Jack lounged in his chair in the office of the hole in the wall. He watched the ladies

put in pins on the map of the country, and the city. He frowned at the hubs that

appeared under Josie’s and Elaine’s hands.

How many would he have to visit in person? It was a big fantasy world out there.

He smiled.

“What are you smiling about,?” asked Josie.

“I can finally build a flying boat and travel the world like Captain Hook,” said Jack.

“That was Peter Pan,” said Josie.

“I like Hook better,” said Jack.

“Of course you would like the pirate better,” said Josie.

“Be that as it may,” said Elaine. “This is only what Lady Endwright dealt with from

her notes. There may be more strongholds that we don’t know about and can’t mark

right now.”

“And we don’t know where our hunter is either,” said Josie. “What does that leave

us?”

“You guys are looking at this the wrong way,” said Jack. He wished he had some tea.

“We don’t need to worry about the ones at the edge of the map yet. We need to worry

about the ones that are next door to us.”

“I agree,” said Josie. “What do you want to do about this?”

“I think we should look at Guin’s direct competitors,” said Jack. He nodded at the

decision that was forming in his mind. “Plus I need to give him a radio band so we

can talk to him. We definitely need to look at the alchemists and see if we can cripple

them.”

“People depend on the alchemists for help with sickness,” said Elaine. “We can’t

destroy all of them.”

“We don’t have to unless they are marked,” said Josie.

“Actually, we can deal with the alchemists the easiest,” said Jack. “Then we can move

on to the other things we need to do.”

“The Exchanges are definitely involved in this,” said Josie. “How do we handle that?”

“We start by making sure we can fund Jane, and then we talk to Guin about who he

wants gone more than most out of the people on our list, and we deal with the

crooked alchemists on our list,” said Jack. “The alchemists are probably the easiest

thing out of our list we can do.”

“And how are we going to do that?,” Josie said. She crossed her arms. She gave him

a look that said this better be good.

Jack grinned.

“Come on,” said Josie. “Out with it.”

“I want you to go down to the adventurers’ hall and hire anybody down there to hand

out fliers to every alchemist in town,” said Jack. “Maybe offer some reward. Elaine,

what would be a reward that would look good but not suspicious to an alchemist?”

“It depends on how well the alchemist is doing, how greedy that person is,” said

Elaine. “Some won’t leave their shops for anything.”

“All right,” said Jack. “Do either of you know how many alchemy places there are in

town?”

“We have a list of alchemists working for Montrose,” said Josie. “We don’t have to

deal with all of them.”

“Then one of you should hand out the fliers and see who you can get out of their

places,” said Jack. “It would probably look better if there were faces without the

Makeover, but you’re right. Someone might get hurt if something happens.”

“You didn’t think about it, did you?,” asked Josie.

“Not really,” said Jack.

Josie made a gesture that said why do I try?

“So we get these alchemists in one place,” said Josie. “Then what?”

“I have a talk with them,” said Jack. “Tell them to come down to the building we took

for the offer.”

“The one owned by the Exchange?,” asked Josie.

“Yep,” said Jack. “I’ll go down and talk to Guin. Anybody we take is going to need

his staff to execute the remains. We might as well let him know we’re shifting gears

now that we have this wealth of information.”

“The fact that Lady Endwright and Corle were involved bothers me,” said Josie.

She made the universal gesture for sexual intercourse with both hands.

“They’re dead, so the world is a better place,” said Jack. “Hopefully they didn’t have

kids.”

He stood and brushed off his clothes. He smiled.

“As soon as we have a target we can move on for Guin, then we can start rolling the

Hawk Ridge gang up,” said Jack. “It means that you guys are going to have to be

more careful. They might decide to come after us.”

“The only question is the girls and Elaine,” said Josie. “We can’t let anything happen

to them.”

“What do you think, Elaine?,” said Jack.

“I think as long as no one knows we’re connected to you, we’re fine,” said Elaine.

“Jane and her house might have more trouble. Word that you killed Corle will have

spread around by now. Someone will try to stop you that isn’t connected to the

Montrose. No one wants a war with Guin, but it does happen.”

“It is what it is,” said Jack. “Let’s go ahead. I’ll go talk to Guin, you guys round up

the alchemists. Send them down to that building. Then we can see what tomorrow

brings.”

