The figure steps into the light, his cape as still as the air. He looks over the city, Haintown. At last, after too much work, he was here, not just with the will, but now with the way to get what he wanted. Cold as the night air around him, the figure waits, his armour hidden in black shadow by the moonlight.
Several Months Ago...
I stand outside the row of temporary houses, where the man is said to be. I know he will have the answers but trying to get them is another thing. Being an information broker to the highest bidder does not leave one with the option to remain undefended. For a temporary complex of houses, the place looks like a fort from here. Two guards at every conceivable entrance, all armed with baseball bats or a handgun, assuming their combined brawn isn’t enough to handle most threats as they come. However, the absence of police is telling. This information broker does not play favourites with either side of the law. But I do not need him to like me. I bend my legs and start running. The cold air does not help my rising fear at being caught, but I have lost enough and gained too little to resign now.
I land on the roof of the first “house”, spraying a generous amount of gravel on my arrival. This alerts the guards below, but they seem to think the noise was the gravel on the ground floor. They conveniently split up to encircle the perimeter of the house. I drop down, the first guard dropping under my weight with a slap onto the gravel below. He begins to get up until a strike onto the back of the head has him rethink his mistake, as he lays flat on the gravel, alive but not unhurt. The second guard rushes over before I have time to register that he was still circling around. Luckily, one well-placed throw of gravel has him briefly clutching his right eye in pain. It is all in need; I drop him to his knees with a kick to the back of his knee. A soft strike to the forehead ensures he will be spending the night sleeping, like his friend. I make sure all the other guards are either incapacitated for the time being or chasing a false alarm further away from the complex. Clearly, they aren’t even passable as raiders given their novice level of tactical thinking.
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I unlock the main house’s front door using a key from one of the guards, sloppy for their employer. The employer has no idea I’m there until my hands throw him over his own table and onto the floor. For a man who deals in secrets, he starts shaking when he sees I’m quite unreadable.
“Where is the city of renewal?” I ask him in a stern voice, pretense long gone. It has stalled me long enough.
“I don’t know.” The shivering man says shakily. “I know what the information is, I do not care where it comes from.”.
“Lies.”
“I swear.” He promises shakily.
“I swear.” I promise in turn, picking him up by his slimy throat. I begin to apply pressure, hoping not to have to kill him.
As he starts to turn red, then purple from my constriction, he interprets that I’m not someone who only threatens. “Haintown,” He chokes. “Is in Hampshire. Just above the Isle of Wight. It’s a... port city. I swear.”. He is then allowed to drop from my grasp, heaving for air at my feet. I say nothing more to him, walking out. Now my information is secure.
The walk to my planning house is long, as the information broker lived temporarily far out to avoid unwelcome attention. Too bad he didn’t know about the one person he really should have. Hopefully for them, Haintown will have that warning. If they do not, then they will know me soon.
