by Logan Jacobs
“I hear you two had a fun little adventure,” Danira’s voice intoned suddenly from above me. I turned to see the old commander as she looked down on us with a smirk on her face.
“I am never going into a sewer again,” I replied earnestly. “I vote we send the interns next time. We have those, right?”
“Milton,” Danira said as she sat down next to me, “if we sent the interns, we’d have dead interns. That doesn’t sound fun, now does it? The next closest thing would be newer guild members, which would be you, now wouldn’t it?”
“Ah.” I laughed at the spark of joy in her black eye. “That actually explains a lot around here.”
“Speaking of which, Ekador asked me to give you two these,” the commander said as she chucked two sacks full of gold toward Ariette and I.
“Yes!” I exclaimed as I felt the weight of the coins. “This is going in the ‘matching leotard’ fund.”
“Just as long as they aren’t navy colored,” Maaren sighed. “That always clashes with my skin tone.”
“I dunno...” I mused coyly, “blue is one of my favorite colors. Then again, you already knew that, didn’t you, Maaren?” The hunter’s face turned a deep shade of blue as she looked down at the floor bashfully.
“I do know that,” Maaren declared, “Which is why I’m sad I didn’t win. I’d have loved to see you in a banana hammock, Milton.”
“Well, maybe I can give you a private showing,” I said with a wink. “What do you say--”
“I think it would be splendid,” Danira said as she looked me up and down. “What time should I arrive for the viewing?”
“Look, I know we’re all excited to get a load of Milton and his glorious cock,” Ariette giggled as she pushed her clean plate to the side. “But, it’s almost time to go talk to our star witness, and Kalista is already down there waiting for us.” She nodded once. “We should do that and then after, well, maybe the afternoon will be free for a little show.”
“That’s an excellent idea.” Danira gave Ariette a knowing smile. “That’s the kind of great thinking that can get an elf promoted.”
With that, the four of us left the dining hall and headed down into the interrogation rooms below the guild. The rooms were situated down a flight of stairs, and the walls along the hallway were made of dank brown earth. Each room had a table and chairs, and they were attached to a viewing room with a one-way mirror. Kalista was already in the viewing room outside the chamber proper with her laptop all set up and a very determined expression on her face.
“So,” I started as I turned to peer through the one-way mirror at Genevieve, “has she spoken to anyone?”
“Not a word,” Danira replied roughly. “No one has really gone in to speak with her, though. Just wanted to let her sit in there and get all worried before we ask her any questions. She’s so flustered, I’ve got five bucks that says she cracks immediately.”
I looked at the young elf as she twisted her hands together on the black tabletop. She had pulled her thick black hair up into a ponytail, and she chewed on the inside of her lower lip in a way that would have made her rather attractive if she didn’t look so terrified. Her pert breasts were pressed flush against the table, and she rocked back and forth slightly like a small child. As she did so, the elf’s green eyes searched the room wildly as she waited for whatever was to come.
“She’s been like that since we brought her in,” Maaren whispered quietly next to me. “Poor thing. She looks scared out of her mind.”
“Poor thing?” Ariette snorted. “I mean, she did steal Moly Flowers from a demented old man in exchange for paying off her student loans which, by the way, she chose to take out.”
“Still,” Maaren shrugged back, “it’s not like she killed anyone.”
“That’s the bar we’re setting now? As long as you don’t kill someone, it’s fine?” Kal giggled. “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna go swipe a few thousand bucks from the treasure room. Maybe you’ll just give me a slap on the wrist--”
“Very funny, Kal,” Ariette chuckled and then turned back to face the mirror. “So who’s going to question her?”
“Maybe Maaren and I should go,” I suggested.
“Fine,” Ariette allowed, “but you can’t go in there all soft. We need answers, and we need them now.” The elf gave Maaren a pointed look. “Don’t let her cuteness fool you.” As her gaze flicked back to Genevieve, she narrowed her eyes. “That’s how the cute ones get you. They act all timid, and bam!” She smacked her hand with her fist. “They drop an anvil on your head.”
