Chapter 81
Boland's agent was hiding in plain sight.
He stood up against the wall of a home across from two other rickety looking homes. He was not in the good part of the city. Normally one wouldn't stand up against a house unless you lived there but there was nothing else around to blend in with so the agent had been left with no choice.
His quarry had taken him on a circuitous route through the rougher section of K'tharkle, not that Boland's agent cared. The rougher section should be scared of the agent, not the other way around.
The woman he was following was a city employee. Somehow she had been pushing through approvals for title transfers for putt putt businesses across the city. The agent had found clear evidence that the sales for each business had been coerced – evidence that would even hold up in court.
Not that it would ever see the inside of a court.
No, Boland's agent held his own court and delivered his own justice. It tended to be quicker and fairer for everyone involved. Those found guilty often complained but fair didn't mean beneficial. Just fair. And it was only fair that those who had done wrong be punished.
Coercion was checked for during every property transfer performed in K'tharkle. A truth stone was held and each were asked if they were coerced in any way. Both parties to any property deal had to swear there was no coercion or the property title transfer was void. What the woman had been doing was skipping over that part and filing title transfers anyway.
The agent watched silently as the woman had stopped on the side of the street and waited. She had been standing in front of a row of dilapidated homes. The surrounding area was dark, dirty, and unwelcoming. There was nothing else there, no reason to be there unless one lived there.
The agent had spent days following possible people around until he had settled on this woman in particular. Boland's agent was positive she was meeting someone. Not just someone but whoever had been collecting putt putt fields.
Why putt putt fields? Boland's agent had wracked his brain for answers until he had gotten a look at the businesses financial statements. They were a load of crap. Had they been filed away in a library they would have had to put them in the fiction section. That was when the agent had realized someone was using the putt putt fields to launder money.
Most of the people who went to play putt-putt paid cash. There was no need for a bank draft for such a small amount of money. After the agent had staked out a few of the businesses for a few days each he had done some basic math and discovered that it was physically impossible for the fields to be doing enough business to match the amounts on the books.
So Boland had sent him out to find out who it was all for. Not that they really needed to know. Boland had already decided how he was going to proceed.
The woman turned as a man wearing a red coat and gray pants approached her with a frown. Boland's agent went still. He was invisible as long as he didn't move thanks to one of his abilities but 'not moving' included not breathing too fast or heavy. His Class Ability was a bit finicky and the agent had to be careful to control his breathing as well as the rest of his body so he would stay hidden.
The red coated man spoke first. “I need you to file another transfer.” The man had eyes like a shark, all black, and the woman shivered without meaning to as he looked her in the eyes.
The woman shook her head, “Its going to take some time. Our new manager has been all over us this week. Double checking everything. He goes on vacation next week though. I won't do it a day before then.”
The woman crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from the man with the red coat.
“Fine. Here,” he said as he handed her an envelope. “It's in there all signed already.”
“But I thought you hadn't spoken to the new owner yet? How could you have his signature already?” she asked before she remembered she wasn't supposed to be asking this man any questions.
The man stared at her for a long minute before he shook his head, “Not thrilled to have you asking so many questions. Hopefully that was just your curiosity. I'd hate to end our relationship. It's been so profitable for both of us.”
The woman shook her head quickly. “Sorry, I don't know what came over me.”
“No, no, please. I'll answer your question if you really want to know,” the man said graciously. The kinder his words were the more terrified the woman became.
“No, no. I do not want to know! No idea why I even asked. I'm sorry.” she insisted.
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“I'm glad to hear that. Don't ask again.” he said coldly. “The title transfer is all filled out. Don't file it until I tell you to next week, got it?”
The woman put the envelope in a hidden pocket and nodded.
The man peered at her searchingly, “Any more questions?”
The woman shook her head quickly, “No!”
“Good.” he said and then walked off without a goodbye. After he had turned a corner and gone out of sight her shoulders slumped as she let out a deep sigh. She stood trembling for a moment alone on the side of the road. Shaking herself she pulled her shoulders back and walked off in the opposite direction.
