“Alexandretta! So happy that you could join us.”
Wells spread his arms wide, but Alex simply gave him a nod and a tired smile. “Glad I could make it, Chief.” She looked around. “Everyone made it through the Survey okay?”
He blinked and dropped his arms. “Yes. Everyone completed their missions and returned on time.” Wells gave her a significant look, and then motioned for her to join the others. She nodded again and headed over to where the other E rankers were sitting.
It wasn’t a very large place, where the Surveyors had chosen to celebrate. The location was just a restaurant of some kind, one with a few televisions set up around that showed the local basketball team competing against a college a few states away. Some of the Surveyors were watching those screens, but most were just eating and drinking, talking in low voices. Occasionally, some of them would burst into laughter over something they were saying to each other, though a look from one of the black uniforms tended to quiet them down.
Everyone was still in uniform, after all, no matter what rank they held. There were a few normal people scattered around the tables, but most of them looked like they were servers, and the ones who weren’t seemed… uncomfortable. Several of them were hurrying to finish up their food and drink, with a few heading for the door without waiting to close out their checks, just leaving money on the table.
None of the regular Red Blade Surveyors motioned for her to join them, but Sam and the others were already waiting. They waved her over, and she slid onto the bench with a grin. “Thanks for the spot. How has it been?”
Sam grinned at her. “Just a normal Survey. My Vanguard seemed to want to be extra punctual, though. Can’t imagine why.”
Tim snorted. “It’s pretty obvious that someone’s just worried about our team captain showing him up. Even the Red Blade folks know it. They just don’t want to be left out of the Surveys.”
“I think it’s a little more complicated than that.” Alex kept her voice low, still trying to phrase it as friendly. Sam blinked and sat back, his dark eyes suddenly intent on her. She nodded to him carefully. “I’m going to need to look into something in a little bit while the servers are still bringing the food. Can you guys cover for me?”
Tim and Brian looked at each other, but Sam just nodded. He jerked his head to the side, indicating a side hallway. “Bathrooms are that way. Back door is just past them. Plenty of folks step out that way. How long do you need?”
“Thirty minutes, maybe forty? I’m meeting someone just down the street.” She’d texted the address to Zach just a short while before. He’d suggested a small shop on the corner, one that had plenty of foot traffic. “I would have gone before, but then Chief Wells would have been on me for being late.”
Sam laughed, a low chuckle. “Gotcha. We’ll handle it. Just take care of yourself. The streets are surprisingly rough around here.”
Brian sighed. “I wondered how long it would take for it all to start going to pot. Tim, I should have made that bet with you.”
The Porter grunted. “Oh please, don’t blame me for being optimistic.”
They started to bicker as Alex pushed herself away from the table and headed for the bathroom. She caught sight of Wells looking at her, so she went into the woman’s bathroom for a few moments.
Then she was slipping down the hallway and out the back door, a rough wooden one that had seen better days. She was careful to shut it slowly, not wanting the sound to carry through to the restaurant. Wells might still catch her, but she didn’t want to make it easy for him.
She stepped out into an alleyway, one that ran down the back of the restaurant and the surrounding stores. There were signs of rubbish and neglect all over the place; a couple of other people were walking through, their eyes down and their steps quick. Alex copied them, walking as quickly and carefully as she could back to the corner.
Coming into the shop from the back would have been a little too suspicious, so she went out onto the sidewalk and made her way into the shop from the front. It was a simple convenience store, one that was meant to provide those last-minute snacks or other necessities for people out late at night. A cashier behind a wall of bulletproof glass gave her uniform a wide-eyed look and shrank back a bit behind the counter.
Alex ignored the cashier and went to the back, where the drinks were kept in their refrigerated cases. She opened one of the doors and pretended to look at the options.
“The hawk flies at midnight.”
Despite herself, she snorted. “Oh, are we spies now?” Alex looked over and saw Zach smiling at her. He opened his arms for a hug, and she gave him one, feeling a hint of warmth. It had taken a while for him to get a little more casual with her since they had stopped being coworkers, but he’d gotten there eventually.
He was still smiling at her when they separated. “Hey, you’re the one who wanted the secret meetup stuff. I’m just going along with the flow.” Then he glanced back at the front; the angle of the shelves was blocking the cashier’s view of the back of the store. “You weren’t followed, right? I really don’t want to get a reputation for being the type of person that makes trouble for Survey corps.”
