The Autumn Republic

“I’ll work on that,” Adamat said. “You work on winning the election. Because if you don’t, Field Marshal Tamas is going to start another war, and this one will have Adopest right in the center of it.”

CHAPTER 34

The blasted remains of the union headquarters looked somehow worse in the light of day. Walls that the other night had appeared unharmed were revealed to be blackened with soot, the plaster cracked and chipped. Sometime during the last two days the rest of the roof had caved in.

Adamat nodded to the uniformed police officer standing guard at the street and entered the ruin through the still-standing front door.

Ricard’s men had protected the building from looters and picked through the wreckage for everything of value to the union. Papers, artwork, furniture, everything but the building materials themselves had been removed, and Ricard said even those would be torn down and dumped or recycled within days so they could start the process of rebuilding.

“Bloody mess,” SouSmith commented from behind Adamat.

Adamat shoved at a piece of fallen roof. When it became clear he wouldn’t be able to move it, he climbed on and over it until he was able to get back on his feet near the center of the great room. To his surprise, no one had shut off the pumps to the fountain in the middle of the grand hall. It was still running, practically undamaged, creating a strange sort of serenity in the midst of all the destruction.

SouSmith paused to reach into the fountain and pull out a silver ten-krana coin. He balanced it on his thick thumb and flicked it in the air, catching it with his other hand. “Don’t know what you’re gonna find,” he rumbled.

“Me neither,” Adamat said. He was beginning to think he’d wasted his time in coming here. Two days since the blast and the whole thing had been trampled over by Ricard’s men and the police. What little evidence that might have pointed toward the culprit was long gone by now. Only investigative instinct kept him from leaving this place behind to go find some breakfast.

He worked his way through the rubble until he reached the back of the building. “I’m shocked more people weren’t killed,” he said.

“How many?” SouSmith asked.

“Thirteen casualties,” Adamat said. “Another twenty-seven injured. There were three hundred people here the other night. It could have been much worse.” At the rear of the building Adamat entered what used to be the hallway leading to Ricard’s office. The office was a total loss. It didn’t take a professional to tell that this had been the epicenter of the blast. All four walls were gone, the desk was nothing more than splinters, and the floor had all but caved in.

Adamat heard the scrape of boots in the rubble and turned to see Fell approaching from the way they’d come. SouSmith tipped his hat to the undersecretary but remained silent, eyeing her with obvious suspicion.

“The police said the powder barrel was under his desk,” she said.

Adamat looked over the room once more. Yes, that seemed right. He stepped carefully into the room, testing the floor with every step, half expecting what was left of it to collapse beneath him. He could see the dark of the basement beneath the remaining tiles. He crossed to the middle of the room and envisioned how it had been set up, using his mind’s eye to examine the memory of Ricard’s office. He held his hands about where the desk would be, and imagined sitting at the desk.

There was something wrong about this.

“What else did they tell you?” Adamat asked. He hadn’t gotten the chance to speak with the chief inspector yet, but had a lunch-time appointment for that very purpose. It would be useful to get two different perspectives on this.

Fell kicked idly at a piece of masonry and pulled a pipe out of her pocket. She set the stem on the corner of her lip and struck a match. After puffing it to life, she said, “That there were two bombs.”

“Two?” That was a surprise. “Where was the second?”

“In the basement.”

There was no evidence of the second bomb until they reached the cellar stairs. The door to the cellar was gone and there was less left of the stairs than there had been of Ricard’s office. The marble floor was cracked and seemed to crumble beneath their feet. One of Ricard’s men had left a ladder there so they could access the basement. Adamat climbed down into the dark.

The cellar was of the kind found beneath old manors: a vaulted ceiling with thick, stone arches. Adamat could feel the crunch of glass beneath his feet. He could make out a stone alcove behind where the stairs used to be and black scorch marks along the wall.

“Shall we come down?” Fell asked.

Adamat answered by climbing back up the ladder and joining her and SouSmith in the ruin. “The bombs were set off by a quick-burning fuse, correct?”