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‘An explanation would be nice,’ Kai said quietly He didn’t try to whisper and his voice echoed in the stillness
‘It would,’ Irene agreed She frowned at the dark corridor ‘I wish I knehether that was personal or political’
‘You sounded as if you had personal history Big-tiet on,’ Irene said briefly ‘We never have She gets the job done but she’s got a reputation You wouldn’t want to ith her’ She began to walk towards the corridor
‘Irene,’ Kai said, and it surprised her in soet it that you don’t like her--’
‘I don’t like her at all,’ Irene cut in, keeping her steps cal herself walk away fro dislike of her to cause me to slander someone who is an efficient, competent, even admired Librarian’
Kai whistled ‘You really don’t like her’
‘We dislike each other enough that she ed that whole little scene purely as a whim and in order to mess with ularly unlikely set of coincidences for her to have found out that I was on a mission and to be here to intercept me Which means politics’ She stalked into the dark corridor, still a pace ahead of Kai
‘So who’s her supervisor?’
‘Kostchei’
‘Oh’ Kai was quiet for a few steps ‘Hiht that was a bit of a draed, glad of the change of subject It was true that Russian fairy tale villains weren’t the ain her own choice of ‘Irene’ had hardly been dictated by logic At least ‘the Undying’, the epithet usually attached to that name, was fairly accurate for a Librarian who’d e ‘When ere students, so to pick what they’d call the, "How about this one?" or "Do you think Mneht or is it too obvious?" or "I like Arachne, do you think it suits ether, passing room after room of stockpiled books While there were faster (and non-linear) ways to get around the Library, Irene would have needed authorization from a senior Librarian to use them In the absence of such shortcuts, all she and Kai could do alk and watch out for landmarks Finally the corridor opened out into a small room, whose dominant feature was the iron-barred door on the opposite wall The walls were covered with full bookshelves, but large posters covered sections of the books These announced statements such as – CHAOS INFESTATION, ENTRY BY PERMISSION ONLY, KEEP CALM AND STAY OUT and THIS MEANS YOU
Kai settled his fists on his hips and looked at the posters ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘are there some people round here who can’t take a hint?’
‘You tell me,’ Irene said ‘Given some of the people you’ve probably met here’ She reached into her pocket and pulled out Coppelia’s o any further,’ Kai said, more seriously, ‘what about Kostchei and Bradaed at her earlobe We may be overheard When Kai didn’t seeed at it more obviously
‘Or do you think--’
‘I’d rather do h on the other side,’ she snapped So much for Kai’s potential streetwise cri from the Librarian there first before we come to any conclusions’
Kai’s shoulders slumped ‘Sure,’ he said flatly ‘As you say’
Irene resolved to apologize later – well, to soainst the door The solid ain, chi back until the rooed closer, apparently willing to drop the sulks for a moment ‘What would’ve happened if that had been faked?’
‘It wouldn’t have sounded half as nice,’ Irene replied She tucked the briefing back into her pocket, then reached down to turn the door handle It h into another rooaslamps
The room had the indefinable air of allyet forlorn Manuscripts lay beneath glass cases, the gold leaf on their illule document was spread out on a desk in the centre of the rooh arched ceiling had cobwebs in the corners, and dust lurked in the crevices of the panelled walls Next to the Library entrance was a rattletrapwires, with a pri printer mechanism and vacuu a bell or anything?’
‘We probably don’t need to,’ Irene said She closed the door behind theine Mr Aubrey has already been alerted Librarians watching fixed Traverses like this one don’t leave thele" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">