Mission: Improper: London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy Read Online Free

else could he offer the rest of them?
    Byrnes's heart raced. Bio-mech, medical technology... was there an answer for his mother's fate? "And the rest of us? What can you do for us?”
    "You all have something you want and I have the means to provide it. But we can discuss that later. In private.” Malloryn gestured to the mysterious woman at his side, the one in blood red silk. "This is my colleague, Isabella Rouchard, the Baroness Schröder. She will be in charge of this team."
    Charlie Todd stuck his hand in the air. "Arguments aside... what team? Why precisely are we here? To find the instigators of the riots? That was over a year ago."
    Isabella Rouchard leaned on the back of her chair, every inch of her thick black hair tamed into an elegant chignon. "The queen has tasked Malloryn with putting together a team of highly skilled participants to discover who is behind these incidents that threaten national security. We have… information networks, but we need more. We need people who can deal with and contain threats, and are equipped to both delve directly to the heart of a mystery, and then handle it.”
    "Why would you choose us?” Kincaid asked.
    Malloryn shuffled some files on his desk. "Don’t assume that you haven’t been thoroughly vetted. All of you came recommended to me by various members of the Council of Dukes who rule this city. I have spies—I don’t need more of them. But what I don’t have,” he said, picking up the files and gesturing toward Byrnes, "is someone trained to investigate.” One of the files hit the desk and that gaze turned to Ingrid. "Someone who works private commissions to find what others can’t find and has ties to the verwulfen community; someone who understands the mech world,”—this at Kincaid—"someone who knows the rookeries and how to steal the eyes from a man’s sockets." Charlie Todd. "An inventor trained in detailing crime scene investigations." Ava. His hard blue gaze turned to Miss Townsend. "And—”
    "Someone you swore you’d never work with again,” Gemma Townsend said softly, her challenging gaze locked on Malloryn’s.
    There was a moment's pause as the two of them stared at each other.
    "Someone experienced in the arts of espionage,” Malloryn corrected emotionlessly, dropping the final file onto the desk.
    Miss Townsend looked away, as if there was far more to it than that.
    Interesting.
    "There are others who have already been briefed on the situation,” Malloryn said. "In my absence the baroness will be the leader of this group and you will report directly to her. Jack Fairchild is our resident inventor, whom Miss McLaren will be working with, and Herbert will handle… security. Anything else?"
    Every single hand in the room went up, but Malloryn ignored them as he circled the room and gestured to the baroness. "If you would, Isabella. It’s easier if I show them."
    The baroness wheeled a screen into place and Malloryn flicked a switch on the projector at the back of the room.
    Byrnes leaned forward in his chair as a photograph appeared: a street, middle class by the look of it, with abandoned handcarts and steam cabs sitting under a line of washing. He recognized the place immediately and that old thrill tickled through his veins. Begby Square. An unsolved case. There was nothing more interesting than a riddle that remained unsolved.
    That alone might convince him to go along with this.
    "The Packenham riots were just the beginning. In March, an entire street of people vanished near Begby Square. Despite Nighthawk assistance not a single person has been recovered out of fifty-three. Nobody knows where the Begby Square people are, or what happened to them. In most of the houses dishes lay covered with half-eaten dinners, and washing was hung to dry as though it were a normal day. Only a single baby remained behind, crying in his crib. No blood, minimal signs of violence such as scattered dishes, and no tracks or scent trail. It all happened within