Boland's agent took a deep breath and his form became instantly visible. He had gotten what he needed. He had recognized the man as one of the local criminals who had a number of people working under him. The man wasn't very connected with anyone in the city but had managed to foster a relationship with the woman. Probably for the express purpose of blackmailing her to work for him Boland's agent thought.
The sky was pitch black due to the late hour and the agent strolled along the way the man had left, following him at a distance. The agent didn't need to follow him. He knew where the man lived. It was his job to know things like that.
It was almost fifteen minutes later that he reached the small building the man used as a residence. The agent muttered a phrase and his Class Ability allowed him to blend in to his surroundings and disappear from view. He watched the man's home carefully.
Most of the lights had been put out save for a second story bedroom. The agent watched as someone moved about in the room for a few minutes before the light went out.
The agent waited for two hours making sure there were no further movements and that the man had time to fall asleep. The agent's form was visible once again as he moved to cross the darkened street. There were no street lights in the poor section of K'tharkle and the agent was completely hidden from view, not that anyone was awake nearby to view him.
The agent climbed up to the second story and reached the window to the room next to the bedroom the man was sleeping in. He placed a hand over the window and muttered a phrase. With a click the window was unlocked and the agent let himself in to the bedroom, closing the window behind him to leave no trace of his passing.
The room he was in was unoccupied and appeared to be an office. That was perfect for his plan. He needed to find some legal papers and they'd probably be filed away in the office. He moved out in to the hallway and over to the bedroom next door.
The bedroom door was ajar and the agent slowly pushed it open. It didn't make a sound as the door swung open to reveal an average looking bedroom. There was a four drawer dresser with a three paneled mirror hanging above it. The dresser's surface was covered with toiletries. A large queen sized bed next to a small bedside table took up most of the space in the room.
The bed was mostly taken up by the man the agent had followed here. He was wearing his underwear and nothing else and was stretched out across the bed with one leg and one arm hanging over the side. The agent crept up next to the man and mumbled a phrase. The agent's forefinger began to glow and he tapped the sleeping man on the forehead.
Although the man did not give any sign that the forehead tap had done anything to him the agent immediately acted differently. Instead of creeping he stood up straight and tossed the sleeping man on to his belly. The agent tied the helpless man's arms behind him and tied his legs together. He dragged him off the bed and dragged him out towards the hallway.
Once that was done the agent searched the bed linen, under the mattress, and under the bed itself for any weapons. He found three. One dagger, one hand crossbow, and a single wand of indeterminate type. The agent put all of them in to a sack and set it aside. He dragged the unconscious man back to the bed and put him in it. He tied the man to the bed and took the sack holding the weapons in to the hallway and then in to the next door office.
He searched the desk, cabinets, and walls before he found a painting that hid a wall safe behind it. As if no one would have thought to check there. Silly place to hide a safe the agent thought to himself.
The agent took out a device and stuck it to the safe. It made numerous clicking sounds before the safe made a thunk sound and opened. Inside the agent found gold coins, gems, and folders of documents.
The agent wasn't trying to get rich that night. He was there for one reason and one reason only – retrieve and destroy all copies of titles for putt-putt fields that the man might have. There were five in total that the man had arranged to own through illegal maneuverings and Boland's agent riffled through the pile of documents until he had found all five. He placed them carefully in the sack. Those would be leaving with him to be destroyed.
The agent did not take anything else. The documents and folders were placed back in to the safe exactly as they had been found. The safe was closed and the dial returned to the same location it had been in before he opened it.
The agent went back in to the other room and placed the weapons back where he had found them. He untied the man's legs and checked his breathing. Still regular and deep. The agent always checked before untying a person's arms. Don't want to untie someone only to have to fight them a moment later.
The agent untied the man's arms and crept out of the room, closing the door to the exact position he had originally found it in.
He put everything back in to the position he had found it in as he left the house. The window was closed and he used another device to lock it from outside. There would be no evidence of his presence, nothing to even hint at what had just happened.
The agent searched the surrounding area with his eyes as he made sure the coast was clear. Finally satisfied he dropped down to the street below and left as he began to make sure he was not being followed. The agent never went from point a to point b. Instead he took a winding path that made it impossible to follow without the agent noticing.
No one followed him that night and he made it out unnoticed.
Another successful run, the agent thought as he allowed himself a tight lipped smile.