“My name and identity are not important-” the voice from the drone began.
“The hell they aren’t,” Thorn interrupted.
“If you would but allow me to continue without being interrupted, I believe I will be able to provide a satisfactory explanation.”
Thorn crossed his arms and waited. After a few moments of silence, the drone continued.
“Very well then. The magnificent Korakis has assisted me and the Guild in a most perplexing matter today. The drones entering your abode are delivering his payment for the services he rendered today, per my direction.”
“Magnificent Korakis”? “Perplexing matter?” “Services rendered?” Thorn didn’t know who the hell this guy thought he was.
Lief walked back into the room with a broom and dustpan.
“Get to sweeping,” Thorn pointed to the corner.
“Sir, yes sir,” Lief said, raising the dustpan in a mock salute. “I charge one thousand quints per hour. Should I send the bill to you, or the bird?”
Thorn ignored Lief and turned back to the drone. “Again. Who are you?” Thorn asked. “And what ‘services’ did Korakis provide?”
“Who I am is not important. Earlier today, Korakis discovered a hidden cache of goods on the Guild’s grounds: a very special set of pills. Their sudden appearance on my sensors, after Korakis broke the device hiding their presence, was both a shock and a mystery.”
“And let me guess,” Thorn said grimly. “He found those pills hidden in the Quartermaster’s office and decided to steal them.”
“Interesting. How did you know they were near the warehouse?” the drone’s voice asked.
“Maintenance,” the voice of Gammon echoed from the doorway. “Of course. You two knuckleheads. Why is it always the new recruits?”
Great. Why was she here? Thorn’s tiny barracks room had become very crowded.
Thorn glanced sharply at Lief, but he shrugged his shoulders and kept sweeping. “Don’t look at me, kid. I didn’t comm her. And I’m not going to make up a story about your sexual conquests to get you out of this one. I’ve already done that once today.”
Everyone took a moment to process that statement, then moved on. Gammon spoke first, and addressed the drone.
“There’s a story here, and I can tell I’m not going to like it.” She put her hands on her hips. “You’re the one whose alerts brought me here, so I’m gonna need you to start at the beginning and go slow.”
The drone dipped and rose, then began speaking again.
“At approximately 0900 this morning, Korakis created an opening into the maintenance shafts beneath the base. Avoiding my drone patrols, he used the maintenance shafts to move to an area directly beneath a wall in the warehouse that borders Quartermaster O’Malley’s office. Hidden within the floor was a heavily shielded box containing secondary order quintessence pills.”
“What?” Gammon interjected. “You should have sensed anything second order. That is one of your most important jobs! If it had been a bomb, instead of pills, we could all be dead now.”
“You are correct that I should have sensed it. However, once the containment was broken, my quintessence field sensors did pick up the presence of the pills. When my drones arrived, Korakis had retrieved the pills from their container. Per Guild-sponsored directives 4.3, 6.4, and 9.0.1, I immediately attempted to secure the pills, and successfully negotiated their possession for the Guild.”
Gammon held up a hand. “Hold it.” Her eyes flashed as she read something on her HUD. “You know I hate it when you’re squirrelly. What does directive 9.0.1 have to do with this?” she asked.
“Per directive 4.3, the provenance of secondary order quintessence items is required to hold, store, or secure such items, notwithstanding they must be destroyed and any bearers also terminated. Directive 6.4 outlines the Guild by-laws that were written to comply with multiple intra-Guild treaties requiring the reporting of said provenance. And directive 9.0.1 establishes the mechanism by which that provenance can be established.”
“Technically…”
“Technically, because the pills lacked a proper provenance, Korakis’s claim of ‘finders keepers’ was justifiable within directive 9.0.1. Please note that Korakis is ‘technically’ not a member of the Guild, even if he is a ward of a Guild member. And because the pills are not ‘technically’ the most useful form of quintessence to him at this time, we were able to come to an equitable trade. The pills are now in the Guild’s possession, and furthermore, Korakis and I have come to a working agreement where in the future he will assist me with sensing any hidden threats within my nests and be compensated well for his services.”
“Say ‘technically’ one more time.”
“Technically—” the voice was interrupted as Gammon snapped her fingers and the drone fell to the ground. There was also a faint buzz to the air now, soft but noticeable. Korakis let out an indignant squawk and glared at Gammon. She sighed and rubbed her temples.
“Who is this guy?” Thorn asked.