“Practice for the girls, and more work for us,” said Josie. “I think Elaine and I will go

to the Exchange tomorrow to set up the fund for Jane. Then we can go by the house

and let her know she can write markers for the money.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Jack. He grinned.

“Don’t do the raid by yourself,” said Josie. “Elaine can’t marry a ghost.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“We’re still talking about that,” said Elaine. She smiled. “Go do your thing. We will

have a late dinner the way things are going.”

“Guin is probably at home,” said Jack. “I’ll start with him there. Once I give him a

phone, I’ll feel better about leaving him out there alone. I need to give Jane a phone

too. She should be able to talk to you about her problems.”

“So we’re good to go,” said Josie. “Don’t raid anyone that Guin gives you. I’m not

cleaning up the mess like I did at the Endwrights’.”

“I will stay within arm’s reach,” said Jack. “If we do clear out the city, where should

we go next?”

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “Elaine and I will talk about it.”

“All right,” said Jack. He left the office. He had most of his watch’s power in hand.

It should take a few minutes each to do what he said he would do.

If he happened to stumble across someone with the Makeover, Josie couldn’t say he

shouldn’t have done something.

He dropped down a few blocks away from the old Corle Manor. He walked up to the

gate and used Hydroman to get through. He walked up to the door as Majik, working

on the watch phone. He knocked on the door when he was done and had switched

back to normal.

Jane opened the door with a frown. She raised one eyebrow at him. He supposed the

other one didn’t work.

“It’s you again,” said Jane. “What manner of orphan are you leaving with me now?”

“I have to go talk to Guin, but we wanted to give you a way to call us if there was

some trouble here at the house,” said Jack. He held out the wristband with his

Deadpool symbol, and Josie’s lightning. “So you push either one of these two buttons

and you call Josie, or I. Then we come down to deal with things. Also Josie said she

is going to set up a fund so you can actually start buying things from your pay if you

need it. She, or Elaine, might be by on the way to the girls’ practice.”

“All right,” said Jane. “That will keep us from going through the money we have

here. Thank you.”

“It’s no trouble,” said Jack. “We’re going to be stirring up trouble, and we feel that

eventually someone is going to think about doing something to you to get revenge.

We want to be able to look out for you since you’re working for us.”

“All right,” said Jane. She strapped the band around her wrist. “Do you really think

there is going to be trouble?”

“Eventually,” said Jack. “They can’t let us run them out of the city. If they did that,

anyone could run them out of the city.”

“That would be so bad, wouldn’t it?,” said Jane.

“The guards wouldn’t like it,” said Jack. He grinned. “I have to go. Maybe once we

move to another city, you won’t have so much to worry about.”

“We’ll have a home for any that needs it,” said Jane. “That is my oath.”

“Thanks, Jane,” said Jack. He walked to the gate and slipped through. He needed to

make the last bracelet. He decided to make two. Linus should have one if he was

going to stick with his boss.

He walked toward Guin’s small manor a few miles away. The Coin was beyond that.

He idly wondered how many gambling halls Guin owned as he waited for his watch

to tick back to full power. He wondered how much of a status quo he and Josie had

already ripped up by solving their initial quests.

When would they get more jobs to do for the Society?

He stopped by the house. The guard on the gate pointed him to the Coin. He gave the

man a thanks. He started down to the gambling hall.

He switched to Majik long enough to make two radios. He walked up to the door. The

doorman nodded and let him in. The casino stood empty of customers at the moment.

Uniformed people rushed around checking the food and drink, inspecting the tables

and cards.

The manager glared at Jack before nodding at him. He pointed to the office over the

floor.

That’s an angry, old man. He still has nothing on Josie’s mom.

Jack went up the stairs. Kray opened the door for him. He nodded.

“Thanks, Kray,” said Jack.

“I’m not fooling with a werewolf,” said Kray.

“I’m more of a wizard,” said Jack.

“Not fooling with wizards either,” said Kray.

“That’s fair,” said Jack. He walked into the office.

Guin sat behind his desk. Linus stood by the window. They didn’t look happy to see

Jack. He grinned at them.

“What can I do for you?,” said Guin.

“I have presents for you both,” said Jack. He pulled the bands out of his pockets. “Put

these on, and I’ll show you how they work.”

Guin waited for Linus to put his on first. Then he put his on when his second didn’t

burst into flame. They looked at the gray bands with their two buttons.

