It took a day and a half of driving once the container was put on a truck. I took the opportunity to practice balance and stretching poses while the container slightly shook as Mousethief hurtled down the highway.

That mouse was a driving menace no matter how many skills he had. It didn’t matter what he was driving, the break was just a suggestion, and the accelerator was required all the time expect when we reached our destination.

I also slowly flexed my claws. The coating was still weird, and I needed to stretch my digits to retract them more. It was a painful process, but it was something I could work on while we were traveling. My father spent the time stretching as well and getting ready.

Once we arrived it was night out. We were in an abandoned parking lot. I left the container, closing it up behind me as it rested on the back of the truck. I then set out into the dark village of Wheat Field. Mousethief went off to follow up on the lead and probably use his Skills.

My father trailed after me, but I ignored him. He was only here to observe and support. I needed to handle things myself. I was wearing a large black cloak, but I was still a large creature. The trick to finding criminals was wandering around in the night looking for any creature hiding in the darkness or sulking about.

“Hey there, just a couple credits for a fun night, you big boy,” a female mouse said with very little clothing on. What she did have on was very suggestive. My cloak was hiding my features, so it wasn’t surprising she thought I was a male creature of some kind. Cats weren’t common in these parts and it was dark.

“Just some information. Anyone selling some nip?” I asked and tossed a five credit piece over. She easily caught it and tucked it away in her clothing.

“Hmm, I might know some creatures who sell nip. But let’s see your face.” I didn’t show my hooded face, but held up a paw and extended my metal claws fully. The female mouse blanched. I tossed another five credit piece over to her, but she was too slow in catching it.

She quickly picked it up and then worriedly looked at me as I retracted my claws. “You want Splooge. Just two streets that way, old boarded up house. Knock and ask for him,” she replied.

“For your silence,” I tossed another five piece over which she caught and quickly began nodding. I made my way past the female mouse in the direction she had indicated. I soon found the boarded up house and the smell of drugs was strong in the area.

They must be getting high on their own supply. I went up to the door and knocked loudly. The door was opened and there was a rat holding a gun in his paw looking at me. I could see white patches all over his dark fur.

“What you want?” he asked. I didn’t hesitate. I moved forward, batting his paw with the gun to the side, and forcing the door open. He slammed back into the floor. I kicked the gun away and picked him up. He screamed in pain, as I left small divots in his flesh from my claws. I then back pawed the rat, and he went to the floor. I kicked the door closed behind me.

I heard movement as two more rats rushed towards the room. I leapt up and fully extended my claws, bracing myself in the corner of the room, digging into the plaster walls and ceiling. Two rats rushed into the room with guns drawn.

Leaping down, I slammed one into the ground, partially crushing his chest. His gun went flying from his paw. The other rat spun, but I was close enough that I blocked their arm and gave them a light slash across the face. The rat went to the ground screaming.

I quickly moved all the rats and tossed them against the wall, making sure they didn’t have any more guns. They were all bleeding and in pain looking at me worriedly. They had to be about my age, but they stank of drugs and various other smells.

“What do you want? We have money, drugs?” The first rat with splotchy fur asked.

“Information. You talk, you live. If you don’t have anything useful, well I don’t need you,” I replied and extended my claws. The one lightbulb in the room flickered, making the scene much more ominous. “I heard there is a cult around here, what do you know?”

They looked at each other nervously. “You speak,” I pointed at one rat.

“We don’t know anything. We want nothing to do with the Covenant Church,” the rat quickly replied. I quickly went over and slashed half his face apart. He fell to the ground screaming.

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“Did I ask for you to mention that church? I asked about cults in the area. You, tell me what you have heard?” I backed up and pointed at the rat with fur splotches.

“Just a rumor. We really don’t want to get involved.” I narrowed my eyes.

“What rumor?” I asked.

“Some ducks. Looking for creature blood. Lots of it. No one asks for that unless they are in a cult.”

“Which ducks?” I asked while flexing my bloody claws in front of the rat who gulped nervously.

“The Order of the Seven Quacks. But they aren’t from around here, only getting supplies. They set up a bit further in the wilderness than the other compounds. An old one that had been mostly abandoned. They loaded up and moved into the wilderness. The ducks have a couple of compounds on the other side of the lake, but no roads. They fly there, you see.”

