Monster's Mercy

by William D. Arand

  “Hey, you want to make this easy and tell me where the Ravens are hiding? Maybe a main base?” Rene asked. “I’ll make it real quick. You won’t even realize it’s over.

  “Or maybe I leave you to the guards? That’d be amusing. Spend your last days dying from a gut wound in a cell.”

  “Now… just put down the r—”

  “Hush,” Rene growled and turned his masked face toward the guards. “We’re talking here. Don’t you have any manners?”

  Clicking his tongue, Rene looked back to the man beneath him.

  He was certainly far more aware than the last man, but was just as unwilling as the other was unable to talk.

  “I see. Well, that’s a pity,” Rene murmured. “I lied by the way. You’re going to die in maybe a minute more. You’re probably feeling dizzy. Maybe really tired. Sick perhaps. Even a headache.”

  Rene reached out and laid the back of his hand on the man’s face.

  “Yeah, you’re feeling awfully cold. Skin’s going pale… little blue here and there,” Rene murmured.

  “Caravan… warehouse. Number forty-two,” wheezed the dying man.

  “Oh? Well, thank you for that. I’ll give you a good whack so you sleep through it,” Rene said.

  “Wait, you can’t—”

  Rene ignored the guard, raised up the rock, and slammed it home into the man’s temple.

  There was a loud crack, both from the rock hitting him, and his head hitting the cobblestone.

  The man went limp instantly and lay there, snoring hard.

  Your skill in The Elemental Way has increased (69)

  Haha, sixty-nine. I bet Alana would look amazing suc—

  “See?” Rene said, tuning out the Monster and looking up to the guards. “Easy as could be. Now. You three should run along. I need to clean these two bodies up so they don’t inconvenience anyone.”

  The three guards didn’t leave. Rene thought they might be contemplating how to rush him.

  “I’ll pay you to leave,” Rene offered, trying a different tactic. “Twenty gold to each of you to just turn around and walk away. These were just guild members of the Ravens. No one you need concern yourself with.”

  “Twenty-five,” said a second guard.

  Grinning, Rene shrugged his shoulders. “Fine. Twenty-five, but you have to take these two bodies for me and dump them. You carrying them around is far less likely to cause a stir than me.”

  “Done,” said the third guard.

  “Perfect,” Rene murmured. Then he inspected the three guards for their names.

  He’d give them to Aurora later as a “sorry about that” gift.

  ***

  Following the trail of the guild member who’d run off, Rene kept to the streets and in Sneak.

  Your skill in Tracking has increased (30)

  Congratulations, you’ve achieved Journeyman status in Tracking.

  Your Tracking skill has been upgraded to include Trail Time.

  The trail itself changed as he watched, becoming far brighter and much easier to follow. Additionally, a number appeared next to it, floating in the air.

  It took only a second for him to realize it was telling him his target had passed through here five minutes previously.

  Oh, Watcher, dear Watcher, please don’t hate me.

  I’d still dick punch you, though.

  Looking at his bars and the red little squares, Rene found one of them was slowly flashing. When he focused on it, he found it had some text, an image, and what looked like a number.

  It was counting down and had only seconds left.

  Before he could read it, it hit zero and faded.

  Almost instantly, Rene felt much better. Like his knee didn’t hurt anymore. Like it was as good as ever.

  Watcher! I’m sorry!

  I’d still dick punch you as hard as I could!

  He’d understand. Remember?

  Moving a bit faster, Rene kept going. He needed to catch up to his target and proceed to eliminate him. Then anyone he’d led Rene to.

  The more of the filth in the city he could remove, the better off everyone would be.

  What about the filth above? The nobles, the officers, the merchants.

  Will we take them, too?

  In the fullness of time, yes.

  We will.

  Oh, good. That’ll be delightful.

  And profitable.

  Rene glanced toward his alignment bar, not feeling great about it. It was looking far redder than it had in a very long time. At least a third of the bar was crimson.

  Murdering two people in cold blood for only their affiliation hadn’t done him any good at all. Keeping that in the forefront of his mind, Rene realized he’d have to do some good deeds soon.

  Because even good deeds done with a clear benefit to him were still good.

  It just lowered the amount his alignment bar went up.

  The trail he’d been following took a hard turn up ahead. It vanished into a much smaller street that went down in elevation and straight into the poorer section of the city.

  That just happened to be where any trade caravans would stop for short periods. They would be assessed for taxes, fines, and fees, then sent on their way.

  And of course… smugglers, thieves, and robbers. Not to mention, anyone else you’d like to buy for a job.

  In fact, now that I’m thinking about it, it almost seems obvious that they’d go there with their leadership in the toilet. Doesn’t it?

  The Monster didn’t respond to that. Where he used to get very active with the promise of violence, he was becoming more and more introspective.

  As he followed the trail, Rene lost himself in the silence of his mind. The quietness that often occurred when the Monster was still. He let his mind wander.

  Rene wasn’t a man of deep thoughts or “big brain” ideas. Most of his life had been reactionary at best. He put himself on autopilot far more often than he’d care to admit.