“I should be fine.” She didn’t see anyone else in uniform, after all. “For now, at least. Did you find anything out?”
His expression grew serious. “Nothing solid. Just a lot of circumstantial things.” He took out a flash drive, something that made her do a double take. “I’ve got most of it on here. You should be able to plug it into your phone and run through it later. Do not put that anywhere near a Red Blade Securities computer. I might be a little paranoid, but I want to leave as little trace as possible.”
“Might as well give me a stack of paper.” She took the drive and stuck it into her pocket. He snorted.
“If I could, I might have. This is easier to hide, though.” Zach drew a little closer, making her heart flutter for a moment. “Have you heard of neo-crystal?”
Alex blinked. “Yeah. It’s some kind of drug, right? Like cocaine or meth, but way worse.”
“A lot worse, yeah.” Zach scrubbed a hand back through his hair. “The people who make it mix in ingredients from the portals. Everything from the crystals you take from the Grue to other stuff that Surveyors have brought back. The type of things that are typically earmarked for companies to use, not gangs.”
She grunted. Her mother had mentioned that type of thing. It was one of the things the Regulation Agency had been tasked with shutting down. Obviously, they hadn’t been keeping up with the responsibility. “I’m assuming that there’s been a lot of neo-crystal lately?”
Zach grimaced. “A lot, yeah.” He snuck a look back at the doors. “In fact, it’s been a major problem in the city lately. The cops keep trying to trace things, but nobody they pick up is talking at all. There’s been a few suggestions for Regulation to look into it, but they haven’t done anything.”
“They wouldn’t.” She shook her head. “Is there anything that can get traced back to Red Blade?”
“No.” Alex gave him a sharp look, and Zach shrugged. “All of the public figures for what Red Blade is taking from the portals show no deviations. Everything is delivered on time and accounted for. The portals aren’t being messed with, either. They’re all stable.”
“Could they be messing with the numbers? Covering it up with their connections?”
He hesitated and then shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t put it past them, but if they were shorting their clients, those people would notice. Especially the defense contractor folks.”
It was a good point. An unfortunately good point. She frowned. “So, where’s it coming from?”
Zach smiled. “Well, it turns out that this isn’t the first time that an epidemic of neo-crystal popped up.” He glanced at the front again. “There have been a few different times its happened. The earliest one that I tracked down happened at an Army base a long while ago. Back around the time a certain Surveyor was actually still in the Regulation Agency.”
Alex’s frown deepened. “An Army base? What does that have to do with—” She blinked as a possibility suggested itself. “No.”
“Oh, yeah.” Zach nodded. “A young Andrew Wells was a Surveyor who was working with the Army. He had a few friends in the military supply chain. You know, there’s a shocking amount of stuff that just tends to wander away from the quartermaster.”
“So it’s him.” It made sense. The only question was how he was concealing his supply. “Nobody else has put it together?”
“Not that I can tell.” He shook his head. “Then again, most people might not want to. There’s been an awful lot of gang violence around that neo-crystal. Whenever Wells shows up, one gang suddenly dominates the trade, and everyone else either works for them, or ends up in a box. Anyone asking too many questions might go that direction too.”
Alex took in a deep breath, and then let it out. “All right. Now we know.” She looked at him. “You’re sure you are safe? Nobody started looking into you?”
Zach grinned. “I know how to cover my tracks. Golden Swallow taught me that much, at the very least.” He tapped his temple. “I’ve got the evidence squirrelled away in a place they won’t find it, and I kept my searches buried under a lot of other stuff. If they try to track my activity, they’ll probably just think it was an idle records search.”
Then his grin faded. “You’re a different story, though. I already know that telling you to stay out of it isn’t going to work. Do you need backup?”
She already knew what backup he was going to suggest. Wells had to be at least a C rank if he had been a Surveyor long enough to put something like this conspiracy together. Alex hadn’t even managed to reach D rank yet, so Wells was going to be capable of squishing her without too much trouble, to say nothing of whatever other Surveyors he’d managed to involve. He’d proven that much to her already.
Of course, those same Surveyors might be a little more reluctant to stand up for Wells if the Crimson Blade decided to step out of her grave and onto Wells’ neck.
