by Noah Layton
I wasn’t going to question it.
I scooted my legs up onto the back of the wagon and rested my head on the wooden barrier just a few feet from the barrels of explosives.
I set all of my weapons down next to me and got comfortable, then fished out my journal from my jacket pocket.
My fingers flicked over the stuffed pages, landing first on the pages related to my old guild.
Truth be told, if they really did suspect that I was coming after them, they wouldn’t be completely paranoid. I had a habit of keeping records on those who I worked with or those who were constantly in close proximity to me, just in case I ever had to bail on something or take one of them down. That was why I knew their movements and their regular spots, even where they lived.
On more than one occasion I had wondered whether I was a little paranoid, instead just convincing myself that I was being careful.
Now, though? Let’s just say that I didn’t feel so crazy any more.
I scanned the pages on my old guild members, examining the sketches that I had made of them. With enough explosives it would be easy enough to blow up their entire headquarters but I didn’t want that. It would be too fast, and an explosion in the city would put a bounty out so big that it would have every hunter in Spire City searching for the one responsible.
Besides, the fear that would be growing in their minds would chase them every waking minute of their day. Killian and Wargo would be constantly looking over their shoulders, unable to let their guard down.
And only when they were sleep-deprived and unable to keep their eyes open would I strike.
I tapped the entries on them, wondering who to go after next out of Wargo and John.
There wasn’t really any question; it would have to be Wargo. I was working my way up the ladder, and John was the one that I wanted to scare the most.
Once both of his lackeys were dead, then he would have nowhere to run.
I set the prospect aside and focused on the task at hand.
Odasa Merliah. 1000 gold pieces on his head, holed up in a villa in the countryside just outside of the city, surrounded by dark elf guards who would see us coming from a mile off.
I knew that there was no way we would be able to go across land to get to this guy, but I had a plan, and fortunately for Veronica, it meant that I would be coming home looking filthier than ever.
***
We made our way across the city and stopped off briefly in an alleyway by the cartographers in the Adler District. A few minutes later I returned outside to meet up with Grimdrom and Cassandra, brandishing a new map.
‘Another map?’ Cassandra said, ‘I thought you already had one.’
‘I do, but this is a different kind.’
I unfolded the map and set it down in the back of the cart as the three of us crowded around.
‘This is the sewers,’ Grimdrom exclaimed.
‘You recognised that fast. You got something you want to tell me?’
‘I’ve supplied iron for parts of it, along with every other blacksmith in the city at one time or another. I like to know where the fruits of my labour are going.’
‘Please tell me you’re not planning on us going down there,’ Cassandra said.
‘Unfortunately I am.’
Grimdrom and Cassandra shot each other a look.
‘Does he ask you to do a lot of shit like this?’ He asked her.
‘Not yet, but we’ve only been together for a few days.’
‘He taken a lovely woman like you on a date yet?’
‘If you can call killing some bandits, cutting their heads off, getting paid, drinking and having sex a date, then…’
‘I would argue but that sounds like a good time.’
‘It wasn’t bad,’ Cassandra smiled.
‘Back to the matter at hand,’ I cut in, stamping my finger on the map. ‘The sewers run all over the entire city and deposit into the river, but when the city was going through its third major expansion the planners got a little over-excited. Too much infrastructure and too many buildings.
‘Eventually they realised the mistake they had made and decided to abandon the plans beyond where the perimeter is now, but not before they had already started work on the below-ground infrastructure. That’s how they build; bottom-up, so the proper supports are in place.
‘There are all types of maps at a cartographers, but nobody ever gives a shit about these ones. They’re always gathering dust, because nobody has any use for them. They show exactly where the abandoned sewer tunnels run beyond the city.’
‘And I’m guessing that’s where we’re headed?’ Cassandra said.
‘Right. If I’m not mistaken, there’s a tunnel that heads right underneath the villa that Merliah is holding up in.’
‘Wait, let me get this straight,’ Grimdrom coughed gruffly, spitting into the gutter. ‘You want us to go underground into a disused sewer, set an explosive charge underneath a villa in the countryside, blow the whole thing to smithereens and cause a huge ruckus, destroying High Council and gang property in one fell swoop?’
‘Uhh…’ I said, nodding my head back and forth as I looked down at the map. ‘Yeah, pretty much. Are you in?’
Grimdrom glared up at me with eyebrows diagonally slanted into a mix of anger and frustration. Slowly he began to nod, before bursting into a hysterical laughter.
‘And I get paid to do it?’ He laughed. ‘Of course I’m in, fool! This is just the opportunity I have been looking for to test my new batch.’
‘When you say things like ‘new batch’ that worries me. Please tell me this isn’t going to kill us in the process.’
‘Not as long as we’re far away enough. Trust me, it will work fine… BOOM!’
Cassandra and I both jumped before settling. My foxgirl laughed, while I gritted my teeth and looked down at Grimdrom.
‘Fuck you.’
‘No, love me! Trust me, once this thing goes off, it will be better than fireworks. You’re going to love it.’
‘Just a few things that I’m unclear about,’ Cassandra said, waving her hand lightly at us. ‘If we blow this place up won’t it make this Odasa Merliah guy unrecognisable?’
