The dossier on Madam Chairman that had been sitting in her mailbox — as per her back-channel requests, pulling in favors while she was away — was rather interesting, albeit increasingly worrying when she thought about the implications. Rising star, come out of nowhere, promoted rapidly, rivals recanting or resigning in disgrace or meeting with disaster: it was all a bit carnivorous for the normally laid-back UN, and to have a desk monster like that aiming squarely at her raised all sorts of nasty questions. Especially when you started asking where she’d gotten the money to buy that big house on the lakeshore …

The dossier wasn’t the only thing Rachel found in her inbox when she ran a search. Formal notice of a disciplinary tribunal, filed that morning with a hearing scheduled for early afternoon, was not exactly the sort of thing she expected to find mixed in with the bills — not when it could have been sent direct to her phone and flagged as a priority item. She paused outside the committee room, composing her face in a careful smile, then opened the door.

“—Has shown no sign of compliance with the designated administrative orders in spite of disciplinary notices delivered four months, three months, and most recently two days ago—” The speaker paused. “Yes?”

Rachel smiled. “Hello, Gilda.” Madam Chairwoman sat up straight and stared at her. Two yes-men to either side, and a secretary-recorder, and some gray-faced executive from accounts who’d been invited to witness all followed suit. “Sorry I’m late, but if you wanted to get my attention, you really ought to have mailed me direct rather than disguising the summons as a laundry bill.”

“Hello, Rachel.” Madam Chairman smiled coldly. “We were just discussing your negligent attitude to departmental procedures. So good of you to furnish us with a further example.”

“Really?” Rachel shut the door carefully, then turned back to face the room.

“You’re Mansour, eh?” began the accountant. “We’ve been hearing about you for weeks.” He tapped his tablet portentously. “Nothing good. What have you got to say?”

“Me? Oh, not much.” Rachel grinned. “But she’s got a lot of explaining to do.”

“I don’t think so.” Madam Chairman was tight-lipped with irritation. “We were just discussing your suspension pending a full investigation of your accounting irregularities—”

Rachel opened her hand. “Accounting irregularities cut both ways,” she said casually.

“I—” Madam Chairman stopped dead. “Is this some sort of joke?” she demanded.

Rachel shook her head. “No joke,” she said easily. She glanced at the yes-men. “You really don’t want to get involved in this. It’s going to be messy.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” Gray-face glanced between her and Madam Chairman. “What are you talking about?”

Rachel pointed a finger at him and polled her phone. “Ah, Dr. Pullman. My apologies. I take it she didn’t tell you who I work for?”

“Who you—” Gray-face, Pullman, looked confused for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I’m Black Chamber. On the books via Ents purely for diplomatic cover and petty cash, which raises the question of why Gilda here thinks it’s her job to go sniffing around my work assignments as if she’s responsible for them.”

“Ah.” Pullman nodded thoughtfully. Good poker face, Rachel thought. Then he crossed his arms defensively. “That’s interesting.”

The yes-men were beginning to shuffle uneasily. “Look, I really don’t think this is germane to the matter of your time-keeping,” one of them began.

“Oh, but it is,” Rachel said smoothly. She pointed at Madam Chairman. “Because you’re not supposed to be digging into Black Chamber discretionary funding arrangements. I’m afraid I’m going to have to have you arrested.”

“What?” Madam Chairman looked tense. “You can’t do that! You aren’t attached to any recognized security service!”

“Oh, but I am.” Rachel’s smile widened. She raised one hand and checked her phone. “By the way, do you know something? You shouldn’t have tried digging so obviously. That wasn’t very clever, Gilda. It made people question your bona fides. You’re not the only person who can pick holes in an expense account, and I’m sure your colleagues will be very interested to know where you got the money to buy that big dacha outside Sevastopol. It’s funny where the trail leads. Not that there’s any expectation of exclusivity of service in your employment contract, Gilda, but we really don’t expect you to be diverting contingency funds intended for the Black Chamber into your own pocket.”

“What is this nonsense?” Gilda demanded. She lurched to her feet, clearly upset. “You’re trying to distract attention from your own misdeeds! This is transparent blackmail—”

Rachel twisted one of her rings. The door behind her opened, and the cop from the lobby came in. “That’s her,” Rachel said, pointing at Madam Chairman. “She’s all yours.”

“You can’t!” Gilda backed toward the window. “You’ve got no grounds!”

“Yes I have.” The cop flipped her visor up and stared at her tiredly. “Ye’ll be Gilda Morgenstern? I’m Inspector Rosa MacDougal. On February 4 of this year you was in a meeting with Rachel Mansour, here. You tried to stop her leaving, didn’t you? Aye, that wisnae so canny, was it? Her on her way to a UXB call-out an’ all, did it not occur to ye that it’s a statutory offense to obstruct a bomb disposal officer in the course of her duties? Or d’ye deny it was you what did that?”

Yes-man number two was looking at his boss in veiled horror. “Gilda, was it really—”

“Take her in and book her,” said Rachel, shaking her head. “I’ll deal with the other stuff later.” She looked at the auditor, Pullman. “You don’t want to get involved in this.”

“Bitch!” Madam Chairman walked around the conference table, all rustling silk and hissing vitriol. “I had you—”

“Now stop right there,” Inspector MacDougal warned.

Rachel glanced at the inspector, barely registering the angry bureaucrat raising a hand, the protests from the yes-man to her left, as she blinked at an unexpected thought. Lining her pockets diverting Black Chamber funds, gathering intel about our field activities, big dacha near Sevastopol, works in Ents and Culture — Something wasn’t right here, and there was more to it than simple embezzlement.

She tensed as Madam Chairman pointed a shaking finger at her. “Fraud!” She snapped. “I know your kind! Leeching funds from the diplomatic corps to prop up your corrupt schemes, then claiming you’re a defender of the public interest. You’re just another blood-sucking pawn of the Eschaton! And I can prove—”

Oh shit, Rachel thought, and she went quick, reached out through air like molasses to grab Rosa’s shoulder and tug her sharply away from the bureaucrat, vision graying at the edges as her implants kicked in. I know where I’ve heard that line before, and recently—

“Hey!” Inspector MacDougal protested as she stumbled backward. On the other side of the table Pullman was beginning to rise, a startled expression on his face as Gilda, her face contorted with rage, raised her other hand, an iridescent metallic bulb protruding between her fingers. She lunged toward Rachel, holding the device at arm’s length.

Off-balance, Rachel tried to turn away, but even with boosted reflexes there was a limit to what she could achieve without leverage. She scrabbled for the table edge on her way down toward the floor, feet unable to gain traction as she watched Madam Chairman, Gilda, a bureaucrat possessed, thrust the ReMastered implement toward her.

The first shot surprised Rachel almost as much as her attacker. Gilda jerked backward, eyes widening in confusion as a spray of red erupted behind her. Another shot, and Rachel hit the floor, rebounded in time to see MacDougal’s sidearm pointed at the woman. This is so bad, Rachel realized with a gut-deep stab of horror as time snapped back into focus, and she thumped painfully against the table legs. If they’re here …