“All right,” said Jack. “You push the buttons for whom you want to call. The

lightning is Josie. Let me show you how it works. If something bad happens, you can

call us and let us know. Distance will affect how much we can help you.”

He pressed the lightning bolt on his own band. A chime sounded.

“I’m here, Jack,” said Josie. “What do you want?”

“I’m showing Guin who he should call in an emergency,” said Jack. “Thanks for

taking the call.”

“We’re definitely not calling her unless we want someone dead,” said Linus.

“I heard that,” said Josie. “Don’t make me come down there.”

Linus blanched a little.

“It’s okay, Jo,” said Jack. “See you around.”

He cut the connection.

“And why do we need these?,” asked Guin.

“We grabbed up a Lady,” said Jack. “She gave us all the names of everyone she dealt

with and we wanted to know if you needed someone removed off the list. There’s

bound to be some trouble when we get started. We want your organization to remain

in place to help us until we’re done in the city.”

“You’re moving on?,” asked Guin.

“Eventually,” said Jack. “There’s only a finite number of resources the Montrose has

here. We want to roll all of it up, and then look at the next closest place. There’s

bound to be blowback.”

“I understand,” said Guin. “I’ll be interested in how you are going to deal with the

Exchange. They seem to be in the core of the enemy’s money making.”

“The immediate step on my mind is just to turn Josie loose on them and see what

happens,” said Jack. “If that happens, you might need to step in and keep the

Exchange open under your wing.”

“I know,” said Guin. “That will be a very public display that neither of us can afford.”

“It will attract the king’s attention,” said Linus. “If it does that, there will be a tax. A

very high tax.”

“All right,” said Jack. “We don’t want that to happen unless we can prove the

Exchange is behind the Montrose which is behind something happening to the King.”

“That’s asking for trouble,” said Linus. “The King doesn’t like anything that looks

like a rebellion.”

“We have an organization that might be tied to the continent’s bank, moving women

everywhere, and bribing the authorities,” said Jack. “Lady Endwright seemed ready

to just run this city. You fellas would have been on the street if that happened.”

“I think we could have held her off without your help,” said Guin. “But with the

threat abated, others will step into her place.”

Jack grinned. He had an idea that anyone stepping into her place was already on

Josie’s list. And they would go the same way as Lady Endwright soon enough.

“Josie wanted to know if you had someone giving you trouble that was part of the

Montrose,” said Jack. “It will give you a chance to expand into new turf.”

“There’s Hent,” said Guin. “He’s protected, and rarely leaves his estate. But he is

receiving wagons every few days.”

“No one wants to know what’s going on in his place?,” said Jack.

“We tried to get a couple of guys in there as workers,” said Linus. “They never

came back with a report.”

“I’ll go up there and look around,” said Jack. “Got directions?”

Linus wrote down a list of landmarks in his precise hand on a piece of paper from the

desk and handed it over. He looked out the window to the floor below.

“Be careful,” said Guin. “Hent is said to have guests wandering around his grounds.

I don’t know if any of them are with the Montrose, but something is going on,

and you will be hurt if you are caught.”

“I’m more worried about you guys than me,” said Jack. “Anything happens to me

and Josie loses her cool, you guys will have dead bodies everywhere. It’ll look like

an invasion of zombies wanting a piece of the action. Anyone who survives will have

to explain to the King how the city was lost when there was no threat around.”

“Stay alive because that would be best for everyone involved,” said Guin.

“It would really be the best for me,” said Jack. “I’ll look at this Hent. If he has the

same thing going on that Lady Endwright and Corle had, I doubt he will be around

for much longer.”

“Lady Endwright was running things for Montrose?,” said Linus.

“She poisoned her husband and heir,” said Jack. “I fixed the Lord and son. Josie

talked with Lady Endwright and got all this stuff printed out. I’ll talk with her about

getting you a copy of things.”

“Are there any names listed in the authorities?,” asked Guin. “I think we should

have them framed for the other guards to deal with them.”

“All right,” said Jack. “I’ll look into them.”

“Do not kill them,” said Linus. “We want them to be sent to prison to obstruct any

interest in either one of us.”

“How many can we put in jail before someone takes an interest?,” said Jack.

“Don’t know,” said Linus. “I think it will be better if nothing points to us.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Jack. “Remember, if you need help, just call. I will be

on the way.”

He left the office.