  Coming up to a large warehouse, Rene was fairly certain this was the right place.

  There was no name listed above the building. The paint was old and worn. Pests were clearly eating away at the wood and looked as if the structure wasn’t long from collapsing in on itself.

  When he moved along the outside of the warehouse, he did get reassurance that this was indeed what he was looking for.

  An old and very faded address sign labeled this warehouse as number forty-two.

  Moving further along the wall, he finally found a spot he could climb up to. Though there really wasn’t much of a guarantee that it wouldn’t collapse as he did so.

  Most especially since the place he was looking to grab onto was a hole in the side of the wall.

  Jumping up, he stuffed his hands into the hole and began hauling himself upward.

  Climbing wasn’t really much of a chore anymore. With his climbing and strength increases, most things that would have probably bothered him before, no longer presented a challenge.

  Pulling himself up to the hole, he peered in.

  Whole lot of empty and darkness.

  Unable to see anything, Rene looked up and saw a shutter up above him. It was likely at some point, the warehouse had needed a location to vent whatever was inside.

  That’ll do.

  Tightening his grip with one hand, Rene simply propelled himself upward. He grabbed at a thin piece of warped wood with one hand and he got a hold. It wasn’t going to last, though, as he could hear the wood creaking audibly.

  Removing his hand from the hole in the wall, he stuffed his boot into it instead, then leapt upward for the shutter. It was an all-or-nothing leap.

  Least if we land badly, we know we’ll be okay before morning.

  Digging his fingers into the shutter, Rene steadied himself.

  That lasted for about a single second before the slat broke. Grabbing at the frame of the shutter, Rene almost lost his grip entirely. Dangling there, not in Sneak, and feeling rather exposed, he wasn’t enjoy
ing himself very much.

  Doing what was essentially a pull-up, Rene got himself up high enough that the slats were in his way. He got his feet into a semi-usable hold and then used one hand to reach up and start pulling slats out. He’d need to get several of them out so he could get inside.

  I hate this. I’m not… a thief. I’m not good at this.

  I’m better at infiltration with the intent to murder everyone I come across.

  Agreed we are with that type of action, however we cannot do that anymore.

  It’s not allowed in our current faction, so we do safe deeds that we won’t answer for.

  Dropping each slat down to the ground below, Rene finally managed to clear himself enough room to wriggle through.

  Moving through the shutter and into the warehouse, he finally realized there was a problem with this plan.

  There was nothing on the other side he could drop down onto easily. And certainly nothing within reach to simply step on.

  Rene was some fifteen feet in the air and the only thing below him was the ground. The warehouse was completely empty and devoid of anything.

  Fuck.

  The trail he’d been following was as bright as day, though. It led over to a small office-like setup off to one side.

  Take the drop and mind the flop.

  Shaking his head, Rene did just that and fell forward into the warehouse.

  When he hit the ground, he did all he could to roll with it and redistribute some of the impact.

  Of course it hurt, and another red box appeared, glaring at him.

  Nothing was terrifyingly wrong, however. He could walk well enough, sneak, and would be able to carry on.

  There were quiet voices talking over near the office which Rene could barely hear. Even when he looked at his log window, his personal closed-captioning box, there was nothing to read.

  Limping forward, as his knee and both ankles weren’t working very well, Rene was determined to hear what they were talking about.

  Needed to, in fact.

  Because the other lead he had would have led him back here anyway.

  The voices got louder slowly, but Rene still couldn’t quite make them out. When he looked at his log, though, he could read what they were saying.

  “—coming here,” Frank said.

  “Course he’s not. He’s just a guild leader. That’s crazy,” Bob replied. “Fucking shame about Tom and George though.”

  “They were already dead. I got out as fast as I could,” Frank said. “I sure as shit wasn’t sticking around there. Fuck that. Fuck them.”

  Rene stopped reading it line for line when he got close enough that he could hear them.

  “What do we do, then?” Frank asked.

  “I dunno. I figure we just keep going. They’ll be bringing in the new shipment eventually. We just wait for that and go from there.

  “Gotta send someone new, since the boss got his bucket booted.”

  “Hey… you don’t think maybe Mask did the job, do you?” Bob asked. “I mean, they never did figure out who did it. Right?”

  “Nah. I figure it was the Jackals or Wolves who done it. Then, the Anatolly kid got pissy and hired hitmen on everyone after,” Frank replied.

  “That’s stupid. That doesn’t even make sense,” Bob argued.

  I… they’re… part of the kidnapping ring.

  Aren’t they?

  So it would seem. Let’s get closer. We can play with our rock some more and get them to tell us everything they know.

  Or everything they think they know.

  Yes. That’s a good idea.

  Shuffling into the office where the two men were, Rene realized they’d both stopped talking.

  “Swore I heard something,” Bob muttered.

  “Me, too,” Frank said.

  Rene stepped into the doorway to prevent either man from leaving. Then he stood up and let his Sneak fall away.

  “I heard something, too,” Rene muttered. “Something very interesting.”

  Pulling his rock out of his inventory, he held it up.

