AlterOne

Chapter Eleven

They had been in Alter City little over a week now, but Evina and the other acolytes were already making their presence known. Well, the other acolytes were, at least in Evina's mind. For her first assignment in the city, she had been tasked with closing out a lingering debt for a client. The job didn't call for much, the target was a night club owner who had a gambling addiction, regularly betting on Rudderball matches. The problem there was that he had a knack for picking the losing team. She had positioned herself atop the roof of a nearby building and waited until the soon to be dead club owner had finally come outside. Two scantily clad women accompanied him to his car, his arms draped around their shoulders as his face bore a toothy grin. He reached into his pocket for his keys. She took the shot. His body fell against the side of the car. The women screamed and ran, the others outside the club turned and saw, then they too scattered.

She had received no bad marks for the assignment, but for the past two days she had been relegated to HQ area surveillance. Guard duty, to put it in other words. This day though, she decided to go out on her own. She knew Daxpar didn't believe she was ready to be in the field just yet, but she also knew he was wrong. She just needed to prove it. Evina had taken to surveying a district known for its high amount of org warfare, sure that something of interest would present itself.

From atop the roof of an old, abandoned apartment building she scans the streets below. It was early morning and the streets were scarce. She turned her attention to a cable car, carried along by thick wires as it traversed through the air among the tall buildings. Inside this particular cable car was a Veldt, purple cloaked and robed, with the familiar white mask. She trained her visionscope goggles on the Veldt, watching as he exited the car some number of blocks away. He was following someone closely. Evina had become somewhat versed with the political structure of Alter City in the last few days. The man the Veldt was shadowing was a district official, she knew that much. She watched as the two made their way down the steps from the cable stop platform to the street. It was her understanding that the Veldt were working with the police against the organizations, nothing had been said of the Veldt working as personal bodyguards. She wanted to follow them but she needed more to go on.

"Evina to HQ."

"Daxpar here."

"I have eyes on a Veldt shadowing a district politician in District 27."

"District 27? You weren't supposed to have left the area," he said, obviously annoyed.

"Look, I know what you said, but I've fully capable of working alone," she replied. "Don't worry, I haven't taken a job, but I do have my eyes on something that is worth a look."

"Okay, what is it?"

"There's a Veldt agent with a politician in District 27, looks like bodyguard work. Can you get me anything on it?"

"Looking it up now," he replied. "The guy is the new Alderman in the district, the last one just died three days ago. Came down all of a sudden with some illness the docs couldn't figure out, died of heart failure from the look of it. This Alderman, Malk Nazore, was the target of an assassination attempt a few weeks back, at the same gathering the Veldt made their debut. They got him his very own Veldt for protection from future attacks."

"Seems kind of like overkill to me," Evina stated.

"I know."

He didn't speak for a time. Evina kept an eye on the Alderman and the Veldt, who now stood outside the District Hall and greeted others who she took to be fellow politicians, as they arrived.

"Evina, you still have eyes on him?"

"Yes."

"I let Xenator know, he is giving the okay to monitor the situation and find out what you can," Daxpar said. "He feels that if you can figure out the Veldt's motive for this, we can get at least some idea of what their overall plans are in Alter City. We'll want to hear from you by midnight."