The Clan of Outcasts [Season 3]

Part 14: "Checking In"

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Denahlia frowned at the long list of alarm messages from several locations throughout the Harbor. Markus had used the admin privileges to dispatch all the Peacekeeper troops, for who-knew-what reason, and yet there were still tripped alarms because he didn't know enough to turn them off, or even inspect them. She checked on them, saw that nothing was currently amiss, and re-armed them. She had other matters to attend to before she could get to the bottom of why he was currently rifling through her database.

She sidled up to the butcher shop on the edge of the marketplace. She found out very early on that a lot of the businesses who were used to being extorted by the authorities and bribed with protection in return for information on whatever and whomever passed through their shop were even more willing to deal with someone who was actively invested in their benefit, rather than just threatening them if they couldn't provide. Few people made a point of watching a man covered in blood wielding a knife capable of splitting bone for any length of time--but also, they were unafraid to conduct business and carry on conversations in front of him.

Denahlia put on her biggest smile and swaggered inside. "Tertus! Good morning!"

The brawny man set down his cleaver and barely glanced in her direction. He turned his back on her to deal with a pile of cut meats on another counter. "Madam Watch," he returned amiably, "Good to see you."

Denahlia leaned against the wall, resting a hand on the counter. "Everything all right, Tertus? Business as usual?"

Tertus didn't turn around, didn't engage--merely grunted.

Denahlia stood a little straighter. "Something I should know about?" She asked.

This time, Tertus turned. He looked straight at Denahlia and said in a low voice, "No."

The former Hunter frowned. With a wave of her hand, she accessed all the footage from her camera mounted in the corner (much to Tertus' chagrin, but he didn't know enough about it to really object, so it stayed.) She saw a few moments in the last two days where a few customers got a bit out of order, but none of them stayed long, and there didn't seem to be any evidence that things were amiss when she looked around now.

So why was he acting so strangely?

"Tertus, why the could shoulder?" Denahlia cajoled him, trying to keep her smile.

"I've got nothing to say to you!"

Denahlia's wrist implant sent a electric shock buzzing against her skin. The pirates she had flagged as suspicious were moving through the busy marketplace--why were they still here? She ignored it and voiced her query to Tertus, hoping that his initial reticence was only temporary, like a bad mood. "I'm looking for information on a certain black-market hire."

"Don't know anything."

"Come on, Tertus! You said once that you're good for that kind of information!"

"No good."

"Tell me if you've heard--"

"Not happening."

"Somebody paid for a knife--"

Denahlia couldn't finish before Tertus whirled on her. His face was an impassive mask. "Get outta my shop," he growled.

She opened her mouth to speak again, and he just pointed to the door.

Denahlia sighed and walked out. She visited a few more haunts of her regular informants, but the reception was the same every time: They didn't know anything. Raedyn who? They couldn't tell. They wouldn't talk. She headed toward the marketplace, where the "threat level" was steadily increasing, still with no sign of Markus or any kind of security activity happening to mitigate the growing threat. The closer she got to the central market, the more she saw signs that troubled her: smashed doors, broken crates, ruined merchandise--and the repeated motif of some kind of bird silhouette painted on the wall or the door. Some places she could have sworn it was merely a random smudge, a chance occurrence--but the more she saw it, the more she got the feeling that it had been deliberately placed... But why?