Alex sighed. “No. If it comes to that, then fine, but until it’s absolutely necessary…”
Zach nodded slowly. “You’re still worried about griefers.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yeah. I am.” She didn’t need to explain why. Her mother could handle Wells, sure, but she wouldn’t do nearly as well against the people who’d taken her eye and her arm. Alex would rather just serve out her contract than put her parents in danger. As much as it would hurt, it would be better to come back at Wells when they were closer to the same level and finish him then.
If there was anything her experiences in life had taught her, it was the value of patience. Justice was never quite the same without it.
Alex shook away the thoughts and grabbed Zach by the shoulder. She gave him a quick squeeze. “Thank you, Zach. It means a lot.”
“No problem.” He smiled. “Just give me the inside scoop when you burn the whole thing down, okay? My newfound reporting career could use the credit.”
She laughed and then pulled him in for another quick hug.
Then she was out of the store, waving empty hands at the still-nervous cashier. It hadn’t taken as long as she needed, but she already had a much better idea of what she was dealing with. Now she just needed to finish putting the pieces together and bring Wells down with it.
Alex left the store and walked back down towards the alley. She didn’t see any thugs in Red Blade uniforms looking for her, so she assumed that her absence had not been noticed. Since the meeting had been that much faster than she’d expected, hopefully Sam and the others had kept Wells’ attention away from her for long enough for her to return.
Unfortunately, it looked like someone else had noticed her departure. As she turned into the alley, she caught sight of a Red Blade uniform waiting at the back door to the restaurant. Alex paused mid-step, her breath freezing in her throat. Then she forced herself to keep moving forward. “Ed! What are you doing out here?”
Ed raised an eyebrow at her. “I could ask you the same question.” He levered himself up and away from the wall of the restaurant. “I went looking for you, but Sam said that you had gone to the restroom. I decided to get some fresh air for a bit.”
Then he looked her up and down. “Guess you thought something similar?”
Alex grinned, trying to keep her heartbeat from thundering out of control. “Yeah, kind of.”
The Porter nodded, though he still seemed a little too calm for Alex’s tastes. What was he thinking? Was he debating on what he should tell Wells? Would he mention it offhand and give the whole thing away?
At the very least, he didn’t seem to show any sign that he knew her thoughts were running away with her fears at the moment. He simply drew in a deep breath of the night air and let it out in a slow sigh. “I always miss this, you know. The chance to breathe without the magic from the portal getting into everything. I swear, I smell it in my clothes, whether or not I’ve been through the portal that day. Gives me the chance to get away from the feeling of it, filling up my life.”
Then he bowed his head a little and looked at her, his brown hair shading across his green eyes. “Do you ever feel like that? Like you just need to escape from all of it for a while?”
She tilted her head, watching him. With their relative Skills, she was fairly certain she could take him. Even with the experience advantage, it wasn’t like he could have reached D rank that day. If he’d gotten ahead of her by resetting or Chaining his Skills, then he’d actually be weaker than he had been during the sparring the day before.
If it came down to a fight, though, she’d already have lost. It wasn’t like she could just go back to the party covered in his blood, after all, and it wasn’t like she was on the other side of the portal. Even if Wells wasn’t interested, the regular police would be.
All of which meant she needed to talk him down without giving him a clue as to what she’d actually been doing.
“Sometimes, yeah.” Alex shrugged. “Being a superhero of some kind or another can’t be everything for us. We have to remember where we came from, after all.”
Ed grimaced. “I’d… rather not, actually.” He turned and glanced up the alley, towards where a busy street was filled with vehicles. “I was actually born here, not too far from the compound. It wasn’t the best place, but Red Blade Securities gave me a shot at getting out of it. A way to escape the lives my family and friends fell into.”
“I… see.” At least it explained some of his fanatical loyalty to the company, but it didn’t exactly make it seem like he’d help her if she came clean with him. Would he help take down Wells to protect the company? It seemed like a bad risk to take.
Then a question occurred to her, one that she’d never really bothered to ask herself. “Ed, do you like being a Surveyor?”
