Spiral of Light

Chapter 3: Enter the Supervisor

"I hope that your reputations as capable warriors have not been exaggerated, for we do not have time to wait for the Legion to send another Centuri down, should these Hybrids prove to be your betters today. Even so, you won't be the only Legionnaires who have visited our level, never to return." Supervisor Rofouscue smiled smugly and crossed his arms.

"How could a den of hybrids possibly rival the robust constabulary force of Drydellia? We have heard tales of your competence at enforcing your strict laws and rules on your many employees. How exactly did a pack of hybrids prove too much for the royal house of Drydellia?" Krasus said.

"You!" Supervisor Rofouscue shook a pointed angry finger at Krasus and Moloch. "I have never heard such insults from an outleveler subspecies such as yourself! Why should we fight the hybrids when it is your duty and job to serve us? Your impertinence will be recorded at once in my event log!" Supervisor Rofouscue took up his intelor pad and began angrily making entries in it.

"Be sure that you take it down word for word." Krasus said with a grin.

"Constable Salazaar, you may deal with these Legionnaires, I shall go back to my workstation on the gondola and keep a keen eye and ear for any further slanderous insults from these subspecies servants."

"As you wish." Constable Salazaar said, inclining his head as the Supervisor walked past in a huff ascending the gondola stairs and plopping down at his workstation, peering over the rims of his spectacles, to fix Krasus with a pestiferous gaze.

Constable Salazaar took several steps forward. Pulling a cigar from one of the pockets in his vest, he eyed the end carefully and with a flick of his fingers cut off the tip with a scuffed cutter. Then he lit it with several long puffs. He took a moment to spit away some of the tobacco flakes from the cut that stuck to his lips.

"Please forgive my supervisor's hot temper, but here in Drydellia he's used to getting his way without any lip. You fellas took a while to get here, plus this whole business with the mixers has set him on edge."

"Calling us subspecies went too far. He should mind his tongue around us unless he wants a refresher course in basic etiquette." Krasus said, looking up at Supervisor Rofoscue and giving him a quick wink.

This startled him, causing him to react with a twitch. Then he held up a finger, as if he was inspired with a particularly nasty indictment of Krasus' character and began tapping it into his intelor pad. This caused Krasus to smile.

"I've been employed in Drydellia for a long time. I've never seen a being benefit from getting on his bad side." Salazaar said.

"I struggle to see how a being could get on his good side."

Constable Salazaar laughed. "Fair point. He is impossible to please unless you weigh his hand with ducats."

"Well, that will never happen, and I am content to exist in the shadow of his bad side." Krasus said.

"We don't have to get along, Constable, we just have to be here as long as it takes to get the job done." Moloch said changing the subject.

"Do you know where the Hybrid Den is?"

"Yeah, I think so. You boys are in luck. Supervisor Rofouscue had me hire a freelancer named Forrester, to come down here and track them back to their lair. Have you heard of him?" Moloch and Krasus exchanged looks.

"Forrester is known to us." Moloch said.

"Bloody freelancers." Krasus said.

Salazaar chuckled and spit some cigar juice into a planter filled with a scraggly bioluminescent moss, that was built into the rockcrete street. Its color turned from a light blue to a pulsing pink.

"I see you're well acquainted with him then. While we were on our way to meet you, he contacted me saying he found the den master. Now all you and your boys must do is go there and clean house. That Forrester does good work despite Supervisor Rofouscue's constant complaints about his price."

"What a surprise." Krasus said.

Salazaar took a long puff on his cigar and exhaled leisurely, blowing a plume of the blue smoke up in the air. "Besides, yesterday I caught one of the wretched creatures trying to steal mineralis vita from one of our store houses. Apparently, it possesses no love for its fellows, and it declared that it was willing to betray its den for its freedom and some of the critter dust."

"It can't actually believe that Rofoscue would let it go free?" Moloch said.

"You'd be surprised at the things a desperate wretch will believe." Salazaar said, as he put the cigar in his teeth and extended his hand towards the gondola with a slight nod.

"If you and your Legionnaires would board the craft, we can arrive at the hybrid den within the hour."

Krasus waved the legionnaires forward and they boarded the long transport. When everyone was aboard, Constable Salazaar took his seat beside Krasus and Moloch which was before Supervisor Rofouscue's workstation and made some coordinate inputs into the gondola's navigational board.

The magnetic brake released the gondola, and it lurched up slightly, as the regrav-impeller began to spin up. Then the navigational board interfaced with Drydellia's bionic transit mind which immediately slowed down the adjacent craft to effortlessly merge them into the traffic stream.