Motif · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods
The count
Carl's tally of administrators killed, begun on the fifth floor with a note in the 25th edition — 'One.' — after a toy exploded beside Loita in a shielded trailer. Written for Coolie and for a gnome girl named Bonnie; 'What I do from here on out is solely for me and my people.'
Segment appearances
Progression
Carl decides on it at the sight of a sobbing gnome girl (ch. 17) and plans it from Coolie's notes — a fingernail, a doll, a couch and a forcefield — then writes 'One.' in the Cookbook (ch. 18). The Syndicate's fact-finder investigates and cannot prove it, reconstructing an assassination far more complicated than the one that happened (ch. 19). By the floor's end the count has company: 'Might as well get started' (ch. 31), phases one to four of the plan (ch. 32, ch. 33), tens of thousands of NPCs drowned in a city as a favour, and the pledge to the hunters at the stairs (ch. 34).