Franz quickly overtook Klaus, coming to a halt outside the door. Reaching out, Franz blocked Klaus before he could reach for the door.

“I need you to stay close behind me and follow my lead. Until I say the danger is passed, you will do everything I tell you to. If you can’t do that, we leave now and your family will be left to fate. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I promise to do what you tell me to do.”

“Good,” Franze said, turning back to the door, hands drifting down to his weapons. “Give me a few seconds, then follow me in.”

Drawing his sword in a swift motion Klaus could barely even see, Franz swung hard and fast for the door. While Klaus thought it was likely that the entrance to the massage parlour was locked, the force of the blow by Franz’s sword made that a moot point. The door did not so much as fall apart as burst into splinters that went flying into the room beyond. As Franz took a step into the entryway, his other hand flung his long knife at a target Klaus could not see in the room beyond. Franz plunged into the room.

After two seconds, Franz had only asked for a few after all, Klaus stepped cautiously into the building. As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, the first thing he saw was the remains of the door lying next to a Blood Eagle on the floor. Garbed in the same kinds of clothes that Albrecht and the others had worn, the man was lying dead on the ground with Franz’s knife embedded in his forehead.

A scream came from Klaus’ right, a bit deeper into the building. Stepping over to the desk that stood by the back wall, Klaus saw Franz standing over another Blood Eagle, this one still very much alive. Franz had embedded his sword into the floor through both wrists of the criminal. Seeing Klaus enter behind him, Franz beckoned Klaus over.

“The scream probably alerted everyone else in the building, but he refuses to tell me anything I can understand.”

“Fick dich, ich werde dich töten!” the Blood Eagle snarled in pain.

While Klaus hadn’t mastered German, much like everyone else in the city he was at least conversational in it for the most part. “He said he is going to kill you.”

“Well, we can’t have that, then.” Franz twisted the blade that had the Blood Eagle pinned to the floor. It brought a high-pitched screech from the man, as the blade began grinding against the bones in his forearms.

More than a bit nauseous at what Franz was doing, Klaus kept himself from throwing up by focusing on the fact that the Blood Eagles would likely do so much worse to his own family if they did not succeed tonight.

“Wo ist dein Anführer? Sag es mir und er wird aufhören.” Klaus tried to reason with the man, promising an end to the pain if the Blood Eagle tells them where his leader is in the massage parlour.

“Fick dich!” the man swore, until Franz twisted his blade again, causing him to scream. After several long seconds, the Blood Eagle could not take the pain anymore and gasped, “Zimmer im erdgschoss! Eingang hinter Schrank!”

“Danke.” Klaus thanked him for telling them what they needed. “He says that there is a cabinet that concerns an entrance to a secret downstairs.”

“Good work.” Franz pulled his blade free, and in a sharp motion beheaded the Blood Eagle on the floor. So swift was the strike that he probably had no idea what happened.

“Why did you do that?” Klaus asked appalled, as Franz stepped away from the corpse to begin looking around for the cabinet. Nothing like that was in the room with them.

“Do what?” Franz asked mildly, eyes taking in the only two doors of the room.

“Kill him. He wasn’t a threat anymore.”

Franz eyes fixed on one of the doors longer than the other. Nodding to himself, he seemed to make up his mind as to which room he would be going into next. “Klaus, he was an enemy, and you never leave a live enemy behind you.”

“But he wasn’t a threat anymore.”

Franz turned back to face him. “Boy, an enemy is always a threat. Mercy is a luxury of the strong, and while I would likely survive an ambush, the chances of you coming out the other side in one piece is not something I’d be willing to risk. You should not risk it either when it comes to your enemies.”

“I don’t have any enemies.” Seeing the scar stretch across Franz’s face as the swordsman arched an eyebrow, Klaus continued, “Point. After tonight, then, I won’t have any enemies. ”

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“Trust me, Klaus.” Franz’s expression hardened before he turned back to the door he had chosen. “Where I come from, everyone has enemies. When others learn of you, Klaus, you will likely have more than you can imagine.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Franz did not respond, perhaps because he might have already said too much. Instead, he moved quickly to the door he had selected, hand pausing on the handle as he paused to listen. Jerking the door open, he then darted inside, sword in a ready position at his side.

Klaus waiting another few moments, but when no sound of violence came from the room, he stepped inside. Past the doorway, he realized that it was not actually a room, but a long hallway with labeled doors on either side. Likely the massage rooms. At the far end was a display cabinet full of documentation and certificates of inspection by the city. Knowing what he now knew, Klaus was sure they were fakes or the result of bribes to a city official. Just another example of how the city was sinking further into corruption and crime.

Franz had not hesitated upon entering the hallway. Moving with quick efficiency, he was checking each massage room for concealed enemies as he made his way to the end of the hall. All the rooms were empty, and Klaus came to stand next to him in front of the cabinet.

