The moon glanced down nonchalantly at Lith harbour. Her gaze focused on a girl standing on a balcony, dressed in nothing but a too-tight red gown and slippers. The girl, in turn, was focusing intently on the streets below. And there were many things to focus on down there.

Naimee, having cried her emotions out, was the cool professional again. She made a mental note of each patrol passing by. RVMP, 18th Kerning Corps, the local Lith Harbour militia... all were scrambling around looking for the hiding place of the Grosjager. Naimee knew they were unsuccessful because a group of heavily armed commandoes had not burst into her little apartment, yet, at least.

With the oaken leaves of a major had come the better accomadations she had wished for, but now Naimee found herself wishing for the hut back in the outskirts of Heneseys. Mushmom - damn the jerks who killed her! - was a much better companion then armed soldiers hunting for Grosjager personnel, which of course included her. They were all trapped, unable to leave the building they had taken refuge in, boxed in like foxes hiding in a hole while the hounds trampled around overhead.

But these foxes were wily, and already they had plans for escape. Egress by land was out of the question, for the Lith Harbour city gates were tightly guarded and any people attempting to leave were thoroughly examined. An airlift would be too obvious to all. The only remaining option was breakthrough by sea.

Already a scouting party was at the abandoned shipyards, securing the area and preparing a dock to receive a ship. The hounds were not too bright. They had realized the possibility of a seabound escape route but had only garrisoned the active commercial dock of Lith Harbour, overlooking the fact that a shipyard used for launching ships, though left unmaintained by striking workers, could still be restored to functional condition with enough labour.

That was not Naimee's concern, however. Her role was to find a route from the safe house she was in down to the shipyard that her comrades could travel undetected on, avoiding any and all patrols. Secrecy was everything now. Disappearing was always the most difficult part of any major operation. The advantage of surprise was long gone, and their enemy was fully alert and expecting them.

The door behind her opened and another person stepped out onto the balcony. "Major," he said. Naimee recognized who he was by his voice.

Claw. One of the few assasins who deserved his job title. He had served faithfully as Daar's executive officer for many years, and naturally he took the role of Commander of the Grosjager now. Which put Naimee in that much more danger, since she was related to the former Commander and the new Commander would treat her warily as he consolidated his new power. In all previous history of the Grosjager, though, the transition of power had occured smoothly and connections with the previous Commander had caused anyone to come to harm. Naimee hoped that this trend would continue.

"Commander," she acknowledged, not turning around, still studying the patterns of the wandering patrols below.

"We kill two birds with one stone. We neutralize Mekil to preserve our secrets, and this will cause the bulk of the patrols to be drawn back to wherever he was held. If we coordinate this well with the arrival of the Raven, we will have a window of time in which to move down to the docks and leave," he explained. Naimee knew that when he said "We neutralize Mekil", what he really meant was "You neutralize Mekil". The thought did not cheer her at all.

"You are assuming Mekil will give the enemy information. I know him. He will not," Naimee objected.

"Minds can be broken just as bodies can be broken. The law of the Grosjager overrides your personal interests, Major." Commander Claw countered.

Naimee noticed how Claw was using his superior rank to order her. Rank was almost never used to manipulate others within the Grosjager; members were too few and too close for that. She began to wonder if she would survive this particular power transition. It would be so easy for the Commander to disown her for assasinating Mekil. That would be the true killing of two birds with one stone: both Mekil and Naimee, the ones closest to Daar, would be removed, and there would be no one left who could possibly challenge Claw's authority.

"Mekil would sacrifice himself before betraying us. You would too, no?" What Naimee really meant was "No, you idiot!", but she could hardly say that out loud, could she? This was the best she could do.

Claw got the message. "Is this insubordination, Major?" he lowered his voice dangerously.

"No." She turned around to face the Commander. "Mekil will not betray us, and we will not betray him, either." If he was using Grosjager rhetoric, she might as well counter with the same too.

"Very well. We shall hope you are correct, for your sake," The Commander turned around and left the balcony. His last three words chilled Naimee's heart.

Trunks took one look at the evening newspaper's headline, slammed his fist on the table, and swore loudly. Fortunately, the Knights of Maple headquarters, located on 19 Free Market, Heneseys, was quite a ways from the next house and his obscenities disturbed no neighbours.

"This has gone too far!" He exclaimed once he recovered from his initial burst of shock.

"What's wrong?" Killme yawned, lounging as usual on the guild sofa.

Saryn entered the room, drying her wet hair with a white towel. "What's the matter, dear?" she asked.

"Our... our executive agent has gone too far," Trunks began to rant. Still, he knew better than to utter "Grosjager" aloud. "They ambushed a unit of the 18th Kerning Corps and killed the lieutenant. I know the man. We cannot tolerate actions such as this..."

Killme raised an eyebrow. "We don't exactly own them, y'know. We're just their most important client, that's all. Besides, they do great on our jobs - who was that last Boter worshipper they iced again? In any case, we need their service to preserve the purity of our own ranks."

"There are other ways to do that," Saryn said. She had disapproved of employing the Grosjager, but she was not the guild leader.

"I've decided. If our connections with... them... are ever discovered, we're done for," Trunks announced. "We cut all ties here and now before matters escalate out of control."

"How?" Killme asked skeptically.

"Over three-quarters of their funds come from capital investments," Saryn explained. "Of these, about half are directly controled by K.o.M., with the proceeds directed to their accounts. That is how they fund their operations. If we liquidate these assets, we cut off the flow of funds immediately."

