Korra instinctively awoke with a jolt at Tenzin’s urgent voice, with her body tensed and eyes darting about. It was still dark outside, though the orange tinges hinted at dawn’s beginning.
“What’s going on?”
“Xing’s here. Chief Lin, too.”
The grogginess melted quickly and Korra followed after her mentor without a second’s thought. Xing and Lin might have sticks up their asses, but she knew that the former, at least, wasn’t one to wake her up for no reason. For all her grouses against her former minder, him taking things too seriously meant that she could rely on real, proper trouble brewing when he actually sought her attention like this.
They were waiting for her in the dining room. Xing, Lin, and a few other metalbending police. They all wore grim expressions, but Korra noted how Xing was focused on her instead of skittishly eyeing his surroundings, and she allowed herself to relax a little. No immediate trouble, at least.
The chief of police offered her a curt nod. “Good morning, Avatar.”
Xing mimicked the nod, but not the words. “Korra.”
And she tensed up again at hearing his ‘not shitting around’ voice. It’s been a couple of years since she last heard - or saw him - like this.
“What kind of trouble?” she immediately asked him, unconsciously falling back into old habits.
As before, her min- former minder succinctly gave her the relevant points. “I encountered Amon at my place, barely an hour ago. With any luck, Naga can help track him down.”
“Do-”
“Your own assistance would be appreciated, if you want,” he finished, earning disapproving frowns from Lin and Tenzin. He gave them the same blunt look he used to challenge Katara and the other White Lotus masters with. “She knows now. Better she joins us instead of trying and failing to keep her from doing so.”
“Damn right,” Korra agreed with a resolute nod. “And Naga’s not going anywhere without me, anyway.”
Lin sighed with heavy reluctance. “Fine, go get changed and we’ll move out. The faster, the better.”
It was the first time Korra saw Xing’s new home. A rather meager apartment for a bigshot director, set near the docks that stank of gutted fish… And he was sharing it with others as well. She had thought he’d be enjoying solitude with his girlfriend, instead of sharing his private space with two kids and an elderly man.
Korra felt the familiar, curious stares of people spying out of windows or from a good distance away as she, Lin and Tenzin listened to Xing detail his little meeting with Amon behind a cordon of metalbending police.
“He appeared there, but didn’t move much. There were Equalists up there, and there, keeping by the windows. At least a couple behind there as well.”
Lin nodded curtly before growling out her orders to her subordinates. “I want two squads combing this place for any clues. Question the residents in case they were awake. Which airship was on patrol just now? I want a report from them…”
“Any luck?” Tenzin asked calmly in the meantime, and Korra glanced back to the polar bear dog who was sniffing attentively around the spots Xing had pointed out. The airbender master was on the alert, keeping a wary eye on the shadows around them.
After a while, Naga gave a confident bark and seemed ready to launch out to the streets again, and Korra felt a surge of excitement.
“She’s got something.”
With Naga leading the way, and Korra on top of her, Xing, Tenzin and Lin with a squad of police jogged into the dark back alleys of the dockyards. The silhouettes of people’s heads ducked into the darkness before the unusual group, and the Avatar noted with some distaste the amount of people who lay on the ground, hugging the shadows. She’ll have to ask Tenzin about the lives of the homeless of Republic City later.
For now though, Korra mentally braced herself for a fight as Naga’s keen nose led them around a few haphazard corners and through cramped alleys without hesitation. The anticipation came to a disappointing fizzle though, as the polar bear dog’s nose pointed them at a closed manhole in a dead end.
“I should’ve expected that,” Lin groaned. “It’s always the sewers for these people.”
Tenzin gave the woman a look. “Can’t we pick up the chase down there?”
“Pfft. Good luck trying to fit the big floof through the hole.”
“Unless we can figure out their exit point and continue the hunt from there,” Xing asked, almost rhetorically.
The police chief scoffed. “Yeah, good luck trying to figure that out. It’s a maze down there, so trying to make blind guesses would be foolish unless we have at least a general idea of where they’re trying to go.”
