The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads

[sawyl]

In today's episode of John Scalzi's The Human Division, we revisit a murder whose resolution raised as many questions as it answered.

Back on Earth after the events of The Observers, Danielle Lowen is still trying to get to the bottom of Liu Cong's murder. While trying her luck with the Brazilian consulate in New York, she narrowly avoids being blown up in a terrorist bombing. Unwilling to take events at face value she has an X-Files-like encounter with a source in a bar who tips her the wink about how the trick was done.

By degrees, things seem to be clarifying themselves. We know that the opponents are supremely ruthless and willing to kill civilians if they get in the way of the end goal. We know that they seem to be able to operate in the areas of space between the Colonial Union and the Conclave, but seem to be just as happy doing wet-work down on Earth. Via A Problem of Proportion and The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads, we're starting to get a feel for their modus operandi and, thanks to Lowen's mole, we know that not everyone on the opposing side is entirely happy with what they're doing.