"Kinda hard to sell off fifty red hinkels and groonhills all at once," Killme observed. "Whoever actually has enough mesos on hand to buy won't want to buy more than one. And taking that many mesos out of circulation is sure to hurt the economy."

"We do not necessarily convert all the investments to mesos. Some can be traded for other assets. The point is to reorder everything so that proceeds can be redirected back to K.o.M. instead of them," Saryn said.

"Once that is done and all records completely erased, we deny, deny, and deny some more," Trunks concluded. "When can we start?"

"Right away."

The Raven, Grosjager's private ship, left the cove of Florina Beach where it lay hidden for occasions such as this. Her four engines were running at the quietest level possible, and without a noise her beaked figurehead pointed towards Lith Harbour. A cloud floated over the moon, and the Raven became a shadow gliding noiselessly over the water.

Claw jumped from roof to roof, avoiding the patrols on the ground below. Haste helped admirably. He was in his element, and with an expert's confidence he walked the skyline of Lith Harbour as a dark silhouette easily mistaken as a trick of the dim moonlight. The trip to the local RVMP station where Mekil was being held was over too quickly. Claw caught a glimpse of Mekil in a barred window. He dropped down beside the cell and pressed his ear to the wall, his clothing blending in completely with the faded grey stone of the police station.

"You think you can resist, Mr. Mekil... but apparently your body cannot resist drugs. Drake's blood mixed with certain other ingredients has this peculiar effect of dulling your mind - take a look at what you confessed while under its influence," someone - an interrogater, obviously - said.

"Your comrades will never receive you back into the fold, Mr. Mekil. They will think you betrayed them - and you have. Why, I wonder how your new commander - "Claw", is it? - will react to this news-"

Claw had heard enough. So, Major, you are wrong after all. I shall deal with you later. He stood up and looked in the window at the shocked people inside. "So you wonder how I will react? You shall now find out." He flicked his right wrist sending two steely throwing knifes into the cell. One embedded itself into the interrogater's neck, and the other pierced Mekil's heart.

Before anyone else in the cell could react, Claw was already on the roof and headed for the abandoned shipyards.

Everything worked out as Claw said it would, and Naimee had to give him credit for that. For apparently no reason, the patrols as one ran off in the direction of the RVMP station. She presumed that Claw or something dispatched by him had decided to move in on Mekil. She could only hope that he was still alive, although something warned her against having high hopes.

Still, that was something to worry about later. She had a duty now. Naimee began coordinating the evacuation of personnel down to the shipyard, guiding them along paths left unguarded by absent patrols. Her location on the balcony gave her an isometric view of the land all the way down to the docks; not as good as an overhead view would have been but certainly better than being on ground level, not knowing whether the next corner hid a squad of RVMP officers or not.

Then it was all over; she was left alone in the safe house. A starless patch just above the horizon told Naimee that the Raven was sailing into port. It was time for her to leave too.

A girl wandering around in a gown and sandals would be sure to attract attention, but Naimee was not planning on being seen at all anyway. Besides, for some unknown reason the red gown helped her to dodge incoming attacks, and she figured she would take increased avoidability over looking presentable tonight. Finally, she brought her mountainous crossbow and a quiver full of arrows just in case she literally ran into trouble despite all her precautions. All set to go.

Every shadow seemed to be an ambush, and every sound a signal between people tracking her presence, but somehow, sometime, she arrived at the dock where the Raven was loading passengers without being caught. However, Naimee had a new problem now: the ship was loading passengers. It was now already sailing out for the open seas.

For a moment Naimee paused in shock at being left behind, but then she instantly went to work looking for ways to remedy the situation. There were ample amounts of rigging and rope left unattended in the shipyard, and drawing out a small dagger Naimee quickly cut a length, longer than she needed, free. She tied one end to one of her crossbow bolts, loaded it, and aimed. She had been taught the theory of ballistic shots, but had never attempted one before in a live-fire situation. There's a first time for everything, she told herself as she squeezed the trigger on the crossbow.

The lacquer-black arrow was invisible in the night, and the cloud-obscured moonlight was too weak to illuminate the arching rope, but by the sudden uncoiling of the excess line beside her Naimee knew her bolt had struck home. She hoped "home" meant the hull of the Raven and not some unfortunate crewman on her. Well... she would settle for her shot striking home in Claw's chest, but that was a different story.

Without further ado, Naimee threw down her crossbow and dagger - she didn't want any excess weight for this - grabbed a hold of the rope and let it tow her into the water. It was unforgivingly cold, but she clenched her teeth and began pulling herself along the line towards the Raven. Already her toes were going numb, and she was fully aware that if she did not reach warmth in a few minutes she would die.

Tess was first on the scene, with many others following behind. There was blood everywhere in the interrogation block: on the walls, on the table... she forced herself to concentrate on the two bodies in the room. The survivors of the attack were already well away, receiving treatment for psychological trauma. The first corpse... it was the Grosjager bodyguard she had captured earlier, Mekil. The second body... her heart seemed to stop as all colour drained from her face.

"Stonehead!"

Vengeance was not far off. The extremely abbreviated ship-launching ceremony of Victoria Island's newest warship, GMS Sleepywood, was concluded with naught an acknowledgement from her crew. She slid gently onto the waves from the shelter of the Sixtopia sea-docks, turning south on a route towards Lith Harbour as her twin beam-mounted engines propelled her faster than any wind ever could.