Chapter 2: Introducing the Players.

There was a commotion, to put it mildly.

Naimee put away her unused bolt, picked up the crossbow, and quickly left Maya's house. She found the strange red ball nearby, placed her hand on it, and was immediately teleported to the opposite end of town. Away from all the uproar, she strolled casually to the taxi stand to obtain her payment. Six million mesos, half already paid up front and the remainder to be delivered now.

This was an exception. Normally, the rules of compartmentalization required that somebody else handle the money transfer. But this was another aspect of the ritual of The First Mission. It would be a foolish client indeed who thought that by killing the sniper who came to receive the money, he would save that half of the payment. The Grosjager avenged its fallen members swiftly and mercilessly. In any case though, the threat of ambush was ironically the very reason why The First Mission involved picking up the mesos. Grosjager operatives needed luck and/or skill, and if Naimee was lucky the client would be cooperative. If she was not, her escape from the ambush would prove her skill.

She wondered who would be giving the payment. Her heart sank as she approached the taxi bench. Not HIM again... Swallowing her distaste for the mage, she approached Ashrey and took the suitcase of mesos that he handed her. He didn't know what was inside, and hopefully he would be too shocked by the assasination he just observed to suspect anything. Naimee knew what was supposed to be inside: three million mesos in bank notes. She turned her back on him without a word. He left. She worried if he had gone to fetch the police.

A taxi approached, and Naimee flagged it down. She got in and tossed a thousand mesos at the driver. "Lith Harbour. Keep the change if you drive fast." Leaning back against the vinyl seat as the cab rumbled off, she forced herself to relax. Just another passenger on another quest for Weird Medicine after visiting Maya. Nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly not a trial-worn Grosjager member, no?

The images danced in front of her again. For all her training to wipe away the impact of the shooting and face it with a cold mind, death played tricks on her brain. There was the unfortunate victim, basking in his final moments of unearned glory, and the bolt coming to snuff it all out. There was the ever-invisible gust of wind that spoiled the shot, nudging it ever so imperceptibly upwards... and the results were all too perceptible.

A chest wound gives off little blood, but a severed jugular vein causes blood to pour out like water. At least death was certain with that kind of wound, and Naimee's briefing had included nothing about killing cleanly. Although, she thought, staining the main throughfare of Heneseys red for several days to come might have been close to overdoing it. But what's done was done.

Private First Class Mitten, Heavy Battalion, 18th Kerning Corps, prepared for shipping out to "The Beach", as Lith Harbour was jokingly refered to. The 18th had a distinguished history, being the vanguard of the force that had cleared out the Kerning sewers of ligators and curse eyes, making traveling to sleepywood from Kerning City plausible at last. The Heavy Battalion, in particular, had won its reputation holding back twenty-eight crocos and curse eyes on a critical bridge while the engineers armed explosives on it, in the end turning what had once been a hunting path frequented by monsters for attacking travellers into a dead end leading to nothing but a swampy mire.

It was into this sort of honourable background that Mitten was accepted, joining the ranks of war-hardened veterans and about to become one himself. The Heavy Battalion was being redeployed to The Beach to storm a suspected Grosjager safe house which, intelligence reports claimed, was being currently used by the leader of that underground group himself. It would be a prize to crown all of the Heavy Battalion's previous achievements.

The ride - by armoured taxi - was swift and uneventful, and soon enough Heavy Battalion stepped out onto The Beach. The Lieutenant led them to an ad-hoc headquarters that would serve as a base of operations.

"Mitts, you're running recon for Mortar," the Lieutenant said.

"Yes sir!"

One of the first things everyone accquired in the Heavy Battalion was a nickname. Mitten was refered to as Mitts by everybody else. At least the name "Mutts" didn't stick. Mortar was an experienced hunter specializing in support fire, both arrow bomb artillery and direct covering fire.

"Call down the rain when you find them, then provide us with recon," the Lieutenant continued. "We'll start advancing as soon as the bombs start falling. Mortar, cease fire when we close in, circle around, and stand by for suppression fire if necessary."

"Aye aye, sir."

"We'll wait for the sun to sink a bit more before moving in. Stay in the shadows, troops."

Detectives Tess and Stonehead, of the Royal Victorian Maple Police (RVMP), shook their heads. Except for the single crossbow bolt, there were no other clues in the area to help them solve the homicide case.

"Done too expertly... must be the Grosjager," Stonehead commented.

"Grosjager... don't they have funds all over Victoria? They must have used the fastest way to escape without regard to cost."

"The taxi, then..."

"Taxi..." Tess looked at Stonehead, and somewhere something went "click".

They hurried to obtain taxi records. Normally, the records were kept confidential, but the two detectives had the rank to overide taxi clients' rights to privacy for the sake of the greater good of Victoria. The taxi rides immediately after the assasination would be highly suspect.

"It looks like a slow day today... many people coming into Heneseys for the parade, not many headed out. Two taxis leaving Heneseys, one to Lith Harbour and one to Ellinia," Stonehead said.

"I'll investigate in Lith. You head to Ellinia," Tess ordered.

"Sure thing." The two mages teleported off.