  “Tom and George would like to have a word,” he said, pointing to the blood that was liberally coating the rock. “Or what’s left of them. Now, you were saying something about… kidnapping?”

  Frank and Bob were as white as sheets, looking like they’d seen a ghost and wanted no part of it whatsoever.

  “Oh… and by the way. If you tell me everything, and I do mean everything, I’ll let you live,” Rene said with a smile. “I’ll spare you. That’s a good deed, isn’t it?”

  “I’d personally think that’d be so; but it isn’t my place to say who gets to go,” growled the Monster aloud through Rene’s mouth.

  “Shut up,” Rene hissed looking down at the ground. “You’re not supposed to talk, remember?”

  He couldn’t remember the last time the Monster had spoken through him. It’d been quite long ago. Every time it happened, it tended to unnerve him so greatly that the Monster hid itself away again.

  Despite feeling like he wanted to go lie down and not deal with the world, Rene looked back up at the two men.

  “Now, where were we?” he asked. He had a job to do.

  Chapter 33

  Sighing, Rene leaned his back against the warehouse wall.

  “They didn’t know much,” he muttered.

  They really didn’t.

  Closing his eyes, he didn’t know what to do.

  The information he’d gotten out of the two men before he’d finally killed them was fairly limited. Mostly because they themselves had been of fairly limited knowledge and intelligence.

  They’d been used as little more than warehouse laborers. Used to stack, store, and ship people in and out of the city.

  Rene hadn’t come through this facility; he’d been an “off-market” catch. His arrival hadn’t been part of the plan. Nor had Odelia’s. They’d ended up in a secondary facility, because the normal location was being cleaned and reset.

  That was the extent of their combined knowledge.

  It all made Rene uneasy. That was a lot of time and money invested into a kidnapping ring. If it was a simple operation with ordinary goals, he couldn’t imagine it being so complex as to require primary buildings, secondary buildings, and anything that needed to be “cleaned and reset.”

  Not to mention, the way they’d described him as being “off-market” had just worried him further. Specific lingo like that only came to be when a lot of people discussed such a subject.

  “Just how big is it, I wonder?” Rene mused aloud. “Clearly they have reach all the way to Laetus. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.

  “Though why target me? And why was I added in as a target after the fact rather than during? I wonder if father was doing something. I’ll have to ask him.”

  He won’t know. It’s just as likely we were targeted for our wealth alone. It’s no secret that father has become extremely successful with… well… our own contributions.

  Rene couldn’t really disagree with that. Even his limited knowledge of banking and investment had really started to pay off for his father.

  It didn’t hurt that Rene himself had a really good eye for people.

  “I think it’s time to head back,” Rene muttered. “Make sure Lori is fine.”

  And bed Alana.

  “I’m not going to—eh… well… maybe. Honestly, I wouldn’t say no if she offered at this point,” Rene grumbled. Holding up a hand, he looked at it critically. He was literally a man of blood right now. “Though I’m pretty sure I need a bath first.”

  We definitely made a bit of a mess.

  But we needed to do it despite the stress.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Rene muttered and got to his feet.

  Looking around, he realized the two corpses nearby didn’t really even look human anymore. They’d been taken apart in such a way that they were more like lumps of flesh and blood.

  Glancing at his alignment bar, Rene winced. It was more than half
red now.

  “Torture is definitely a bad thing for the alignment bar,” Rene said. “We’ll need to do some good deeds real soon, or the Watcher is going to skull-fuck us.”

  Rene left the mess exactly as it was. He would have to talk to Dephan about having someone come clean it up. He wasn’t going to leave it for the city or the guards to find, so he’d need to get someone who could be quiet about it.

  Making his way back home, he realized it was now the small hours of the night. Sunrise was perhaps only four hours off. Sleep wasn’t going to be something he got a lot of tonight.

  When he reached his home, he found some of Gideon’s men standing around it, as always. The night shift was made up of a different set of soldiers than the ones who worked during the day. They all had their own jobs, shifts and specialties.

  He runs a tight and proficient crew.

  Climbing up the side of his manse quietly, Rene reached the attic window and then levered it open. Irini kept it unlocked for her own comings and goings. It just happened to coincide with his own needs as well.

  Slipping inside the house, Rene closed the window behind him. He was now in what could be called Irini’s living room. Her bedroom was at the far end behind an impromptu wall of furniture with a door that was a table that she could slide around.

  It didn’t look like someone was living here though, it looked like an attic.

  That’d be a credit to the cat-girl.

  I do wish you’d let us play with her pearl.

  Rolling his eyes, Rene quietly snuck through Irini’s living space and lowered the trap door that led into the manse proper.

  And promptly ran into Alana, who was wearing what looked like a nightgown. It was quite thin, black, and flowed down from her shoulders. It only barely reached her knees.

  It wasn’t lingerie, nor was it sexual in any way—she just looked really good in it.

  Hello there.

  Pulling his mask off and stuffing it into his inventory, Rene broke his eyes away from the lovely, alluring figure that was Alana and closed the attic staircase.

  When he turned back to Alana, he found the Elven maiden standing there waiting. Her hands held in front of her.