I tried to recall everything in my classes about the Order of the Seven Quacks. There was nothing coming to mind. Probably some minor or new cult if anything. Which made sense since this was a mission given to a Journeymouse. There wouldn’t be High Apostates crawling of the woodwork and the Snake Ancestral Spirit ready to pounce.

“Who delivers the supplies?” I asked.

“We don’t know. Creature who supplies us our drugs asked, but we don’t know anything about them. But they are just acting as a middle creature. Not the real creature asking. Just that we stayed as far away from that as possible. Shit, we sell drugs, we don’t do heresy.” Drugs were only a minor slap on the wrist and rehab if you were caught abusing, maybe some hard labor if you were selling for a couple of years. But heresy meant your last couple of days would be unrelenting suffering.

I had a couple of options here and I noted my father and snuck in and was hiding in the shadows off to the side observing. Personally I didn’t care if they were selling nip. I would never try that trash, but it was still a crime and against the Covenant Church. Procedure was clear in this case and I wasn’t a Master Assassin where I could bend the rules a bit or ignore something.

“Name of your supplier and location,” I asked and rested a paw on the rats head. He wet himself as he felt my claws start to dig into him. His companion was close to death, bleeding out next to him.

“His name’s Hattrick. A fox. Out of town. But he is part of the Nine Tail Syndicate.” That name I had heard of. One of the major organized crime groups in the areas controlled by the Covenant Church. Most creatures knew them for their drugs and prostitution.

What I had learned and what most creatures didn’t know, was that they had an agreement with the Covenant Church. The Paladins didn’t go after them as long as they avoided heresy. But like any organization, they supplied goods to others. I could kill or capture the blood supplier, but I wouldn’t be allowed to go any higher up the food chain. That would be left to the local police and investigators, which wouldn’t get very far.

It was frustrating in a way, we couldn’t purge out all crime and corruption root and stem. But the Covenant Church had tried that in the past. It was impossible. If there was a demand, crime would find a way. Also, it opened up a huge vulnerability for other organizations from the Snakes and the Lizards to sink their teeth into the underbelly of our society.

That was where a deal was struck with the Nine Tail Syndicate. They weren’t pursued on a national level, but they also didn’t directly engage in heresy or help the other nations. The distributor was most likely lower to mid level management and could sell blood at a premium.

This meant that they were trying to get money to make a play up their command ladder. It wasn’t common knowledge, only the leaders knew about the deal. Which meant that the leaders wouldn’t look for retribution once everything was stamped with heresy and purged.

The rat was clearly trying to scare me with the name of the Nine Tail Syndicate, but that didn’t matter in the slightest. “When is he coming back here?” I asked.

“Tomorrow night.” I heard movement from outside. The front door was closed.

“Hey Splooge, need some of that nip,” a creature called out.

“Tell them to go away,” I threatened the rat.

“Business is closed for the night. Come back tomorrow,” Splooge called out.

“Then screw you too!” I could hear the creature outside leave.

“Now Hattrick. When is he coming by?” I asked.

“Late evening, just as it gets dark.” My next decision was already made. Any criminals with no more use during an investigation were to be put to death or turned over to the local authorities. The problem was that if I used my ID it would create a fuss. Assassins were meant to be covert and send a message.

It didn’t matter that these were street level punks, they were confirmed criminals and they had no backing. A more important creature, might have been turned over and I could justify the hassle then. But these rats were bad creatures as well.

All of this meant, I swiped out my paws. My claws digging through their throats. Killing them all. I pulled out a small rage and wiped down my claws and tossed it into the growing pool of blood. With that done, I checked outside, no creatures were there, and I left closing the door. My father followed after me, opening and closing the door as silent as ever.

With my initial investigation done, I would return to our container on the truck and wait for Mousethief to return. From there we would plan our next move. Getting to the other side of the lake and the compound.

Reaching the container, I had some dried fish after cleaning my claws off. While I could justify the death of those three rats by saying it was my job. In truth, I liked killing creatures. Each death would make me stronger and better.

I couldn’t afford to be squeamish, and I needed to start piling up the corpses to get out of debt with Mes. As I ate my dried fish and stretched, Mousethief came back into the container with his usual cheeky grin.