by Ryan McCall
Lucina nodded, “I’ll do it,” she said. Not only for the money but high profile targets gave her a certain thrill. For the money that Ral was offering, the target could have been the emperor himself, though she doubted if even the Arm would be willing to take a contract like that, but she guessed it was political.
“Excellent,” said Ral. “I will meet you at your home in one week’s time and bring all the details. From there we can begin arranging the plans.” With that he took a sip of his tea and went back to reading his newspaper. That was her cue to leave so she stood up and walked out of the tavern.
She was feeling good, she had been offered the most lucrative and infamous contract the Arm had worked since the assassination of the General Caimbeull fifty years ago. The assassin that had finished that contract had spent the next twenty years of his life as one of the Five. This was her chance to become one of the top assassins, if she played her cards right she could carry out her own expansion of the Arm here in Alkos City.
Chapter 8
Walking the streets of the South Alkos district had never been so easy. As a short woman, Brenna was usually challenged by the lowlifes that lived in the district. She would usually have to break a few bones to get them to back off and let the rest know she meant business.
With her new partner however the situation had changed. The tall and ferocious looking Snar kept practically everyone at bay. Most folk here had only heard tales of the savage races of the steppes and seeing one up close and personal was too much for them.
Shouts of, “Agorid!” occasionally rang out and people tripped over themselves to get out of the way of the bear agorid.
They were headed to an address given to them by the drug dealer connected to the suicide at Warded Spirals, Brenna had put him through the ringer during interrogation and threatened him with manslaughter, backed up by the name of the Dunn family. The dealer had practically wet himself in fear and given up his superior, Connor Wallace, who was in charge of a drug safe house. He gave them the address and the time his boss would be there arranging for the distribution. She hadn’t thought about it until now, but the one downside of having Snar with her, meant that word could quickly get back to their target that the watch was in the area.
“Snar,” she said.
“Yes sergeant?” he asked.
“We are attracting a great deal of attention.”
“Indeed. I apologize. Unfortunately the less well-educated citizens in this part of the city are likely to react to my physical presence in this manner. Racial prejudice is not something that is easily overcome, particularly when most members of my race are still in the hunter-gatherer stage of societal development.”
Brenna smiled, he talked like an academic. No doubt influence from Professor Bruce. “Well that may be useful to us at times, but as we get closer to the location it’s going to cause problems,” she said. “We need to be discrete in order to catch Wallace with the drugs.”
Snar nodded then scanned his eyes up and down the now empty street. “If I were to take this route?” he said and pointed down.
His claw pointed at a sewer opening and Brenna frowned. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” she said.
“Why not?” he asked. “It’s perfect, I can move much swifter down there and no one will be shouting out while you approach the intended building.”
Brenna nodded, “Alright, but be careful. You must have heard the recent rumors.”
She was referring to the stories that had been circulating the last few months about creatures in the sewers. There were no details of course, only gossip, tales of mutilated animal carcasses and people disappearing at night, but none of that was evidence of anything other than overactive imaginations.
“I don’t put much stock in hearsay and I believe I can handle overly large sewer rats. According to the maps in the city planning department there must be sewer exit located within ten meters of any large blockhouse buildings. It should open into an alley along the building.” And with that Snar lifted up the sewer grate and jumped down. Brenna looked down to see him splash in the water and shake himself off before moving forward.
As she made her way through the streets there were no more outcries or crowds trying to avoid her and she was soon in sight of the building. She stopped at the corner and took a careful look at it. It was a large, stonework building with a set of double doors at the front. Above that were several windows darkened with dirt. There were crates and barrels cluttered around the alleyways, blocking access from the street.
If they were smart they would have lookouts at the windows and if she crossed the street they would whistle out a warning to the others inside. Before she could decide how to proceed she saw Snar emerge from a sewer entrance in one of the alleys. He was looking at the wall of the building then glanced over in her direction and pointed to the building and made an opening gesture with his paws. It looked like he was trying to tell her there was a side door to building.
It was risky, but if he moved fast enough he could get in and block off their escape while she entered from the front. It wouldn’t matter if the lookouts spotted her.
She nodded and pointed, moving her finger in a motion to indicate for him to go ahead and enter. She pulled out her revolver and raced across the street towards the main doors. As she reached them, she heard someone above her whistle, a lookout had spotted her.
She knocked on the door as hard as she could and shouted, “Alkos City Watch! Open the doors right now!” She heard running footsteps and panicked voices. Then there was a loud smashing sound.
There were shouts and screams then a tremendous roar, Brenna knocked on the door again and this time it opened.
There was a short man in dirty clothes with a terrified look on his face. “You have to help us! Th-th-there’s an agorid in here.”
Brenna shoved past him. She pointed with her gun and the man closed the door. “Move,” she said and he led her down the stone-walled hallway, the shouts were louder now. The man opened another door and walked in ahead of her.