“Well, someone has been watching one too many cartoons,” Kalista said with a laugh. “I doubt there is any way for her to drop an anvil on you from in there.”
“That’s exactly what someone who would drop an anvil on us would want us to think.” Ariette nodded excitedly. “But don’t you worry. I’m watching her.” She gestured from her eyes to Genevive and back again.
“Much appreciated,” I said with a grin.
“You’re welcome.” Ariette smiled at me. “Now get in there and kick some ass.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll make her see the consequences of her actions,” Maaren said as she nodded. “If we play our cards right, she might just tell us everything we need to know. Best case scenario is that she’ll be so terrified that she’ll never get involved with that crowd ever again.” The hunter’s green eyes went hard with sincerity as she spoke, and she almost seemed to drift away for a moment. Quickly enough though, she snapped back out of her thoughts and then looked at me for confirmation.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s do this!” Then as I went to open the door, Danira stopped me.
“Before you go in there, where these earpieces.” She held out her hands and each one had a tiny communication device. “That way if we think of something we can tell you.”
“Good idea,” I said as I took the earpiece and put it in my ear. Then I swept open the door and let Maaren step through. “Good evening, Genevieve.”
“How long do I have to stay here?” Genevieve asked the moment we entered the room. Her voice was small, and she shrank away as Maaren and I took the seats across from her, like she was afraid we were about to sentence her to a lifetime in jail right then and there.
“Not long,” Maaren replied evenly, “as long as you answer our questions.” Her green eyes roamed over Genevieve’s pretty face and landed pointedly on her hands, which still twisted themselves together nervously.
“If she doesn’t, tell her you’ll feed her to the dragon!” Ariette said, and her voice boomed in my ear. “We have one of those. We could totally do it.”
Fortunately, I didn’t even need to threaten her because the young elf in front of us shrank back even further under Maaren’s sharp gaze, and she instantly shoved her hands under her thighs to keep them from fidgeting anymore. The room went silent as Maaren and I gave her a moment to speak. When she didn’t, I cleared my throat and gave her my most comforting and charming smile.
“We just want to know what you know,” I said soothingly. “We’re not gonna hurt you or anything. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. We want to help you.”
“No! Not good cop! Be badder cop! Bad cop and Badder cop! What’s wrong with you?” Ariette growled in my ear. “Tell her about the Hand of Blood! Or! Oh! I know! We could boil her in oil! Tell her that, HC! Then I’ll come in with the oil and...”
Genevieve gulped audibly, and her bright green eyes stared at me in alarm before she slowly shook her head.
“I-I can’t,” she said softly. Her voice was barely above a whisper, and it cracked at the end of her sentence as she fought back tears.
“That’s it! Oil her!” Ariette barked, and something in her tone made me think we had only a precious few moments before she came through the door with a cauldron full of boiling oil.
Maaren must have agreed because she slammed one palm down on the table hard and glared at the girl.
“What was that?” Maaren barked. H
er tone was so rough that Genevieve jumped in her seat, and even I felt a chill run up my spine. “Do I need to tell you how much trouble you’re in?” She flung a hand toward the earpiece. “Because there is literally a debate in my ear over whether I should blow all the blood out of your body with my Hand or boil you alive in oil.”
I glanced over at the hunter, surprised at how quickly her demeanor had hardened. A muscle twitched in Maaren’s jaw, and her deep blue eyes looked nearly black as she flung her hair back over her shoulder and out of her face.
“I said I can’t,” Genevieve repeated. Her voice was stronger and clearer, but she refused to meet Maaren’s eyes.
“Can’t and won’t are two very different things,” the hunter replied harshly before her demeanor softened just a bit. “You have a choice here, Genevieve. Oil or blood-splosion.”
