Jim's PoV

As Jim was pacing he started to define the scope of his mission. First of all, while threats had been used against Charlotte, no actual attack had happened. So far he was not willing to kill anyone. He hoped a day like that would never come.

But if this Mr. Montgomery wanted to play games with threats, he would answer back with threats of his own. If he remembered correctly, Mr. Montgomery was a bit on the old side, so if he happened to get bogged down in a couple issues the problem might work itself out naturally.

His rage began to ebb but Jim thought coldly that should Mr. Montgomery ever use real force against his friends, the restriction on lethality would be lifted. Anyone who had a hand in harming his people would be held liable. By him. After that final thought Jim looked at himself in the mirror.

Was he changing? Did power really corrupt? What would he have done if he had been a normal Joe Shmoe and someone tried to take what was his?

That thought made him laugh, he used to be comparatively powerless, however his computer skills meant that he could give someone a really bad time if they pissed him off enough. Jim grinned as he thought back to one of his first bosses.

The little crook thought that he could demand that everyone work overtime for free. At the time Jim was out of his reach for his abusive power, but that didn't help the rest who had depended on the man for their paychecks.

He remembered those few days working out that little piece of software fondly. His little wonder used the cameras to create a database for car license plates and then his software tracked the target till they punched into the time clock. Then it associated that car with that person. Once there were enough entries in the database to remove mistakes, his software started punching them in and out based on when they left in their cars.

Of course he added a few other things just for consistency. After all he didn't want someone to figure it out so he made some limits, like if the car stays there overnight the program would search for other pieces of data before it made the call.

Still it was a wonderful piece of software. After that it was the time of plenty for everyone. The whole place cheered when they saw their paychecks actually reflected what they worked instead of what that crook wanted it to say.

It was hilarious watching the following weeks while the crook tried to figure out what was going on. He watched the camera for the time clock like a hawk and quickly concluded that the people were not punching out themselves.

So he went over to accounting to try to tell them that but the whole office caught wind of it. A few people helpfully pointed out to the accountant that if they looked on the other video feeds that they could see that the punch in and outs reflected what they actually worked. Jim left not too long after that but he checked up on the software every now and then and they still haven't gotten rid of it.

It was really fortunate that the camera network for the parking lot was so extensive. Jim heard that people were making progress in facial recognition, but he didn't know where to start looking at the time so he could 'borrow' it. The way he rigged it up meant that people long after he left benefited from his little hack.

Looking back in the mirror he finally concluded that he was no saint and had never been one. That was only one of many examples of what happened when Jim got pissed off, but now he had a new toolkit to play with. He hoped that he would never need to take a life, but he always knew that rich people tended to get what they wanted.

Laws stopped mattering as much when you had hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. He knew eventually that time would come, but he could only hope it would be in the distant future. That time was not yet now, and for that he was grateful, but he needed to send a message to never mess with his people.

The pacing began once more and the final pieces of the puzzle took shape.

***

Scarlet's PoV

The conversation that Forrest and Davis were having about what to do next was on the boring side, so she skulked off to find a good place to read her loot from the former prisoners. As she was walking away she couldn't believe that Jim actually made her embarrassed!

Shooing Forrest to her like he was her lost lamb. The nerve! After a couple minutes she navigated to a little nook that was on top of the wall facing outside of the alcove.

Putting it out of her mind she unwrapped the bundle and started looking through its contents. It was dark out so she used the slight glow from one of her new daggers to read the pages. The first couple sheets were boring, just a list of names.

She noticed that most of them had little tic marks next to them. After scanning through the whole list, she saw that about a dozen names didn't have tick marks. Looks like the ticked off people were the dead ones. Not interesting, Scarlet tossed those pages out and saw them catch the wind and fly away.

The next page was a little more interesting. It was a letter directly from this Aaron guy that she really wanted to meet. Skimming through it, the gist of the letter basically said that she was the top priority for the mission.

She was surprised at how detailed her description was. Damn, they were offering a hell of a lot of money for her head! With that many zeros in the gil department she almost wanted to turn herself in for the money.

The secondary objective was quashing King's End. Seriously, that was second and not first? The instructions were clear. Should she escape King's End, they were to break off the attack and search for her. She realized that if she decided to run, she would have been dead. It was a rather sobering thought. Why was she such a high priority?

Then she looked at the final sheet of paper and saw it was a map. An oddly detailed map. The roads and marks around the city-state of Xalross were way too detailed. Not only that, but every fortification around Xalross had an approximate number of Soldiers as well as the routes for their contingency plans should the fortifications be overrun.

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No agent of Shila or Jacksberg would have those kinds of details. A foreign agent might have a few of those details, but not all of them. As far as she could tell the information was very accurate. They had been betrayed.

Scarlet wondered why such proof of their betrayal was out here in the middle of nowhere? Getting the original Merchant Circle seal had taken her out of the information loop for some time. Then she recalled her original instructions that led her into a trap. What if her being set up wasn't an isolated incident? Could it be that all the Knives of Xalross had been betrayed?

If that was true, then Xalross would receive no warning of an attack. It seemed that war was coming to Xalross. Unless there was carelessness beyond comprehension, the only explanation that such a detailed map was out in the middle of nowhere was that the knowledge didn't matter anymore. With a sinking feeling she realized she was too late. It had probably already been too late when she reached King's End.