In the large room three people lying on the floor, either unconscious or dead, but they weren’t moving. Next to them was a table with a large pile of what looked to be tarcaine packages. To her left was a now destroyed wooden door, which led out to the alley. Snar was standing in the middle of the room holding a man by his neck in one hand and his other hand held his double-sided axe. There were two other men and one woman crouched behind several crates.
“This would be far simpler and easier if you would surrender yourselves instead of forcing me to come and get you,” said Snar and he dropped the man he had been holding, who groaned as he hit the floor.
“Come one step closer and I’ll blow your thick-furred skull off!” shouted one of the men. His description matched that of Connor Wallace. He was holding a Collins shotgun, the favored choice of firearm for many criminals. It could do a decent amount of damage even to an agorid.
“I don’t think so,” said Brenna, “Drop the gun now or I drop you.”
The man looked over in surprise and then swore. “Officer I don’t mean to be rude, but I have a savage beast to deal with here. Do you mind waiting to arrest me until its dead?”
Brenna smiled sweetly at him. “The agorid is with me,” she replied, “So I’ll tell you one more time. Drop the gun.”
He looked back and forth at them, incredulous. Then he finally noticed the watch uniform on Snar. He swore and slowly put the gun down on the crate and stood up with his hands above his head.
“Good choice,” said Brenna. She looked at the others. “You other three, I want you all to head to the South Alkos Watch office and turn yourselves in. Believe me when I say that you don’t want us to come looking for you if we find out you failed to, understood?” The two men and woman nodded vigorously.
“Good, now get out of here,” she said and they hastily left the room. Connor Wallace was dressed in far finer clothes than the others, his expensive coat and boots stood
out in particular.
“This is what it’s come to? The watch can’t get the job done without hiring savage beasts?” he said and sneered at Brenna. She walked closer to him and smashed his nose with the butt of her gun.
“Argh! Fuck!” he shouted. His nose started bleeding.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” said Brenna. He complied and she pulled out her handcuffs and put them on him. Brenna turned to look at her partner, “Snar could you bag all of those drugs and carry them?”
“Of course sergeant,” he replied. “What about them?” he asked and pointed at the three criminals on the floor.
“You didn’t kill them did you?” she asked.
“No, they are merely incapacitated, they should regain consciousness soon,” he replied.
“Officers from the district station will be here soon, they can take care of them. Until then we’re going to have a chat with Mr. Wallace here.” Brenna turned back to Connor, he looked at her and smiled.
“You can ask whatever the fuck you want, I’m not going to talk, not to you, not to anyone.”
She nodded and said, “Is that right? What about my partner? You want to talk to him instead?”
The grin disappeared from Connor’s face and swallowed but shook his head. “You have an agorid, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever he can do to me, it’ll be worse if my boss finds out I talked. Charge me with the drugs and call it a day.”
Brenna decided to interrogate him further when they returned to the station. When the South Alkos district officers showed up they took custody of the building and suspects. Brenna and Snar packed the drugs and Wallace into a watch carriage and headed back to the Justice Branch station.
Upon checking in the desk clerk said to her, “A Ms. Zuri Abeliah to see you.” Brenna thanked her. Why had the skylord mastermage come to visit? It could be that she had more information about the suicide of Kyle Dunn
Snar said “The teacher we talked to at Warded Spirals. Curious, I wonder why she is here.”
“She could have new information or she could be checking in to see if the case is closed. She knows she wouldn’t get anything by trying to go to Imperial Branch,” said Brenna. “Put the drugs in evidence and then take this piece of shit to the interrogation room. And get Officer Selim. He can start and show you the ropes. I’ll join the two of you once I’ve talked with her.”
Snar nodded and led the drug supplier into the station. Brenna walked into the civilian waiting area and saw the skylord mage seated and waiting.
Chapter 9
“Ms. Abeliah, you wanted to see me?” asked the red-headed watch officer as she approached Zuri.
“Yes Sergeant Moreland, thank you,” she replied and stood up. “I wanted to know if you found the man that sold Kyle his drugs.” Zuri hoped the watch officer would have an answer for her.
“Well, we did actually,” replied Brenna. “He sounded familiar from your description. All I had to do was check our files and we had his name and address. He caved and gave his supplier as well. So it’s safe to say he won’t be doing much business in the future.”
“Impressive,” said Zuri, “how could you identify him so fast?”
“The last few years we’ve started using these newfangled photography devices, once the department decided to spend money on them at least,” explained Brenna. “The dealer is a small time regular so he’s been picked often enough that we have his picture in our records.”
Zuri nodded, now came the awkward questions, “Did he say anything about Kyle?”
“No,” said Brenna, “Nothing we didn’t already know. He’s been selling tarcaine to him for several months, usually a couple of grams a week. Said Kyle bought ten grams the last time he saw him. Why? Is there something else you think he knows?”
Zuri rubbed the back of her head and said, “I was wondering if I could have a minute to speak with him?”
Brenna had a wary look on her face. “I don’t know about that. It’s against procedure to let anyone who isn’t an officer talk with a suspect in custody,” she said.