‘I’ll just use enough to get us through the iron and bring down the ground floor,’ Grimdrom answered. ‘It’s no problem… Assuming he’s upstairs, that is.’
‘And what about actually turning him in? Won’t the High Council associate us with the people who caused a massive, illegal explosion? You know, because… We are the same group of people.’
‘The Spire will turn a blind eye to damage as long as it’s not catastrophic and it doesn’t hit their resources,’ I said. ‘There’s a tiny bounty office in the hills that will take Merliah’s head. That’s what the fake names are for. We move in, blow the place, grab his head and get out of there.’
‘You make it sound oh-so simple,’ Cassandra sighed. ‘Anyway, hidden sewers, remote outposts – how do you even know all of this stuff?’
‘When your job only takes up a small part of your day and you’re not big on getting high, you have a lot of time to read… And explore.’
‘Explore?’ She replied. ‘What, have you got a little club or something?’
‘Not exactly. Come on, let’s get moving. Fighting after dark is fine when you can sneak up on your mark, but this is the exact opposite of being quiet. We need to blow the place by sundown.’
We grabbed some lunch, a delicious meal of seared boar, onions and mushrooms, before heading out of the city through one of the many gates that led beyond the crumbling walls that surrounded the smoky metropolis.
The wall had been built centuries ago during a war, and while the world was still violent now, it was a far-cry from the way it used to be.
Cities and kingdoms no longer fought among each other; now the power was split up between the gangs that lived within the cities.
Great for a guy like me.
While the wall was here at the edge, the echoes of the city continued
on for hundreds of yards beyond it before the countryside truly began. Small hills of coal dust and steam vents, outpourings from the sludge of the city and everything else thrown away piled up and stretched out further and further by the day.
This place, surrounding the city in a long band that stretched the entire perimeter, was known as the graveyard.
And it wasn’t just because this is where the ash of the city was dumped. That was the main reason, but beyond the fact, it had been rumoured for years that this is where the gangs came to ditch the bodies of their victims.
‘What are we looking for?’ Grimdrom asked. ‘Are we prying open the next manhole we see and jumping in headfirst?’
‘We’re not animals,’ I said. ‘According to the map there’s a maintenance pipe around here somewhere that links to the tunnel. We pry it open, climb down, follow it up and we’ll be good to go.’
We traced through the mounds of dust and the discarded crates and scraps of metal, as if we were moving through a graveyard on a sunny day.
‘There it is,’ I said, looking between my map and the grating of the pipe’s exit. ‘This is the one.’
The spot was relatively secluded among the piles of ash and a small mountain of broken barrels nearby. Upon closer inspection of the vent I found that it had rusted beyond belief, and would need prying open with Grimdrom’s tools.
‘I’ll have this open in no time,’ he assured us. ‘Give me a few minutes.’
‘Come on,’ I nodded to Cassandra, ‘let’s go check out this villa.’
‘We can see it from here?’
‘Should be able to.’
I reached into Blister’s pack and fished out my telescope, crossing with Cassandra through the graveyard while Grimdrom got to work on the sewer grate.
The dust and the destitution slowly shifted into luscious greenery, like stepping from one world into another.
Grass planes spanned for miles into the distance, stretching into the hills where I had first caught Grimdrom. It was a far cry from the city, but with the kind of occupants that resided in the villas some would say it was even more dangerous.
Plenty of gangs owned real estate out here, and aside from them, there were a number of wild beasts that roamed the grasslands, wandering out of the forests and into the paths of unfortunate travellers and merchants.
Several lone trees were dotted about the landscape, one of which stood right at the edge of the graveyard.
‘We can get a better look from up there,’ Cassandra said, pointing up into the reaches of the tree. She jumped up deftly and wrapped her hands around a low branch. She pulled herself up and I followed, albeit a little more messily.
I followed her up to a thick branch in the high reaches of the tree where we perched side by side.
I looked through my telescope and pointed the lens out to the horizon. Half a mile out there was a villa composed of luxurious yellow brickwork, with stables out front and horses snacking on the grass just beyond the well-kept yard.
Several dark elf guards surrounded the building, bows slung over their shoulders and swords sheathed at their waists.
This was the place.
‘Here, check it out.’
I handed the telescope to my foxgirl companion and she peered down the lens.
‘Holy shit, that’s them. I count four guards outside. There could be more inside, though.’
‘True. We also need to hope that Merliah isn’t on the ground floor, or he’ll be unrecognisable by the time we find him.’
‘I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Take a look at the first-floor balcony.’
Cassandra handed the telescope back to me and I looked to the first floor.
‘No way… Is that him?’
‘Sure looks a lot like him judging by the picture on the poster.’
Odasa might have been hiding out here with the intention of lying low until the heat died down, but he certainly wasn’t intent on locking himself behind closed doors and staying out of sight.
He was standing and looking out over his little kingdom, cigar in hand and glass of (no doubt) expensive liquor in the other.
‘Are you kidding me?’ I asked, laughing in disbelief. ‘What the hell is he doing?’
