Saxon and Lya spent the next month researching the Chimera family. Traditionally, an investigation of this magnitude would take an amount of time they didn’t have.
Fortunately, Saxon and Lya weren’t conducting an investigation. Kenji had already done the investigating for them. They simply needed to verify the information in Kenji’s report.
Still, that proved to be no easy task. Unlike Kenji, Saxon, and Lya needed to acquire their information legally.
Moreover, it quickly became apparent that Backwater didn’t take too kindly to the FMPD. Waving around authority wouldn’t get Saxon and Lya the places they needed to be.
Instead, they opted to try a more grounded approach, and blend in with the everyday citizen. This proved much more effective.
Backwater was a tight-knit community. Everyone knew someone, who knew something. Word of mouth guided Saxon and Lya’s actions, ensuring they were always in the right place, at the right time.
Overtime Saxon and Lya confirmed the locations of the Chimera family’s surface-level hideouts, and hangouts mentioned in Kenji’s report. However, they were still having trouble finding a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Kenji’s report contained information on the Chimera family’s main den of operations. According to the report, underneath Backwater there was a series of interconnected tunnels with several vaults laced throughout--the images in the report confirmed this was the case.
Supposedly, the vaults were supposed to be a place for Fable’s elite to store their wealth, far away from any trying to take it. However, when the cost of transporting goods to Backwater proved too high, and Fable forsook any hope of Backwater being a high-class area, the tunnels were left abandoned.
The issue was that Saxon and Lya had little hope of finding evidence that the Chimera family was operating out of them. At least, that was the case until they went to check out another Chimera family hideout: the boxing bar, Artemis’ Arrow.
Before Saxon could knock on the door, the peephole slid open.
“Password,” the voice on the other side requested.
“Gilded in gold,” Saxon answered.
The clicking, and shifting, of several locks, were heard before the door opened up.
Both Saxon and Lya stepped inside. The interior reeked of blood and booze. Much of the furniture was lazily repaired.
The ringing of a bell caught Saxon’s ears, and he turned his head to see two men slugging it out in a boxing ring, just a couple of feet from the bar. Saxon took a seat at one of the tables, while Lya went to get drinks.
“Pigeons at the bar,” Lya informed Saxon, joining him at the table, drinks in hand.
Saxon glanced over his shoulder and spotted two people with pigeon tattoos on their shoulders. All members of the Chimera family had some tattoo of an animal on them.
According to Kenji’s report, the animal signified the person’s role in the family. A p pigeon tattoo denoted carriers of information--likely in reference to messenger pigeons.
“They aren’t avatars,” Lya remarked, noticing that the tattoos were in black and white, not color. ‘What’s the play?”
“Too many people around for them to be handing anything off,” Saxon said. “Too early for them to be here for fun.”
“You think it's a dead drop?” Lya asked.
“Likely,” Saxon replied.
The people with the pigeon tattoos stood up from the bar and started exiting the establishment.
“I’ll tail one, you do the other,” Saxon said, standing up from his chair.
Lya put her hand out to stop Saxon from getting up. “With Hermes’ superspeed I should be able to trail them both, even if they split up a little. If they left a dead drop, one of us needs to stick around, and make sure nobody comes in to pick it up.”
“Ok,” Saxon agreed, reluctantly. “Be safe, and don’t push yourself. If they split it up, it means they’ve likely already done their job, and are just returning home.”
Lya rolled her eyes, downed her drink, threw her hood up, and followed the two Chimera family members outside.
While Lya was gone, Saxon kept an eye out for anybody else with animal tattoos. He was suspicious of anybody who appeared as if they were looking for something, anybody who approached the bar, and anybody who left his line of sight.
However, despite Saxon’s patience, and paranoia, nobody stood out. Eventually, it got to a point where he decided to take the initiative. He got up and approached the bar.
“This seat taken?” Saxon asked the bartender, pointing to one of the seats the Chimera family members were sitting in.
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“Surprisingly, no,” the bartender answered.
“Surprisingly?” Saxon inquired. “Is this seat usually taken?”
“If only it was,” the bartender replied. “The people before you kept getting up and leaving. Had to tell at least 5 people the seat was taken, one of which was definitely about to swing on me.”
“Where were they going?” Saxon asked.
“The bathroom,” the bartender replied.
“You know that doesn’t sound like a bad idea, right about now,” Saxon remarked, putting his drink down.
“Not again,” the bartender muttered under their breath, as Saxon left for the bathrooms.
Fortunately, both bathrooms were all-gender, so Saxon had opportunities to investigate both. After a thorough search--and a lot of weird looks--Saxon came up empty for any dead drops.
