Industry & Intrigue Read Free Page A

never know who else was
watching.
    She made her way past the final
section of the docks proper and crosse d into the Den. It was less crowded
here, but the smell was much worse. Beggars sat at the corners and
here and there bouncers at doors were trying to invite customers in
for whatever illicit activities were going on inside.
    She made her way evenly and
slowly, ignoring the two calls of men who assumed she was a street
walker. They
must be desperate she thought. Normally men would wait until evening before
looking for prostitutes.
    She soon came to her
destination, the Steel Axe Inn, a large stone building which housed a
transient clientele. She pushed open the light wooden door and was
assailed with the smell of beer, wine, and tobacco. At such an
hour, there were only a few staff members and minimal patrons, all
four of them sitting at the bar.
    She made her way over to one of
the serving staf f and asked for the manager. The waitress went out the back
and a moment later a large man, both in height and weight came out
to see her. “I’m here to see Rengalk,” she said and she slid a
silver coin over the counter.
    In p laces like this, it was an expected
cost for the privilege of them to not ask questions.
    The man carefully pocketed the
coin ,
“Second floor, third door on the right,” and she nodded in thanks.
She made her way up as fast as she could, running into a woman
hurrying in the opposite direction, but paid her little attention.
She reached the door and knocked lightly. There was no response, so
she knocked again, harder this time. He could be sleeping off a
night of drinking.
    I shouldn’t have agreed to meet
in an inn , she thought, although Rengalk hadn’t given her much choice.
She tried the knob and it turned; the door was unlocked. She pulled
her Hanuus six-shooter revolver out of its holster and pushed the
door open with her free arm.
    Rengalk was slumped against the
bed, blood pooling from a stomach wound. She stepped in and he gasped and
tried to speak, but it turned into a violent cough. She scanned the
room for assailants but it was clear, she bent down next to him.
“Rengalk, what happened?” she asked.
    “ I was too slow,” he said with
his thick, orcish accent, “shoulda been more careful.” He coughed
again, drops of blood spattering the bed sheet. Brenna examined the
wound but could tell it was too late; it was a deep, knife wound.
The blade had sliced along his green skin, then twisted around and
pulled out to ensure maximum damage.
    “ So rry,” she said. “I should have got
here faster.”
    He shook his head before going
into another coughing fit, “Barus, he’s… he’s getting in a new shipment
tomorrow night and…ugh.” He stopped and blood dribbled from his
lips.
    “ And?” asked Brenna, the orc was
dying and but she could still get what she came here for. “At least
make the last thing you do a good deed,” she pleaded.
    He looked at her, his eyes
strained. “I t’ll be going to a new safe house…its…ah...ugh…cor,” but he
was unable to finish whatever he had been about to say, his breath
stopped and his eyes were no longer moving.
    Brenna stood up and
swore ,
“Fucking damn it!” She had been this close to getting Barus’s drug
operation. She should have known better though, this was the reason
it was so hard to get information about the drug operation run by
Barus Asulius.
    Informants were killed and witnesses were
intimidated. There had been a particularly nasty shoot-out a month
ago, between Barus’s crew and one of the smaller gangs, which left
five dead, including two innocent bystanders. Not a single suspect
had even been arrested. Barus controlled a significant portion of
the tarcaine trade in Alkos City.
    Tarcaine was a powerful drug that induced
hallucinations and a near comatose like high, and it was highly
addictive. It was smuggled into the Alkon Empire from Ze Feros,
where it was legal, albeit only for high ranking members of the
Kartec