “That was only phase one. This is phase two. There are twenty-six more phases to follow. He can win the war till He’s blue in the face, but can He win the peace? Like I said, the long game.”

  I can’t believe it. “You do realize,” I say, “that right now, He’s listening to every word we say.”

  Mike shakes his head. “You overestimate Him,” he says. “Think about it. He hears everything, sure He does. So what? There’s a limit to what even He can take in. And, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, a falling sparrow is just a falling sparrow. He can’t be expected to take in, analyze, consider, and act on every single thing He hears. No, He has people for that. People like me.” He sighs. “Right now, there’s an earthquake in Potidaea. A temple’s just collapsed on the heads of a thousand and six devout worshippers. He’s got His hands full, believe me. And all so you and I can have this quiet chat. The earthquake and the temple would’ve happened anyway, by the way, but very slightly differently and maybe not precisely now. That’s why you’ve got to watch those falling sparrows like a hawk.”

  “Or get someone to do it for you.”

  “Someone like me.”

  I nod. “I could turn you in.”

  “Yes, but you won’t. It wouldn’t be right.” His smile is a benediction. “There’s got to be an opposition,” he says. “Always.”

  As it was in the Beginning—Yes, quite. “You shouldn’t have killed Brother Eusebius.”

  “If I hadn’t apologized, you’d never have known.”

  “True. What’s that got to do with it?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re serious, twenty-six phases?”

  “And that’s just part one. It’s a long game. How long? As long as it takes.”

  “Forever?”

  “World without end.” He frowns. “I’m sorry about your other friend too. I’m sorry you had to go through all that. Both of you.”

  “You made Lofty strong enough to kill him,” I say. “Only an archangel could do that.”

  “We do move in mysterious ways sometimes.”

  “I forgive you,” I say. “He can’t.”

  “Wouldn’t if he could,” says Mike with a shrug. “But then, I didn’t get into all this to be popular. Take care of yourself. And at some point in the future, you may be called on to do another little job for the Revolution. You have no choice in the matter. Just thought I’d let you know.”

  My pal’s body hits the water and starts sinking. His skull starts to flood. Time to go.

  * * *

  It’s a bit far-fetched, but try and imagine a war between two sides: One’s unimaginably stronger, and the other can’t die. The strong one always wins, but he can never win. The weak one keeps getting shredded, but can’t be defeated, not so long as he resists. Opposes, rather. There’s got to be an opposition, even if it never wins a battle.

  I’m back on liturgical compliance, though these days I make a nuisance of myself at the Golden Spire, the place where they produce those exquisite illuminated books. My place at the Third Horn has been filled by Lofty, now also officially fragile following some bad experience he’s supposed to have had at some point. We still report to Division, but our dispatches are received and most likely filed unread by a different officer, recently brought in from the far-flung provinces of the service; his predecessor has been reassigned to work of equal value after a debacle in some banana dukedom down south that nobody’s very keen to talk about. Lofty and I occasionally get together at staff meetings and sitrep briefings, which for some reason occur rather more frequently under the new regime at Division. When we meet, we generally find time to play four-dimensional chess.

  “What on earth do you see in it?” someone asks us after watching Lofty and me play. “It’s so boring. It just goes on and on and on.”

  “I know,” Lofty says. “It’s a long game.”

  We’re still not friends, though. The most you can say is that we’re now rivals, competitors with each other on a regular basis; we fight each other over and over again, neither of us ever really winning, within the structured confines of a very long game indeed, a game without end, amen. For me, at least, that’s fine. I ask for nothing more. With enemies like mine, after all, who needs friends?

  About the Author

  Having worked in journalism, numismatics, and the law, K. J. PARKER now writes for a precarious living. He is the author of Devices and Desires, Evil for Evil, The Devil You Know, and other novels, and has won the World Fantasy Award twice. Parker also writes under the name Tom Holt.

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  Also by K. J. Parker

  The Big Score

  Prosper’s Demon

  My Beautiful Life

  The Father of Lies (collection)

  Mightier than the Sword

  The Devil You Know

  Downfall of the Gods

  The Last Witness

  Blue and Gold

  Purple and Black

  The Two of Swords

  Savages

  Academic Exercises (collection)

  Sharps

  The Hammer

  The Folding Knife

  The Company

  THE SIEGE

  Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

  How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It

  THE FENCER TRILOGY

  Colours in the Steel

  The Belly of the Bow

  The Proof House

  THE SCAVENGER TRILOGY

  Shadow

  Pattern

  Memory

  THE ENGINEER TRILOGY

  Devices and Desires

  Evil for Evil

  The Escapement

  AS TOM HOLT (SELECTED TITLES)

  Expecting Someone Taller

  Who’s Afraid of Beowulf?

  Flying Dutch

  Faust Among Equals

  Snow White and the Seven Samurai

  Valhalla

  The Portable Door

  You Don’t Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps

  The Better Mousetrap

  Blonde Bombshell

  The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice

  The Good, the Bad, and the Smug

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  1

  About the Author

  Also by K. J. Parker

  Copyright Page

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novella are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  INSIDE MAN

  Copyright © 2021 by Tom Holt

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by Sam Weber

  Cover design by Christine Foltzer

  Edited by Jonathan Strahan

  A Tordotcom Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates

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  ISBN 978-1-250-78615-9 (ebook)

  ISBN 978-1-250-78614-2 (trade paperback)

  First Edition: June 2021

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