“Then why did you call Naga here?” Korra couldn’t help but ask. Surely his overanalyzing, paranoid mind would have expected this?
He shrugged too casually in return. “On the chance I was wrong. And to make sure all the bases were covered.”
“And so I won’t bring it up to you later, huh?”
He shrugged again.
Korra deflated. “So…that’s it? The hunt’s over?”
“No,” Lin quickly cut in with steely determination. “This attempt at tracking Amon down has been foiled. But the hunt is only over when we’ve finally brought the Equalists to justice. The fact that they came all the way out here to use this manhole must mean something. My forces will take a look at the place.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“And look at it this way: There were no Equalists waiting in ambush for us throughout our trip here,” Xing added with a raised finger. “Something I was expecting, but the absence of which might be informative in its own way.”
That got the police chief and her followers to be thoughtfully silent, while Tenzin seemed aghast.
“You brought Korra here even when you were expecting an ambush?”
“She’s not alone this time,” the former minder answered. “And I’m sure this little expedition, though foiled, beats going on wild chases along with Tarrlok’s special team.”
Well, he had a good point there. She could admit that after that last time, she was itching for a rematch with the Equalists. And even if this chase was a bust, she’d have still insisted on coming along, just on the chance, as Xing said.
And then Korra realized that this was Xing, and she looked around, wondering just how her appearance here might have played into other, hidden considerations of his.
“Right then, let’s pack it up and get the Avatar back to the island before everyone wakes up. And Xing, I’ll need you to come along with me back to headquarters.”
The former minder gave Lin a nod. “I’ll have a quick framework for the press in short order.”
“That’s helpful, but I meant that you still haven’t officially given a report on your meeting with Amon.”
“Ah, right.”
Come to think of it, why did Amon seek Xing out?
*****
Tarrlok’s mind raced as he heard Tenzin’s report, and thankfully it didn’t require much for him to conceal his thoughts as the other councillors were just as dumbstruck by what they heard.
Amon personally reached out to Xing to deny the attack on Future Media?
“That sounds…far fetched,” the Earth Kingdom councilman, Hui Song, managed to mutter.
Tenzin gave his colleague a light nod. “While it is impossible to confirm the exact conversation held, the police did find evidence of the Equalists’ presence there.”
“There was lots of that to find,” Lin Beifong, who unfortunately was also present in the council chamber, added a bit too smugly. “We’ve confirmed several distinct sets of footprints, backing up Xing’s claims of multiple Equalists being where they were. We also got lucky and snagged some eyewitness testimonies, fishermen returning from the docks, confirming Xing’s confronting several figures after…” The chief of police paused to give a crooked smirk. “...seeing his girlfriend off.”
Tenzin coughed softly and tagged back into the briefing. “The relevant fact is that Amon is finally active again, after going into hiding for weeks now.”
“All to deny the attack of Future Media’s building,” Lin quipped, clearly making a jab at the effectiveness of Tarrlok’s task force. “It sounds outlandish, but all things considered, I’m inclined to believe Xing.”
Resisting the urge to grind his teeth, Tarrlok slowly leaned forwards and carefully phrased his question to be as spite-free as he could. “While I have…no doubt of the director’s words, can we be sure that he actually met with Amon? Or that he was actually speaking with Equalists to begin with?”
Annoyingly, Lin remained unphased, and Tenzin wasn’t shaken either. The former gave a shrug to concede the point, though. “Xing’s also not sure if he truly met with Amon, but considering his methods so far, I can believe that the man made a personal visit as some sort of grand, benevolent gesture.”
The casual air around her then morphed into something akin to begrudging confidence. “But they’re definitely Equalists. We managed to confirm their appearances from the bums along the alleyway they were running through.” Lin’s voice dropped to an annoyed mutter. “Had to bend over backwards and play nice enough for them to answer us.”
“They were hungry,” Tenzin placated, seemingly trying to rationalize something.
“And we’re the law,” Lin retorted with surprising petulance. “They were technically obstructing justice.”