The young elf said nothing and then dropped her delicate face down to stare at her lap. Her upper lip trembled, and both of her shapely eyebrows twitched as a single tear fell from her eye and onto her cheek. She made no effort to swipe it away and instead let it roll down her face and neck until it seeped into the neckline of her black t-shirt.
“Genevieve,” I said gently and waited until her green eyes met mine before I continued. “You had no choice. I get it. Money troubles drive a lot of really good people to do some really bad things, but if you help us find these guys, maybe you can help restore your karmic balance.”
“Or at least save yourself some jail time,” Maaren added nonchalantly. “That’s option three, though personally, I’d choose the Hand of Blood. It will go the quickest. One flick of Milton’s wrist and bam! No more worries.” She shrugged. “It’s all about choices.”
“How long is the jail time?” Genevieve exclaimed as she looked back up at the hunter in alarm.
“Oh yeah,” Maaren replied evenly. “I’d say you’re looking at two, maybe three hundred years. And you’re what? Thirty? That is a long time for someone so young, love.” She shrugged. “That’s why I’d go with the blood-splosion. Just get it over with. I mean, you’ll be dead, but even that’s better than spending a few hundred years locked up in a Seelie prison.”
“Go, Maaren!” Ariette cried in my ear. “Put the fear of death in her scrawny ass! That’s how you get answers.”
Genevieve’s green eyes looked between us wildly, and her mouth flopped open and closed a few times like a fish on dry land before she finally let out a keening wail and dropped her eyes back to her hands. Tears fell more rapidly now, and she still didn’t bother to wipe them away as her shoulders began to shake.
“They’ll kill me,” she sobbed almost incoherently. Her crying was so bad that it took me a few seconds to decipher what she had actually said.
“Is that what they told you?” I asked her softly as her cries turned into soft hiccups.
“Y-yes.” She nodded, her voice thick with mucus. “They said if I told anyone anything, they’d know, and they’d kill me.”
“Nobody is going to kill you, Genevieve,” I replied, “but you do have to tell us what you know, or we can’t protect you.”
Her soft hiccups echoed around the room in the following silence. The young elf worried her bottom lip with her eyebrows knitted together as she took shaky inhales and tried to calm herself. Maaren looked at me, and her green eyes were angry, but not at this poor elf girl. No, she came to the same conclusion as I did, I was sure.
These men had scared the life out of the poor girl, and they needed to be stopped.
“I only ever spoke to him,” Genevieve finally started, but she still wouldn’t look up at us.
“You mean Razor?” I clarified, and she nodded in response. “The man you met in the park last night?”
“I don’t know how he knew,” she continued shakily, “but one morning, I woke up to an email. It said that I could pay off all of my student loans by doing one easy task. There was no name in it, just an address and a time. I went, stupidly.”
The shakiness to her voice began to disappear, replaced by shame and guilt. She seemed disgusted at herself and at the choice she’d made in a desperate moment or weakness. Now, that single moment might have ruined her whole life.
“I thought it would be simple,” she continued, “and I was tired of eating ramen and telling my friends I had to study on Friday nights when I was really working a crappy minimum wage job just to make my monthly payments. So I went to the meeting, and Razor was there. When he told me what they wanted me to do, I… I said n-no.”
Her voice dipped and swayed as she fought through the next round of tears. Maaren softened completely now and dropped her bad cop facade.
“It’s okay,” she said quietly, and then she reached a hand across the table toward Genevieve. “Take your time.”
Genevieve nodded and drew in a few shaky breaths as a sheen of snot rolled over her upper lip. She reached one arm up to wipe it away with her shirt sleeve before she shook herself off and plodded onward with her story.
“But when I said no, he told me it was too late,” her voice cracked under the weight of the memory. “He said he’d already paid off my student loans and wired the money from an account connected with a huge bank robbery. If I declined his offer, he was going to tip the police off anonymously, and I’d be arrested for armed robbery and get thrown in jail. But, if I did what he asked, no one would ever know. It was supposed to be a one-time thing.”
“But it wasn’t,” I said.