“A latch you think?”

“Likely,” Franz responded as he started moving his hands around the sides of the cabinet. “Should be easy to find, given how often they would need to open this during the day.”

A soft click came from the back as Franz’s fingers depressed the hidden latch. Not saying a word, Franz jerked his head to indicate Klaus should again stand back. While Klaus moved a few feet backward, Franz slowly pushed the cabinet aside, revealing steps that spiraled downwards. Just wide enough for one of them to go at a time.

“Wait here a little longer,” Franz directed. “If they heard what happened earlier, they are likely ready for me to come down the stairs. I’ll call up when you can join me.”

“If that is the case, wouldn’t it be better to have me help you?”

Franz pulled his gaze from the descending steps to look at Klaus. His scar flexed across his face as he gave Klaus a grin followed by a soft chuckle. “The day I need your help with something like this is the day I retire as an Imperial Hunter.”

Motioning for Klaus to wait, he darted down the stairs, again seeming to move faster than what should be possible. Within moments the sound of wood shattering came echoing up the stairwell. Brief yelling was followed by a scream that was quickly cut off by what sounded like a gunshot. Klaus was starting to get worried when he heard Franz call up that he could come down.

Rushing down the stairs as fast as was safe, Klaus again prepared himself for a scene of violence. The door, much as he expected, had burst inwards from the strength of Franz’s blow. Splinters, some as long as a foot or more, lay scattered around a room that looked like a bomb had gone off inside it. The bodies of two Blood Eagles lay just beyond the doorway. Lying in pieces, it looked like they had been slammed to the floor under the force of Franz’s sword blows. Past the remains of an impromptu wooden barricade of tables and chairs was another man dead against the wall, Franz’s long knife through his neck. A shotgun lay discarded nearby on the floor. So it had been a gunshot that Klaus had heard.

Franz himself was standing over one of the fattest men Klaus had ever seen. Sword extended in front of the man’s face, Franz had cowed him into silence by the time Klaus had come into the room. Based on the gaudy jewelry the fat man was wearing, really some people had no taste, this was likely the leader of this branch of the Blood Eagles. The man’s hands were buried in the pockets of his jacket as he fidgeted under Franz’s attention.

“I’m glad you understand the situation, Hans,” Franz was saying to the fat man, likely in response to what had been said before Klaus had come into the room. “As soon as we have what we came for, this can all be over. Now, answer his questions.”

“Where do you access your email?” Klaus asked, coming to stand over the gang leader.

“In…in the side room.” Hans nodded at a doorway deeper into the room, on the right, “A phone. Just…just there.”

As Franz shifted to look at the indicated door, the local leader of the Blood Eagles ripped his hands free from his pockets and, in one swift motion, flicked a pin at Franz’s face. Klaus barely paid attention to the flicking motion, as his eyes remained fixed on what else the fat man held.

A grenade.

Reacting faster than conscious thought should allow, Klaus darted down at the Blood Eagle leader, hands reaching out to take a vice-like grip around the grenade and the man’s fingers. Hissing in pain at Klaus’ grip, the man looked up in horror at the look Franz now had on his face.

“Well isn’t that interesting,” Franz said, though whether he was referencing the grenade or Klaus’ action was unclear. “May I assume that our friend here tried to use a weapon of some kind just now?”

“Grenade,” Klaus said, but when Franz looked confused, he continued. “If you hand me the pin he flicked at you, I can put it back in and disarm it.”

Bending down, Franz reached for the pin. It was strange he had never heard of what a grenade was. But, then again, there were a lot of strange things going on with the man.

Taking the pin from Franz, Klaus forced it back into the grenade, despite the leader of the Blood Eagle trying to jerk his hands out of his grip. Once set, Klaus forcefully took the grenade in hand, then pocketed it once he was sure the pin was properly locked in place.

“Can I ask you a question, Klaus?” Franz asked, completely ignoring the now begging man at his feet, except to bring his sword dangerously close to his ear. When Klaus nodded, Franz asked, “That grenade? It would have killed you had it gone off?”

“Most likely,” Klaus nodded. “It probably would have put you at risk as well.”

“Hmm.” Franz starred into Klaus’ face, eyes searching for something. Apparently finding what he sought, he nodded. Reaching into his coat with his free hand, Franz pulled out another blade, this one a dagger. Flipping it in his hand to grasp the blade, Franz held out the hilt for Klaus to take. “Here, take this. Point it at our friend while I check for his phone in the other room.”

Nodding, Klaus took the dagger and pointed it down at the Blood Eagle’s face. Inwardly, Klaus felt nauseous to be directly threatening the life of another person, but given who this man was, and what the Blood Eagles would likely do to his family, he kept the blade steady.