“Their name is Castellan. They operate the maintenance drones and some of the security for the nest,” Gammon answered. “Their existence, including their name, is need-to-know. You didn’t need to know, but now that you do, know that their presence and capabilities are confidential. Don’t tell anyone else. I’ll make it an official order later.”
“Sure,” Thorn said.
Lief nodded and shrugged, then continued sweeping. “Whatever you say, boss.”
“Crkkkkk.”
Gammon closed the door behind her. “I’ve put up some sound dampeners plus a localized jamming field. No listening devices, but also no comms in or out, which is why Castellan’s connection with this drone was lost. Sorry Korakis, it appears jamming fields also make you uncomfortable. You will have to deal with it while the four of us talk. If anyone was snooping in, they’ll think I snapped at Castellan, and that will be the official reason I put into the massive amounts of paperwork I’ll have to write up for deploying a jamming field within the nest.”
“Why would anyone be listening in?” Thorn asked, then realized immediately how stupid a question that was. “Never mind. I think I know exactly why.”
“Keep talking,” Gammon said.
Thorn looked over at Lief and then back at Gammon. Most of the time he saw her as the kind, older woman who’d helped him out. Right now she looked much more like a powerful Chief Warrant Officer of the Crows Guild.
“Marta wasn’t the only Crow involved in the glitter farm operation,” Thorn started. “And we don’t know who we can fully trust, even inside the Guild.”
“Who’s Marta?” Lief interrupted. He’d stopped sweeping and was leaning on his broom.
“Marta was the woman I found half-eaten by that fincroc you liked playing fetch with. The one who was holding onto this.” He held up the WFG token.
“She had a WFG token. And you didn’t tell us.” Gammon was scowling. Thorn had never seen her this angry before.
“Didn’t seem relevant at the time,” Thorn said. On seeing Gammon’s scowl go even deeper, he added, “although maybe that was a mistake.”
She held out her hand, and Thorn reluctantly gave it to her.
“There’s no ‘maybe’ in that mistake, Recruit,” Gammon said.
Thorn didn’t respond well to being dressed down, and the whole day had turned into a disaster. He felt the heat rise in chest.
“Really, Chief?” He bit off the last word. “And when exactly should I have offered up that information? Before your psycho colonel threatened to kill me? Or after he vaporized Korakis’s core for no reason?”
Gammon’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Thorn—”
“No, Gammon,” Thorn interrupted. He had a lot of respect for Gammon, but it was being strained. “Smithson didn’t tell you that he’d kick you out of the Crows, going back on his deal, unless you somehow figured out who was responsible for the glitter farm. He told me.”
“And me,” Lief said. “I have those same orders.”
Thorn was surprised, but in retrospect, he shouldn’t have been. He felt slightly ashamed that he hadn’t realized he’d also roped his friend in. He’d only been thinking of himself, and hadn’t even asked.
“Thorn, you are out of line,” Gammon said. “Even if Colonel Smithson gave you no reason to trust him, he was looking out for the best interests of the Crows Guild, and you’re a part of that Guild now. Sharing information about that token was part of your duty to the Guild, not to mention relevant to the orders that he gave you.”
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Thorn bit back an angry retort; it wouldn’t help in this situation, even though it would make him feel better. Instead, he took a different tack.
“So how much did you know about the contract Smithson gave to Lief?” he asked, staring closely at her face.
“I didn’t know a thing,” she said.
Gammon was one of the few people in Thorn’s life who had helped him get to where he was today. She’d seen potential in him, and taken a risk, helping him get a real job, introducing him to other people he could rely on, who weren’t just looking to suck him dry of quints. She’d also known Lief for a long time. But she had been a Crow her entire life, and she owed her loyalties to the Guild.
When she’d showed him around the Guild, introduced him to people, taken him to Bursar and the range, he’d really started to feel a bit like a Crow. He’d remembered that starry-eyed dream he’d had as a kid. Join the Crows, see the galaxy. Level your System and grow strong, earning more quints than you could imagine. He wasn’t feeling that way now.
Thorn looked over at Lief.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Lief said, shaking his head. They all knew exactly what Thorn was implying with his question: that Gammon wasn’t trustworthy. That she had known far more about the glitter farm than she’d let on, potentially letting both of her friends run off into serious danger. And that if that was the case, then she was likely to still know more than they did.
“Smithson contacted me directly,” Lief said. “Swore me to secrecy, even to Guild members. Especially to Guild members. She was under suspicion herself, I believe.”
Gammon nodded in confirmation.
“Fine. Maybe I should have told you after we fixed up Korakis,” Thorn said, giving in slightly. “But would you have been obligated to tell Smithson about the token? Are you obligated now?”