It seemed to catch him off guard. He blinked at her for a bit and then laughed. “You know what? I don’t know if I do.” Ed shook his head, still chuckling. “I mean, it’s hard to be upset about the powers, but the way it consumes your life, takes you out of the world—literally, I mean, as well as figuratively—”
Ed shook his head. “I guess I like more of what it helps me do, rather than what it means for me personally. What about you?”
Alex looked away for a moment. “Honestly, it’s everything I ever wanted. Ever since I was a little girl.” She grinned at him. “Either that, or a firefighter.”
He laughed again, this time with a hint of incredulity. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t know if you’d have the build. You know, without the powers.”
“True enough.” She grinned. It seemed like she had him off of whatever suspicions he might have had. “Still, I’ve always wanted to save people in one way or another. As long as being a Surveyor helps me do that, then I can tolerate some of the hard stuff.”
“I guess that’s what matters to me too, you know.” Ed grinned, scuffing the floor of the alley with one boot. “Forget all the training and the schedule and all. As long as I can make a difference, that’s what matters. After that, anything else you run across is just an incredible bonus.”
The half-shy smile he gave her made her breath catch, just for a moment. It passed as he looked away. “You really should stop getting in trouble, though. Wells isn’t a bad guy, but he needs to see what you can do for the company. That’ll be easier if you just go with the flow.”
Then he raised an eyebrow. “For example, maybe try actually going to the party instead of hiding out here?” He frowned. “Where did you even go, anyway? You weren’t trying to run laps or something, were you?”
Before she could respond, the back door abruptly flew open, and Sam came running out, his dark eyes wide. “Alex, did you get the—” He pulled up short when he saw Ed, and his face went entirely blank. “Oh, uh, hey Ed. Fancy meeting you here.”
Ed’s eyes went narrow. “Yeah. Fancy that.” He looked from Sam to Alex and back. “Were you looking for Alex?”
Sam winced, and Alex blinked as he started to put on the least convincing act of his life. “Well, yeah! I mean, no, not really, I just knew she was out here and…”
“You did? You told me she was in the bathroom.” Ed’s voice had grown a little lower and more serious. “Anything you want to confess?”
The Adept darted a look back and forth between them. Then he sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “Okay, okay. I asked her to go to the corner store and buy some, uh, drinks for us.”
“Drinks?” Ed blinked. He looked back and forth between them. “What, like alcohol?”
“Well, yeah.” Sam straightened up. “We both joined kinda young, sure, but it’s ridiculous! I can go fight monsters all day, but I can’t enjoy a drink like the older Surveyors? Tell me that makes sense.”
Ed snorted. He put a hand over his mouth as if to hide his laughter. “The waitress wouldn’t give it to you, huh?”
Sam’s expression grew clouded with frustration, and Alex hastily revised her opinion of the man’s acting skill. “She told me to wait a few years. Can you believe that?”
Still chuckling, Ed looked from Sam to Alex. “Well? Did your little adventure pan out?”
Alex sighed and shook her head. She hoped she looked as resigned as she felt relieved. “No. They had a sign up and everything, and the lady carded a guy just before me.”
Sam muttered something under his breath and shook his head. “Come on. This is ridiculous.”
“Not more ridiculous than a couple of Surveyors trying to score beer like they are still in high school.” Ed folded his arms over his chest. “Look, I won’t tell anyone about this, but you both need to shape up. The last thing I want is for Wells to have to rescue you from some stuck-up cop with a need to assert the city’s authority over the company. It won’t help get you on any Surveys, right?”
Alex grumbled an agreement along with Sam, and Ed nodded. “All right, get back in there—and next time, just ask for one of the other Surveyors to order for you. You might actually get a bit farther than this hare-brained scheme.”
She sighed theatrically and nodded. Sam followed suit, and then Ed led the way back into the restaurant. Alex paused long enough to give Sam a grateful look. He simply gave her a quick wink and then disappeared into the restaurant ahead of her.
It had been far too close a call, but at least Sam had been there to cover for her. Now all she had to do was take a look at the drive and figure out what her next move would be.
The party seemed to last forever, but it actually turned out to be somewhat fun once she had met with Zach. Seeing the others relaxing and chattering away helped to lessen her feelings of tension and isolation. Of course, Wells was still there, occasionally watching at her, which did not help her peace of mind, but the fact that he didn’t seem to have caught on to her suspicions at all yet made her feel a little more secure about her plans.