‘He’s a made member of a gang,’ Cassandra shrugged. ‘He thinks he’s safe. Hell, I don’t blame him. Have you ever heard of anybody in the last few years who’s been willing to go after a gang member, aside from other gangs?’
‘Good point. Pity he’s about to meet us.’
‘Indeed it is.’
‘We’re good to go, Drake!’
The pair of us returned to the secluded spot where we had left Grimdrom. He had successfully separated the grating from its frame, and now ushered us over to help him left it free.
Together we heaved it up and tipped it back, the metal grating slamming heavily into the dirt.
All three of us peered down into the abyss below.
‘There are two paths down there,’ I started. ‘The first is the main tunnel. That’s where we’re going to move the explosives too. Halfway along that path there’s an emergency exit on the left side with a grating that exits in the fields. We plant the explosives, start the charge, head back, move up the emergency tunnel, exit, wait in the tall grass for the explosion, take him out, then I’ll head to the post, meet Blister assuming he follows my orders, and hopefully… Everything will go fine.’
‘You make it sound so simple,’ Cassandra laughed.
‘We’re going to need torches and plenty of rope,’ Grimdrom said.
‘We’re going to light a fire down there next to enough explosive powder to blow up an entire building?’ I said sceptically.
‘Either that or we can roll this stuff around down there in the dark, crash into a wall, start a spark and definitely blow it up.’
‘Fair point.’ I looked up through the graveyard and into the fields before setting my eyes back on the darkness that awaited below. ‘Let’s get moving.’
Grimdrom descended the service ladder into the tunnel while Cassandra and I wrapped up the barrels tightly to three separate lengths of rope.
‘Do we really need all of this?’ I called down to Grimdrom.
‘We’re breaking through iron formed by dwarven blacksmiths,’ he called up. ‘Of course we need all of it.’
‘Why did you have to be so good at your job?’ I grunted, lifting the barrel out with Cassandra and rolling it towards the sewer entrance.
‘I take pride in my work, Drake. Don’t you?’
‘Of course I do. Look at the lengths I’m going to. I hired an asshole like you, for one.’
‘Hey, I’m perfectly willing to go down in flames if it means taking you with me, Drake.’
‘Oh, come on, don’t be like that.’
‘Just hand down the barrel, butthead.’
‘Butthead,’ Cassandra chuckled to herself. ‘You heard the man.’
All I could do was smile and shake my head. We got the rope in place on the pulley, tensed up our arms and let it drop.
We both grunted with effort, but with our combined strength we managed to slowly lower the barrel down into the sewer.
‘Got it!’ Grimdrom eventually yelled.
We took a brief break, then moved to the next barrel, moving through the same process with it. Once the second and third were completed, we lowered down the wooden trolley.
Once the first phase of our work was completed I led Blister along the edge of the graveyard for a few hundred yards, moving past the eyeline of the villa and seeking out the trail that would lead to the bounty post in the hills.
I gave my steed a pat, then patted my chest with the base of my fist. He perked up immediately.
‘Glad to see you still know your orders, buddy,’ I said patting him again. I moved to his side and pointed out to where I wanted him to move to, then patted him once more.
My horse took off at a trot through the fields, moving to where I would meet him once our plan
had been executed.
I returned to the sewer entrance a few minutes later and peered down into the depths below, joining Cassandra.
‘Wow,’ she said, peering down. ‘It doesn’t smell half as bad down there as I expected it to.’
‘Unused, like I said. They never fixed up the sewage pipes to the villas.’
‘But the gangs still use them?’
‘Most of them are officially abandoned, but they still use them as safehouses. Nobody can be bothered to do anything about them.’
‘Good luck. I’ll keep an eye out.’
I descended the ladder to meet Grimdrom in the sewer.
‘Drake, you’re holding the torch,’ he said as I dropped down next to him. ‘I’ll move the goods.’
‘You really want to do the legwork? I thought you would delegate me to that.’
‘Hey, nobody handles my babies but me,’ he said, patting the barrel. ‘Let’s get moving.’
I retrieved a torch from my satchel and lit it, being sure to keep the flames far away from the barrel. I pointed it ahead to light the darkness, seeing the high, wide tunnel lead on.
We set off at a steady pace, being sure not to rush so that the barrels weren’t exposed to too much movement. It was dangerous enough lowering them down here in the first place, never mind making any abrupt movements.
A single spark from a sharp spot of movement could obliterate both of us beyond recognition.
The things I did for money.
‘So what’s the deal with that lady friend of yours?’ Grimdrom asked. ‘Are you an item?’
‘An item? I… Like her a lot, if that’s what you’re asking.’
‘Come on, it’s not often I get to have discussions like this. Most of the dwarves that I drink with at the tavern are only interested in talking about welding tools and iron.’
‘You don’t have conversations with them about dwarven women? That’s usually what drunk guys do. Call each other names and talk about girls.’
‘What can I say? Dwarves are strange. Maybe because dwarven women aren’t too easy on the eye…’
‘You’re not selling them, man, I’ll tell you that.’
‘I have no intention of selling them. Our dwarven women may not be lookers, but they are sturdy drinkers, good mothers and trustworthy companions. That is what we dwarves value the most.’