Industry & Intrigue (9 page)

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
hearsa
y 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 lookout
s 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 yo
urselves 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
pu
t 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. Ab
eliah, 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
tipp
ed 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
gol
den
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.”