'Be paranoid?

'I was going to say cautious. If you want me to check out a new acquaintance, I will.

'Paranoid is good, Boyd said. 'Unlike all of you, I, of course, chose very well.

'You had no choice at all, Kanseen said. 'Saria chose you. She makes all the decisions for you.

'She does not! I am my own master.

Kanseen reached forward and plucked the sleeve of his remarkable frock coat. 'Did you choose this? Did you even pay for it?

Boyd turned red as the others laughed.

'So what do we do now? Dinlay asked.

'And he does mean: "we", Macsen said. 'That's right isn't it?

'Yes, Dinlay stumbled. 'It's just… Chiaran.

'Get rid of her, Macsen said harshly. 'She's not your girlfriend, she's his whore. Do it with longtalk, that's nice and insulting. In fact, I'll be happy to do it for you.

'Would you?

Macsen turned to Edeard. 'Do you want to use her first?

'No, he said. 'No, it's tempting. But if we're going to do this I don't want us stooping to his methods.

'It's not going to be that clean, Kanseen warned.

'I know. He smiled round at his squad. His friends. 'But we'll manage.

'So what exactly do we do now? Boyd asked.

'I've been thinking about this, Edeard told them. 'The biggest part of Ivarl's income comes from the protection rackets. He has teams in every district intimidating shopkeepers and stallholders. I want to push them out. I want to start by making Jeavons clean, then keep going, force them to retreat across the city until we've got them penned up in Sampalok.

'Then what? Kanseen said. 'And how would you make them retreat there? Do we intimidate them? They'll fight back.

'I don't know the details. We need to consult with Grand Master Finitan about how to begin such a scheme, and the politics behind it. We'd certainly need Grand Council support, maybe even a new law.

'All right, she said. 'Even if you get him to support you 111 council, and we get all the station captains to play along, and a hundred other crappy impossible details sorted out, how do we find them? There must be hundreds of gang members working this racket. Are we all going snooping round the House of Blue Petals?

'Ah. Edeard gave them a rather smug grin, and reached into his tunic to produce a thick black notebook. He put it down between all the beer glasses. 'You must be talking about this list I made of all the names I overheard.

'A grand alliance against gang-related crime, Grand Master Finitan said. 'Nice idea. He turned in his high backed chair to stare out through his office window.

Edeard and the squad sat in smaller chairs in front of the big desk, all of them trying not to gape at the remarkable view offered by the office's vantage point.

'Do you think the Council would support it, sir? Edeard asked. If it hadn't been for the tea and biscuits served to them by the ge-chimps, Edeard could well imagine himself as part of some lowly apprentice class being lectured by the Grand Master.

'If you went up to individual Masters and Representatives to ask them for help expelling the gangs, each and every one would look you straight in the eye and pledge their full and unswerving support, save Bise, of course. Privately, any new law to banish suspected gang members wouldn't even get read out in Council, never mind voted on.

'Why not? Dinlay asked.

'Expense. Legally proving a man is a gang member would consume a lot of time in court, and an even greater amount of lawyer's time, which never comes cheap. And what would you effectively be accusing them of? If you can prove membership you can prove felony, which can get them carted off to the mines anyway. No, you need some other way.

Edeard groaned. It had seemed like such a good idea.

Finitan swung back to face them. 'Don't give up, Edeard. You're the Waterwalker. We all expect great things of you now. He produced an enigmatic smile. 'More than creeping around bordellos at night, anyway.

Edeard blushed.

'So what would you advise to get rid of them? Kanseen asked.

'If you want anything done, you need to make it to everyone's advantage. Support is essential, the wider the support, the better chance you have of succeeding.

'But the Council must have been trying to get rid of the gangs for years, Edeard protested. 'Why has there been no progress?

'I'm going to sound boring on the subject, but: expense. Not just in financial terms. Consider how Ivarl's lieutenants control the dockers. The merchant families have a nice quiet arrangement with Ivarl, they pay him to keep the dockers in line. Take that control away, and the dockers will demand decent pay, and quite right too. It's a skill controlling teams of ge-monkeys to remove the contents of a ship's hold, or fill it. So they get more money, which has to come from the ship owner and warehouse merchant and shopkeeper. That cost will be passed on to the customer. The price of everything goes up. Admittedly not by much, but it's the start of an uncontrollable reaction, a destabilization if you like. Why shift the balance of power in an arrangement that works? And the dockers are just the tip of the iceberg. So many things would change.

Once more, Edeard remembered what Ranalee had said. External change is revolution. 'But the gangs are wrong, he insisted. 'The law must prevail.

'Yes indeed. But you of all people should know by now how entrenched they are in the city.

'There must be a way.

'Find a method of gathering a broad spectrum of support, Finitan said. 'From there you can go forward.

'I need the support of the Council.

'Ultimately, yes. But you must start at the other end, down on the street where the gangs are felt every day. Tell me, before you decided to mount your crusade, what was happening out there? I don't mean among the rich and worthless of my class, but people who were directly affected by the gangs and their violence? People who had given up looking to the constables for aid?

'They were forming street associations, Boyd said.

'Yes. Vigilantism, which the Council also frowned upon, not least because such associations circumvented the law.

Edeard tried to understand what Finitan was hinting at. 'We support the street associations?

'No. The station captains don't approve, for the simple reason that street associations undercut their authority, and that of the courts.

'Then what? he asked, confused.

'You can't support them, but there's nothing to stop you sharing a drink in the tavern after duty, now is there?

'Ah, Macsen said. 'And we might just discuss who is going round traders to extort money and what they look like and where they live.

'Indeed you might.

'And those private citizens are within their right to call for assistance when the gangs do come calling, Kanseen said.

'If they knew for sure that a constable squad would come, they would be more inclined to cooperate, Finitan agreed.

'And if cooperation at that level were subsequently seen to work, Edeard mused.

'It would be supported, Finitan concluded. 'A support among people who are not easily bought off by political horse trading. Pressure would grow on the District Representatives to continue and expand the campaign.

'But we're still back to the original problem, Edeard said. 'Arresting them and hauling them into court. Each case takes weeks and costs a fortune. Not to mention tying us up as we sit around for days waiting to be called as a witness. If we remove one of them, Ivarl will send ten to replace him. I need to push the whole lot of them out of Jeavons.

Finitan eyed the genistar egg sitting on his desk. 'What you need is a legal option. Have you consulted a lawyer?

'This is the joy of a constitution that has reigned supreme for an unbroken two thousand years, Master Solarin said contentedly. He was sitting behind his desk, which was piled with folders that strove to mimic the towers of Eyrie. Edeard had trouble seeing him they were so high. 'You can find a law to cover every eventuality. Politicians love to pass laws. It shows the people they are working hard on their behalf. He coughed, and reached for a lozenge in the little brown paper bag under a skewed tower of green and blue folders.