Would it even make a difference if she moved out this instant? Scarlet would have to trust to her brothers and sisters and hope that they did a better job than she did. But someone, no, a group of people had betrayed them all.

Snorting, she had a sneaking suspicion. The worthless bureaucrats and politicians. Maybe it was she that failed her people. She should have been far more thorough when she was investigating them for corruption.

***

Davis' PoV

Davis and Forrest had just finished burying the middle age couple and said a few words over their graves. Davis looked to his friend and said "Things happen, don't let it eat you up."

Forrest shook his head and said "This was my plan."

Davis smiled and said "Plans only work so well, but once you meet the enemy they go in the gutter. You got unlucky, or lucky. I don't know."

Forrest said gloomily "I think I understand now. The common factor in there being no attacks seems to be Jim. What did you say about Maria with that massive spider monster?"

Davis thought about it for a second and said "The thing just stood in a corner away from Jim. Didn't attack. Think she said something about the creature shaking. I just dismissed it as a kid's story at the time."

Forrest nodded and said "Fear."

"Fear?"

Forrest said "Jim gives off a vibe, I think creatures can tell he's coming from a long way away."

Thinking about it, it did support the information they had so far. In three separate instances he was left alone when normal people would have been attacked. One through the caves, once during the first leg of the journey and once with Forrest's trip to the temple. Does that change anything for them now? Not really, they still had a mission even if they had lost their token of goodwill.

Finally Davis said "Well, at least we know now, but that does not change what we need to do. We still need to get to Jacksberg and figure out if they plan on attacking King's End."

Forrest nodded and then said "Best to get some sleep then. See you in the morning Davis."

"See you in the morning."

***

Officer Brady's PoV

Brady was just walking into the police station. He was still a bit drowsy, he hadn't had his morning dose of coffee yet. Not long after he found his partner who said "Hey rookie, you heard about the smoke bomb someone tossed at the station?"

Brady shook his head and asked "Seriously? Someone tossed a smoke bomb at the station? Did we catch the guy?"

His partner Max responded "Nope. We have some shots of the man but he was dressed in all black with something covering his face. So we have a height and build but that's it."

"How's the chief taking it?"

Laughing, Max said "Pissed as hell. Glad I wasn't on duty that night. From the rumor mill last night he came in himself while off duty to give everyone a tongue lashing. So steer clear, he hasn't left since then."

"Gotcha. What should we do now?"

"Do what we normally do. We shall protect the house of donuts and coffee from all criminal elements! Bring the car around would ya?"

"Sure thing!"

Coffee sounded great about now and with the boss on the warpath, it was a good idea to not be there. Stepping outside he scanned for their marked car, but couldn't find it where he parked it last night.

Confused, he started searching around the whole parking lot and still couldn't find the thing. Another minute later his partner walked out and saw him looking around and walked up to him.

"Trouble rook?"

Confused Brady said "The car isn't where I parked it last night, and I can't find it anywhere in the parking lot."

Max gave him a questioning eyebrow and they started to search for the car as a pair. And once again they came up short. They had scoured the entire parking lot twice. As one of the other cars was pulling out of a parking space his partner yelled over to the vehicle and it stopped. Then his partner asked "Hey buddy, can you do a quick search for other unit vehicles on the GPS tracker?"

"Sure thing, what's the ID number for it?"

Rattling off a number the man said a few seconds later, "Weird. It's all the way across town."

Sighing, his partner said "You mind taking us there?"

The officer driving laughed and pointed to the back seat.

So Officer Brady was now driving in the backseat of a police car. He covered his face. This was embarrassing as hell.

***

Mr. Montgomery's PoV

Mr. Montgomery's car pulled up to his private elevator and smiled. It was good being rich. The thing only had one floor connected to it, and it was his office. Hell, it was big enough to drive a car in there.

On a few days when the pain was really bad, he instructed his driver to do just that. Still the doses that he had taken still seemed to be suppressing his pain. He was almost fearing when the pain would come back. Did he really want to go back to the drowsy mess that he was before?

Mr. Montgomery got out of the back seat of his car while his driver held the door open. After the man drove off he pulled out the key for his elevator. Not long later he was making his way up to his office while enjoying the view.

The glass allowed him to appreciate the workings of his little empire as the elevator made its way up. Hundreds of people were all doing their part to make the corporation more wealthy.

For some reason many of his employees were pointing up towards him. That wasn't normal, but maybe they were just glad to see their boss? Shrugging it off he heard the ding and he exited on autopilot while thinking what needed to be done today.

And then he bumped into something. Blinking, he looked at the thing that was obstructing his way. A police car. Why was a police car in his office? Actually, a better question. How was a police car in his office?

There was a note sticking on the car. He took out his reading glasses and looked at the note. "Don't mess with kids. Don't mess with my people. Only warning."

Taking off his reading glasses he looked down to see the people who were pointing again and then it clicked. How had someone gotten past security and put a car in his personal office? Mr. Montgomery was confounded. How could someone do this to him? Their security was top notch.

Taking another look down he saw four police officers had just entered the building. He sighed. It was going to be an unproductive day.

As he saw the police officers use the normal elevator up, he wondered if he overplayed his hand. Did Charlotte or Jim find a new backer? Should he be the first to blink and accept their offer as is or should he double down?