She grunted and looked down. She didn’t answer his question, which was an answer in and of itself. She walked down to the far end of Thorn’s room and looked down at the hole Korakis had made in the wall.
“I’m angry, but I am not angry at either of you. I’m upset about this situation we have found ourselves in.
“I know you don’t trust Smithson, and as far as his methods go, neither do I. He is the chief asshole amongst assholes. But if there is one thing you can trust both of us on completely, it is our intentions for the Crows Guild itself. It is incredibly important to both of us. And that means that to me, and to the highest members of the Guild, it is critical we operate the Crows with the highest levels of honor and integrity.”
“The Crows are a mercenary guild,” Thorn said. “Shouldn’t their primary concern be the highest level of fees?”
“I’ll spare you the patriotic speech about how the Guild is my legacy, blah, blah, blah, because practically speaking, it is one and the same,” Gammon replied. “This whole operation, where Crows are involved in illegal activities harvesting higher order quintessence, generating dead zones, conducting highly dangerous experiments on beasts and profiting on the side… It’s incredibly damaging to the long-term future of the Guild.”
“Only if people find out,” Thorn muttered.
“Cynical, and not completely accurate,” Gammon said. “You’re still alive, for one. Are you arguing that you should be dead?”
Thoron shook his head.
“Do you know why I think Smithson let you live? A small hint: it wasn’t because I begged him not to kill my friends.”
“No.”
“It was because you made yourself part of the solution. Because you believed, implicitly, that being a part of the Crows would both help the Crows and help yourself. It is because you thought like a Crow.”
Thorn scoffed at the characterization.
“I bring it up because you need to do the same thing right now. I need you to make yourself part of the solution, not part of the problem. Not as your friend, but as a Chief Warrant Officer of the Crows Guild.”
Gammon walked back over and leaned against the desk across from his bed. The wood creaked as she looked down at Thorn, expecting something from him.
“Okay.” Thorn swallowed the sour taste in his mouth. He didn’t like what Gammon was saying; that the Crows Guild was more important to her than he was. He didn’t like what she was asking of him, either; it didn’t feel fair. But it made a certain amount of sense, and anyways, what choice did he really have?
“I’ll share what I know, and then we work together on the solution.”
“Good.”
“You said to trust you and Smithson,” Thorn said. The thoughts were churning in his head. “What about Castellan? I don’t know what it is, but there is something off about that guy.”
“Castellan is an integral part of how the Crow’s Guild functions on Agrotis, including its maintenance and security, but there’s a reason we limit communication with them. Some knowledge is too dangerous to share, but I will tell you that Castellan is indeed different. They are not like you or I. They are more like Korakis. At least, they certainly feel a kinship with Korakis.”
That wasn’t much of an answer, but it was something.
“Then we keep them in the dark on the details. Let them work with Korakis on ‘security’ or whatever. Then, as far as everything else goes… we do nothing, except maybe install some kind of trap door in the floor of my room.”
“Good call,” Lief said. “Might get drafty otherwise.”
The hint of a smile played at Gammon’s mouth. “By doing nothing, I assume you’re not talking about Castellan anymore? And do you truly mean to do nothing about the fact that an outside actor has suborned multiple members of the Crows Guild? Why?”
“Because, Chief,” Thorn stood up to stare her directly in the eyes. “It occurs to me that we don’t know the full extent of this conspiracy. Every time we uncover more evidence, the circle grows. But we do know that the three of us,” he paused to look around the room. “We make excellent bait.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lief interjected.
Thorn continued. “Let me back up and go through what I know. As far as the conspirators go, first there was Marta, the dead member of the Crows Guild. She was killed down in the cavern by the fincroc, after murdering the other operators of the glitter farm. Is there anything more you can tell me about her? Her friends, teammates, history at the Guild?”
“Born and raised in Port City,” Gammon replied. “Came from money, the old kind, but was estranged from them. Bit of a loner in the Guild, no real friends.”
“Was she on a mission from the Guild when she died?” Thorn asked.
Gammon hesitated, then nodded. “Yes.”
“So then she might have been a double agent.”
“I don’t know if she was a traitor or playing a deeper game. If Smithson knows for certain, he hasn’t shared.”
Thorn thought for a moment.
“She didn’t tell you about the special pills, did she?”
Gammon nodded.
“She may not have known herself. In any case, she was definitely connected to at least a few other names in the book I found in her lockbox.”
“What names?”