The young elf turned her red-rimmed eyes on me and nodded once, slowly. A small whine of air escaped her lips, and she cleared her throat before she finished her story.
“After the first time, he said I had to come back with some of the flowers every single night,” she added, “and if I didn’t, I would go to jail. I couldn’t tell anyone o-or he said he’d kill me!”
The fear from before returned to her now, and she started to shake and look around the room wildly as if Razor would suddenly appear and slit her throat right then and there.
“We’re not going to let him hurt you,” I promised her as a swell of anger rose in my chest. It was one thing for criminals to recruit other criminals, but to take advantage of an innocent girl and coerce her into stealing was beyond scummy, even for a criminal.
“But we do need for you to tell us everything you know about these guys,” Maaren added quietly. “It’s the only way we can put them behind bars for good.”
“We know they’re in the sewers,” I explained. “Did Razor ever mention anything to you? Did you ever meet anywhere else?”
“We only ever met at the park,” she started, “but one time, when I came up to Razor, he was talking with an elf. I heard him saying something about taking animals to the nether realm soon or something like that. I don’t know, he stopped talking as soon as he saw me and walked away pretty fast.”
“Thank you for telling us all of this,” I murmured to Genevieve. “It was very brave of you.”
She turned her wide eyes on me and nodded once again. The ghost of a smile graced her lips, and her shoulders finally stopped vibrating so violently.
“Can I go home now?” she asked meekly.
“I think it’s better if you stay here,” I replied. “You’ll be safer. The moment we find these guys and bring them in, you can go home.”
Disappointment flashed across her face, but she sat back in her chair with a defeated sigh. “O-okay.”
“Don’t worry,” I promised the young elf. “We’ll find the men that are blackmailing you. In the meantime, check out our dining hall. The omelettes my friend Sal makes are to die for!”
Maaren nudged me in the side, and I instantly realized I’d just used a very bad choice of words.
“Thank you, again,” Maaren said as she rose from her chair, and I cast one last glance at the frightened girl as we left the room.
“Do you think she’s telling the truth?” Kalista demanded as we shut the door to the interrogation room. “She seemed like she was scared shitless.”<
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“I do,” I replied. “There’s no reason she would lie. Like you said, her record is completely clean.”
I glanced at Maaren, who gave Genevieve a long, hard look through the one-way mirror before she finally stepped back and turned to the four of us.
“Me too,” the hunter agreed with a sigh, “Milton’s a pretty good judge of character.” The hunter threw a wink my direction, and I knew she thought about the night we met and how I’d instantly warmed up to her.
“I dunno,” I joked. “I did invite you to join the guild, after all. I’m not sure I can be trusted.”
“Ha. Ha,” the blue-skinned elf giggled.
“At least now we know we’ve got a time crunch,” Ariette pointed out, “and that there’s something in the nether realm.” She sighed. “Though I am sad we won’t be boiling anyone alive. I was really ready to get my Macbeth on.” She raised her hands in the air. “Double, double toil and trouble,” she cackled. “Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
“You may still get your chance,” Kalista said as she glanced over at Ariette. “It’s not like ‘soon’ is a scientific measurement of time, but if we pull this off, you may get to boil the dirtbag who blackmailed her.”
“And we have a money trail,” Danira pointed out roughly. The older commander paced around the room once before she leaned up against the wall and raised an eyebrow at Kalista. “Or we will once our resident tech-dwarf decides to look for one.” Then she whistled nonchalantly.
“Oh! On it,” the dwarf replied to the unspoken command. Then, she whipped around, opened the laptop on the desk in front of her, and very quickly pulled up Genevieve’s account with the university.
“So this,” the hacker said as she pointed at the screen. “This is the payment.”
I bent over the dwarf’s shoulder to look at the numbers on the screen. Seven months ago, Genevieve had taken out a loan of fifty thousand dollars. Then, over the last seven months, there were steady monthly payments of one thousand dollars, but that had hardly made a dent in what she owed.