Filing away that little exchange for deciphering later, Tarrlok continued prodding for details before the former couple turned the meeting into another quarreling session. “So, assuming we have not been fooled, the Equalists have reached out to Xing? Isn’t that concerning?”
Lin broke away from glaring at Tenzin to give the Northern Water Tribe councilman a hard look. “It is. That’s why I’m here telling you about it.”
“What’s also concerning is the claim that they were innocent of the attack on Future Media,” Tenzin gravely added.
“Clearly Amon’s lying,” Tarrlok replied, waving the statement off with practiced casualness. Inwardly, he once more cursed at the Itiro’s ineptitude that was sowing confusion and doubts instead of fear.
Nevermind the lack of foresight and security to only employ their own people for the task, they did it in the most mindnumbingly blatant way possible. All it took was for one thug to be captured and the whole charade would’ve been revealed. That such useless families continued to wield an undeserving amount of influence was another reason that this city, this republic, needed a firm, corrective leadership…
Tenzin’s response refocused the councillor’s thoughts back to the present. “That’s the most likely answer, but we have to consider the possibility that he’s not, and the implications of it.”
Thankfully, it was Montaq who quickly spoke up next. “Are you trying to insinuate something, Councilman Tenzin?” Trust the representative of the Southern Water Tribe to be touchy about how his people were perceived, even when not being compared to their wealthier and better off (not to mention cultured) cousins in the North.
“Only that we should be cautious. Who knows what sort of chaos might be brewing if there are people masking their crimes by being Equalists?”
Tarrlok didn’t hide his scowl at his colleague’s statement, though for a completely different reason than everyone in the room expected. Stupid, dimwitted Itiros and their half-baked ideas. All the talk about noble excellence and they resorted to outdated, backwater practices. Idiots. It’s as if they were actively trying to ruin him instead of taking vengeance on Xing-
And a thought clicked in the councilman. A ludicrous thought, but one that held potential, one that might require careful deliberation and actual, skilled manpower to carry out…
“Councilman Tarrlok?”
Tarrlok blinked, and realized he carelessly let his mind drift for a second. A quick check reassured himself that he hadn’t broken into a grin or a smirk yet, at least. “Pardon me, I was just…entertaining that horrific notion of yours, Tenzin.”
Thankfully, the airbender took the words at face value and nodded gravely. “As I said, there might be a chance that a new gang is trying to seize power. One that operates similar to the Agni Kai Triad, only that-”
“Only that it’s composed of Water Tribespeople instead of firebenders,” Tarrlok finished with a nod of well-measured distaste as he seized on an opportunity…or at least the promise of one. “Not completely unlikely,” he drawled as he swept his gaze across his colleagues before landing on the chief of police. “But…that is assuming that the information we’re working on is correct, is it not?”
He paused for a second to let Lin bristle, but continued before she could voice her rebuttal.
“After all, we’re relying on the fact that Director Xing’s testimony is accurate, are we not?” Tarrlok paused again for effect, and to stop himself from smirking. “Unless I’m mistaken, and there were other eyewitnesses who shared the same views, with the same confidence as he did?”
And there was the doubt. The furrow of Tenzin’s brow as he silently processed the query, the disgruntled half-scowl on Lin as she no doubt recalled every recorded testimony over that incident. Tarrlok quietly held his breath as he waited for the result of his gambit.
“I’ll…have to double check,” Lin finally answered, and it took all of the councilman’s will to not punch the air at this small but significant victory. “But considering his honesty so far, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
The representative of the Northern Water Tribe offered a gracious smile. “Of course.”
All he needed was some doubt, enough to be nurtured, and Tarrlok would be able to pressure his peers to align with him on this matter.
“Now then, are there other pertinent details about the Equalists we should know of?”
He’d have to handle things personally this time. No proxies, no Itiros. He’d have to be thorough, though, to cover his tracks. Alibis would need to be carefully prepared, and favors called in. He’d have to seek and shell out for professionals.
On second thought, maybe the noble house of Itiro might still be of use…