Thorn rattled off the details of the ledger he found. “I’m very confident I’ve identified Scrivler. We’ve had run-ins around Aba before, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was acting as either a dealer or wholesaler in the city.
“This morning, on the mission I had with Sergeant Lee, our client met with Scrivler. That client’s name is French.”
Gammon looked like she was sucking on a pickle. Lief whistled.
“French had the largest number of entries and total numbers. And—” Thorn just realized something. “He also stopped by the WFG this morning. He may have checked in on the lockbox I have the key for. If it was set up that way.”
“It’s possible,” Lief said. “Did you take anything?”
“No, I didn’t,” Thorn said. “There was nothing but the book, and I put it back. So if he did check in on the ledger, he shouldn’t know we know about it.”
“Not quite,” Gammon interjected. “He could always check the logs and see that it had been accessed. He wouldn’t know who, but only that it had been accessed.”
Thorn grunted. This was getting even more complicated. “So we should assume that they know someone is onto them.”
“Or that Marta double-crossed them and then went to ground,” Lief said. “Either by herself, or with the Crows.”
“So when French met with Hubert this morning… he would have told Hubert their operation was compromised, maybe even asking him some questions and pointing fingers. Then he would have asked him where the pills were…” Thorn started.
“But Korakis stole them this morning, right out from under their noses. And ours.” Gammon laughed. “Despite the fumbling in the dark, I think this actually turned out better than we could have hoped for.”
“Crrrrkkk.”
“How is this better?” Thorn asked.
“You know first hand Smithson’s penchant for violent solutions,” Gammon explained. “He is not subtle, and everyone knows this. So if Smithson had figured out that Hubert was a part of this, he’d be dead right now. We know that, and they know that. The fact that French showed up, wasn’t immediately detained, and that Hubert isn’t dead, means that they aren’t dealing with the Crows Guild catching onto their conspiracy. It means that they won’t run to ground, because the Crows aren’t after them, and will make them easier to catch. It means that either Marta has run off with their pills, or that someone else has.”
“Someone like me.” Thorn groaned. “Someone whose medical scans show surprisingly high Body scores. Someone whose pet beast just traded a bunch of those pills to the Crows Guild. Maybe better from your perspective, but not from mine!”
“Even if Castellan did the deal,” Gammon said, “I think you’re right to assume that it’s only a matter of time before the Quartermaster figures out who took their pills, and he tells everyone else.”
“I’m not feeling very comfortable about this,” Lief said. “Why don’t we just round up who we know and be done with it? Besides, shouldn’t people in the Guild know that this Marta is dead?”
Thorn agreed with Lief.
“Marta is still listed in the Crow’s network as away on a covert mission. And there were three other names in that book,” Gammon said. Iskill, Jorge, and Brown. “Smithson will say you’re not done until you’ve identified all the names.”
“Does Smithson have to know?” Thorn asked.
Gammon gave him a look that said, did you really just ask that question?
“Does he have to know now?” Thorn amended.
“Not immediately, no,” Gammon said. “And besides, I think being in the Crows Guild, on missions for the Crows, is likely the safest place to be at the moment. They won’t make a direct move against you, not when you’re surrounded by other Crows.”
“…as long as they’re not a part of it as well,” Thorn muttered. Sergeant Lee’s name hadn’t been in that book, but her questions about Grif this morning had been suspicious.
“So what do we do now?” Lief asked.
“Do missions. Be smart, protect yourselves. I’ll arrange a follow-up with Scrivler; she might be someone we can roll.”
Korakis took that moment to launch himself off of his nest and fly up to Gammon, landing on her shoulder.
Thorn eyed the pile of cores Korakis had been sitting on, as if he were a chicken laying brilliantly colored eggs. Or a dragon sleeping on his hoard.
“As far as protecting ourselves goes…” Thorn said, “I’ve got some requests to make. And someone needs to tell Castellan that they might have a deal with Korakis, but they forgot my cut.”
Korakis started pecking at Gammon’s face and squawking.
“Stop it, you damn bird. That tickles,” she said. Korakis squawked even more indignantly, and powered up his beak with a blue glow. He pecked Gammon again, but it still did nothing
“Ow,” she said, reaching up and grabbing Korakis’s beak in her fingers. “You put up with this?”
“He likes it,” Lief said, before Thorn could reply.
“I do not—”
“To each their own.” Gammon shrugged. “We’re out of time. I’m going to drop the jamming field before Korakis does something he will regret. And then we talk about your little trap door or whatever it is you wanted.”
“Oh, it’s going to be a bit more than that.”