Nate woke up with a sudden pain in his nose. A colossal stomach ache, and some ringing ears.

"Whoa boy ease up."

Nate looked up to see two men looking at him, one was a dwarf. A literal dwarf. The ones you saw in those Tolkein books.

He wasn't the classical bearded one though. Numerous medical equipment and supplies were strapped to his belt and around him on numerous grey tables. He held a white-banded that he slowly wrapped around Nate's nose.

Carefully working to not disturb the wound. He had already reset Nate's nose. Having done it to him when he was still extremely unconscious.

Nate turned his eyes slightly to see Mantis, she was looking at him in annoyance. Nate considered this a bad sign. To be fair, it kinda was.

"I can't believe it! The moment you show up, a spy tail's you and we're forced to try to confront and kill them with a live audience. That fails and we lose two of our men, accidentally killing several officers. And starting an armed conflict between us and the government!" Mantis continued to shout and yell for minutes on end, calling him "cursed" and "incompetent".

She also used enough curse words to violate the Geneva Convention.

All in all, it took ten minutes for her to calm down, by when. A small robot with treads entered the room.

"I believe that's enough, Mantis," it said with a cold hard static, and mechanical voice. Nate was sure he could hear some disappointment from it. The robot then turned towards him, "and you Mr.Nate. I believe we have to have a nice chat before you leave. About what you can repay us for the disastrous event you caused for us."

Nate could barely hear any anger from the robot. But he could already feel himself sweating. His breathing was becoming quick. And all this was happening because a small robot was talking to him a bit hurtfully.

Nate of course had the benefit of knowing that even a small robot such as this could easily get him killed. It could order the shadows of every room in his home to come alive and murder him with a single robotic snap.

Knowledge was sometimes a blessing, but it was always a curse.

"Come, follow me," the bot said, and Nate hurried along. He was still very dizzy. And nearly fell flat on his face the moment he got up, thankfully the dwarf who revealed himself to Utgard. Kept him up and had him on his way after he helped Nate get some practice in his legs.

Nate walked with the bot in silence. They went through several hallways and a dozen rooms before the bot stopped. It then slowly turned around and said "four hundred silvers."

"Sorry what?" Nate asked.

"That's the amount I expect you to pay for the damage you caused today."

"But that's insane, I wasn't responsible for any of this. Okay maybe the spy following me but I never expected that to happen. I don't know why I'm even being targeted."

"True that you didn't know that you were being followed, but you had the chance to kill that spy and didn't. Which cost one of our men."

"Didn't Mantis say we lost two?" Nate asked.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I wouldn't really call that last one a man, more like a woman, and I doubt she's even human with what she's accomplished."

"If you say so. I doubt I have any real insight into any of these guys."

The bot laughed. "At least you know that Nate. Most only realize how deep a person can get till only when the bubble holding them together pops."

"You sound like you experienced something like that?" Nate asked.

"I did yes, but you'll never know if that's the truth or not."

"Why?" Nate asked.

"Cause I made all that up."

"Wait."

"Or did I?"

"What?"

"Exactly, what you learn about me can never be quantified. I have to keep myself hidden at all times. Lest I be taken out by a rival, ambitious member of the Cross, or by my many outer enemies."

"So you stay hidden?" Nate asked.

"No, I stay misinformed," the bot said as they walked through the hallways and rooms they had made their way through previously.

"What's the difference?" Nate asked as he looked at a particular room covered in cupid art.

"The difference is that those who stay hidden have small kernels of info leak up, these kernels are true and can't be taken down or out. As that just validates the truth, so the kernel just stays there, being a hairpin that eliminates hordes of people from Afganhan to England."

"And this strategy is supposed wrong?" Nate asked. he was starting to feel more and more confused, how could revealing any information, even if a lie. Be good?

"Yes, because any kernel of truth can be used to find you out, but my way fills the entire network with rumor after rumor after rumor. So when the truth does come out, it's buried by the theories that take them for granted. Or seen as something not worth pursuing."

"So that's how you succeded?" Nate asked.

"Yes, I became a master of this city by becoming a man and woman of many identities. Of a person that had a finger in every pie, along with a gun pointed at every cook and judge."

"Sounds like I'm just some food to you,' Nate joked as they made their way to about the room that Mantis was in. Only a minute or two left.

"Yes you are, all of you are. One who looks at people and does not see food starves themselves in this business. And for you, I have seen a moldy piece of bread."

The bot stopped. "Nate Vis, in your time here of a couple of hours you have helped start the beginning of an armed conflict, lied to me on many occasions. And let the spy who uncovered one of our safehouses live. You have left this organization bleeding. Of both rich blood and the crimson that colors it. You'd better make yourself look like a feast in some time. Or I do to you what I do to all spoiled food. I throw it out half rotting."

The bot walked hummed away, entering the room Mantis had last been in.

Nate stared as it went. His mind kicked back into motion a minute after it left, he quickly walked out of the warehouse with purpose. He needed to get to Bos.

Specifically, her military contacts. Тхе Мутилаторс, The Mutilators. The most feared Serbian division in the Great War. And the people who created her in the first place.

The Serbian contribution to the war effort for the Central Powers was astonishing. While once firmly opposed to Austro-Hungary. Several treaties and The Balkan Crisis quickly created strong ties between the countries. This and the deteriorating state of Russia after the Kommnuhists took control. Serbia became a firm Central supporter. This not only allowed the major powers of this alliance to have only two fronts. But gave additional manpower for the Centrals. The Serbians would spend most of the warfighting abroad, dealing with guerrilla fighters and other non-conventional Allie militaries. Which the Serbians were adept at crushing. Vietnam would be the only country Serbia couldn't crush. The Vietnamese would easily crush any force that was sent into their territory, this and the environment heavily dropping the effectiveness of Serbian technology. The Serbians would have to create Vat-born, bred, and born to handle the environments that Serbia couldn't. One of these groups founded was the Тхе Мутилаторс. Who would prove a match for Vietnamese forces during the conflict, when the war ended. Of the surviving members, over half would be sentenced to death for the crimes they did in Vietnam. With the rest serving at least one decade in prison.

-Serbia's Power, A Historical Accounting of Serbian Efforts during The Great War