"Oh," Nina says. "Her."

"We'll get her out of Hellgate," she says, "We need both of you on this mission."

"Must be quite the mission. That's not really part of our usual arrangement."

"I know."

"What have you heard about jurda parem?"

"Less than you, I think..."

"A man dead in a closed and guarded room. Ships full of gold that shouldn't exist. Someone waltzing into a Ravkan military base - and waltzing out with classified documents."

"Squallors flying. Tidemakers turning to mist and walking through walks. A Fabrikator making gold from lead. A Healer telling a man to cut off his thumb, and telling everyone who could hear her - everyone trying to stop her - to wait. All them still waiting, even after she's dead and gone, until they drop dead themselves."

"And every last one of those grisha dying from the inside out."

"All connected, then. To this... drug."

"Yes."

"So the mission is to stop it. In Fjerda? Who's paying?"

"So... Van Eck approached us, supposedly on behalf of the Merchant Council, to retrieve the drug's creator. He's Shu, and he requested Kerch asylum - and the Fjerdans intercepted him on his way here."

"We don't think Van Eck is good for his word, but I've checked his intel and he at least told us what he knows. And with a situation like this... I don't want to be in a Fjerdan colony. We're going to get parem, its creator, and any secrets he's given them out of their hands. And then," she shrugs, "We'll let the market decide who pays us - minus any bids that'd be really fucking stupid to agree to."

"Of course. Got to keep a minimum of sense."

"All right, I'm in." Tight smile. "Can't speak for Helvar, but if you've got a good way out of Hellgate, I'll put it to her."

"How likely do you think she is to agree?"

"Reasonably so. She's... not exactly ultraorthodox."

"I'd imagine not, if she's a soldier. Even one in a non-combat role." She thinks Fjerda doesn't call their female soldiers 'soldiers,' but that's stupid so she's ignoring it. (Susanne Helvar had registered herself as a member of Fjerda's Women's Auxiliary Core, specifically a prison guard, when pressed by the paperwork-obsessed court system, and in court had maintained that Nina was a prisoner being transported legitimately under Fjerdan laws, not a slave. That hadn't been hard to find out.)

"...Yeah."

"We want to move as soon as possible - tonight, for breaking her out. We'll spend the rest of today on other preparations."

"What's the plan, boss?"

She lays out - in brief - her plan to slip in with the crowds for the Hellshow, and cause a distraction there. One big enough that they can slip away to Helvar - who's a star fighter - and swap her out for a Dreg of a similar build, with a bit of Tailoring. After that... They'll just need to slip back out, and then back to the city proper. 

"We're going to need to stock up on supplies today for the journey, so we can set out at first light tomorrow. And we'll need to scope out if anyone else has gotten the same job."

"Sounds good. Which part am I on?"

"Information - on Fjerda and the Shu especially. You've got some Navy lined up today, right?"

"Admiral'll be in for her monthly."

Slow smirk. "Good."

"Don't let on that you're leaving town, or about this mission. We're playing it close to the chest until after we're already sailed."

"You got it."

"Any supplies you need me to pick up for you?"

Yeah, her medical bag could use a restock. She'll get a list together.