Zuri had to see him. She needed to find Kyle’s abuser. “Look sergeant, I believe I know why Kyle killed himself, but I need to talk to this drug dealer to confirm it.”
“Alright, considering the high-profile suspect we have now thanks to your information, I guess I can bend the rules out of gratitude this once.”
Zuri silently thanked the Lord of Heavens. Perhaps the woman could sense how much she cared about Kyle. “Thank you sergeant,” replied Zuri.
“But I’ll have to be there the entire time you talk with him,” warned Brenna. “He’s been processed already. He’s in one of the cells waiting on the carriage to take him to the downtown jail. This way mastermage.”
Brenna led her into the station and down a sunny hallway towards the cells.
The guard at entrance tipped his hat at Brenna, “Sergeant,” he said. He unlocked the door and let them in, re-locking it behind them.
Brenna said, “Don’t pay attention to them”, as she led Zuri past the cells occupied with criminals, who jeered and hooted. After several meters she stopped at one cell and rapped on the bars.
The man inside sat up from the wooden bed he had been laying on and in a crude accent said, “Whatta ya want? I told ya where Wallace was. Thought you lot were all done wi’ me?”
“Oh we are,” said Brenna, “but Mastermage Abeliah here would like to have a word with you about the young man who overdosed on your tarcaine.” The man looked at the skylord and tried to defend himself.
“I didn’t have nuthin to do with that. I gave ‘im what he asked for. What he did with it was up to ‘im.”
Zuri waved her hand in dismissal, “I don’t care that you sold him tarcaine. Kyle was a determined individual, if not you then he would have found what he wanted from someone else. What I do care about though, is why he turned to you and your tarcaine?”
Curiosity slowly spread on his dirty face, “What do I get if I tell ya?” he asked.
Zuri revealed several golden crowns in her hand, “Even in the city jail, coins are still are valuable, are they not?” The man stepped forward at the sight of the coins and nodded, his eyes lighting up with greed.
“Yeah ok. What do ya need?” he asked. Now he was eager to help.
“As I said, I would like to know what you know about the reason why Kyle turned to tarcaine” said Zuri.
The man leaned back and said, “Ah, guess you discovered his little secret huh? He kept it hidden, but I could see it in his eyes. Someone like that, you can always see it in the eyes. He told me about it. I got curious and he’d been a couple of weeks without the tarcaine, so he was ready to tell me anything I wanted to know.”
Zuri felt her anger returning, but she kept it under control for now, “Who? Tell me who did it?” she demanded.
The man chuckled, “There’s one sick and twisted mage at that school of yours I’ll tell ya that. I can understand why you’re upset, Kyle told me what the bastard did to him.” The man in the cell clucked with his tongue, “I felt sorry for the boy. He was used to satisfy the sexual desires of some deviant who tore up his mind with magic.”
The man leaned back. “Not sure how much help I can be. Kyle never told me the name of which of you prestigious mages was having his way with young students. But I do there is someone who would know. Kyle wasn’t the only one. He said there were others.
He said the older ones outside of the pervert’s taste were still being mind-controlled. Helping him to find the ones he wanted and cover up what he did. He told me that Darius Sidonius was the trigger. When he saw him again in his tutorials, that’s when his memories started coming back and he needed the drugs. Is that enough?” he asked.
Zuri threw the coins into the cell and the man scrambled to pick them up before they rolled out of his grasp. Zuri turned and stormed back to the entrance of the cells yelling at the guard, “Let me out!”
She stopped in the hallway and
slumped against the wall. She stayed there until she felt Brenna’s hand on her shoulder.
“Mastermage?” Zuri didn’t respond.” Zuri?”
She turned, there were tears flowing from her eyes and her wingtips were raised above her head.
“I’m sorry,” said Brenna, “That can’t have been easy to hear.”
Zuri wiped her eyes and looked at Brenna, “So now what?”
Brenna folded her arms. “This isn’t exactly my area. I investigate drugs and criminal organizations not sex crimes. But I can’t ignore what I heard, if that’s what you were hoping.”
Zuri said, ‘I wasn’t…oh who am I kidding, you’re good sergeant, and you could tell exactly what I was thinking couldn’t you?”
“I can only imagine what you’re feeling right now especially towards the person responsible. If you want to look into this fine. You know the magic and whoever did it sounds far up the food chain at your school. I don’t know if the watch would be able to get to them.”
“So what are you saying exactly?” asked Zuri.
The watch officer looked at her in a conspiratorial manner. “What I’m saying is this. I’ll inform my captain of the claims made by that dealer in a few days. He’ll pass it on to Imperial Branch and they’ll decide what to do.”
Zuri slowly realized what Brenna meant. “A few days…” said Zuri.
“Is all I can give you,” replied Brenna.
“I see,” said Zuri, “Thank you sergeant.”
Brenna nodded. “Look this may not mean much in your state right now, but if you need a friend to talk to, well I get off at nine o’clock. Or another time, if you need help with anything.”