However, as Saxon was checking the ceiling for loose tiles, he spotted an air vent cover that was hanging open. After making sure nobody was in the bathroom, Saxon pulled off the air vent cover and looked at what was on the other side.
The room smelled awful, and Saxon could hear people talking inside. Saxon could wait and hope they’d leave so that he could teleport in using Schrödinger's cat, but he’d draw too much attention standing on a toilet in a public bathroom, peering through an open-air vent.
Besides, even if he made it in, he’d have no idea what to look for. Saxon’s only hope of getting his hands on that dead drop was waiting for someone else to find it first, or sneaking in once the place was closed.
He put the air vent cover back on, and made his way out of the bathroom, back toward the bar.
“Your stomach alright?” the bartender asked. “Never seen anybody switch bathrooms before, and certainly not multiple times.”
“Bad night,” Saxon responded.
“It’s the middle of the day,” the bartender replied matter-of-factly.
“Listen, the bathrooms smelled awful," Saxon said. “Are you sure your ventilation is working?”
“We were having issues with it, but management said it was solved,” the bartender answered.
“The smell was off-putting, to say the least,” Saxon said. “Where was it coming from?”
“Probably the disposal,” the bartender replied. “We store any excess food and drink there. Once the weeks are over, somebody drives it all downtown around midnight to be disposed of.”
“So at least it’ll be gone by tonight,” Saxon remarked. “Maybe I’ll come back later today once it's gone.”
“Unfortunately, we close early today,” the bartender replied.
“When’s that?” Saxon asked.
“Around 8 pm,” the bartender answered.
“Ah, that’s a shame,” Saxon lamented. “Maybe it's for the best. I ought to be going soon anyway. How much do I owe you?”
“I’ll get your check,” the bartender said.
Saxon left a hefty tip for the bartender, and began making his way outside. As Saxon was exiting the establishment, he ran into Lya who had just returned from trailing the two Chimera family members.
“What’d you find?” Saxon asked.
“Nothing much,” Lya answered. “They stayed together for a while, but eventually broke off and went to their apartments.”
“Were they talking about anything?” Saxon inquired.
“Just small stuff,” Lya replied. “It seems they’d already done whatever they came here to do before we got here. What about you?”
“Well that helps to confirm some of my suspicions,” Saxon said. “Seems they slipped something through the bathroom vents, into the room where they stockpile all the excess food and drink.”
“So it was a dead drop,” Lya remarked.
“Likely,” Saxon affirmed. “Bartender said they close at 8 today, and are going to dispose of everything at midnight. According to Kenji’s report, this is one of the hangout areas not owned by the Chimera family, meaning it's unlikely one of the staff is the recipient.”
“So whoever is picking this package up is going to have to wait till closing hours to sneak in,” Lya remarked.
“Gives us a 4-hour window, where we need to be monitoring anybody who comes in or out,” Saxon said.
“On my way back I noticed a rooftop with a good view of the place,” Lya said. “Should be able to see all entrances, and exits to this place.”
“Alright let’s try and hit another spot on the report, then circle back here by 7,” Saxon suggested.
“Sounds like a plan,” Lya replied.
The remainder of the day went by fairly uneventfully. Once 7 pm rolled around, Saxon and Lya reconvened on the rooftop overlooking Artemis’ Arrow.
They waited until 8 pm, at which point the customers and staff began exiting. Several more uneventful hours flew by until at around 10 pm, when Lya spotted something.
Lya tapped Saxon on the shoulder and pointed toward the front door. “One man, and one woman, approaching the front entrance.”
“Any tattoos?” Saxon asked, squinting his eyes to try and see better in the low light.
“Too dark, and too far to make anything out,” Lya replied. “Still, worst comes to worst it's just the two of them.”
As the two figures approached the front door, the woman pulled out what appeared to be a lockpicking kit, and began fiddling with the door.
“Safe to say they don’t work here,” Saxon remarked. “Let’s get closer.”
Saxon and Lya descended from the rooftops and snuck toward the bar. They both did their best to act normal as they passed by the bar. Just as they passed by the door, the woman managed to unlock it, and make her way inside, followed shortly by her companion.
As the door was about to shut, Lya blitzed up to it with her enhanced speed and stuck her foot out to keep it from closing.
“Let’s make this quick,” Saxon replied, hurrying toward Lya. “They’re doing music classes at Torch, and I don’t wanna be late.”
“You take music classes?” Lya asked.
“Well they’re just starting,” Saxon said. “Figured I’d give it a try.”
“Well, who am I to keep you from embarrassing yourself?” Lya asked. “Alright, on the count of 3.”
In unison, Lya and Saxon began to count. “1, 2, 3!”