When they finally made it back to the barracks, it was late, but not nearly as bad as what she’d expected. Waking up the following morning was going to be painful, but not devastating. She’d be able to put in some more Skill training, and then start making her way through the files that Zach had given her. Maybe she’d even find some clue that he’d missed.
It was all going to work out fine.
As Alex had expected, waking up the next morning had been difficult. It took a bit of effort to drag herself out of bed and get ready for the training she had planned for the day, but she did it anyway. After all, the portal wouldn’t wait, and she intended to continue her training.
To her surprise, she didn’t find Ed waiting for her. Instead, it was just Sam, who looked about as tired as she felt. The Adept was lounging on the wall, his head tilted back against the battlement of the perimeter wall. When she paused, wondering if she should just leave him rest, and blinked as his dark eyes opened.
Sam smiled at her. “There you are. Ready to go for a jog?”
“Sure.” She couldn’t help frowning. “I’m surprised you made it here. You’re not tired from last night?”
“Oh, I definitely am.” Sam’s grin grew. “Ed might have shown up too, but he probably thinks that you’d be too tired to run today. He doesn’t quite know you the way I do.”
Alex snorted, and Sam got to his feet. A moment later they were loping off along the wall, at a pace that she would normally have called sedate. When they had made it about a third of the way through the first lap, she slowed long enough to speak quietly. “Thanks for last night.”
“Don’t worry about it. After all, I know you wouldn’t leave us in the dark about whatever you’re investigating, right?” Sam gave her an expectant look, and Alex winced. He continued in an even voice. “You aren’t the only one who’s noticed that things are off here, but it seems like you might be the only person who has a line on what’s going on. I’m betting that you were off getting a ‘hunch’ last night, right?”
She nodded, fighting the urge to chuckle at the reference to the information she’d received back when they were with Golden Swallow. Sam had always been good at figuring out that she had inside information about that situation; clearly, he was expecting something similar here.
He nodded in obvious satisfaction. “All right, then, spill. I doubt the company has the walls bugged, and this is probably our best chance until that Porter shows up, or something else goes completely off the rails again.” Then he smiled again. “And maybe this time, we can keep it from getting too bad. I’d… rather not have to break another Anchor Point this time, you know?”
“You and me both, Sam.” She shook her head, hesitating for a moment. There was always a question about who she could trust, but Sam had always been there for her. If he had been about to betray her, he’d already had plenty of chances. Besides, she’d need help with figuring out exactly what Wells was doing.
“All right, it’s like this…”
They had finished the first lap and started in on the second before she had run out of explanations. Sam had been quiet for most of the run, only occasionally grunting in reaction. His handful of questions had mostly been requests for her to repeat something, or for her to explain the logic that had led to her conclusions.
By the end, she was reasonably sure that she had explained everything to the Adept. He ran on in silence next to her for another stretch of the wall. Then he muttered something under his breath and shook his head. “Well. I didn’t expect to run into yet another crooked supervisor. Seriously, he’s some kind of drug lord?”
“At the very least, he’s helping supply the materials and maybe providing some of the muscle. Not sure if he does more than that.” She glanced down at the exercise yard as they ran past it, but she didn’t see anyone below. “We don’t know how he’s doing it, though, so keep your eyes open. Anything we can dig up would help.”
Sam nodded. “It’ll have to be airtight, if we want anyone in Regulation to come down on him for it. Something tells me he’s going to have plenty of connections to help a cover up if we don’t have real, solid proof.”
“I know.” Anything less than a sure case would get buried—and she’d probably be just as far underground a short while later. “We’ll need to be careful. If you want in on this, of course.”
The Adept snorted. “Oh please. I’m almost insulted you’d even ask.” Sam rolled his eyes and narrowly avoided rolling his ankle as he ran. “We’ll back you, Alex. The same way you backed us before.”
Then he glanced at the yard and grunted. “Just be sure. Like you said, we’ll need to be careful. Can’t risk anything else.”
Alex nodded, and they both started to run a little harder. Her thoughts were already spinning through what she needed to look for over the next few weeks. There had to be some way to track the materials that were coming back out of the portal. She probably only had another three days before the next Survey; she’d need to make sure she was on it, and that she could put some kind of plan into motion. It sounded like both an incredibly short time, and one that would last forever.