280. MOVING FORWARD: TABITHA

Eventually, Wiremu pulled himself together. And Ruku and I went to sit back down.

Wiremu spoke, “I am sorry, this has obviously affected me more than I realised.”

“Don’t apologise, son,” the Colonel said, “You are home, even if it is only the three of us who know it.”

“I have so many questions.” Captain Lee said.

“None of which will be asked now,” The Colonel shut her off, “When you say you are sister and father, I assume adopted?”

I spoke, “Wiremu and I escaped the Empire together about 6-7 years ago. Ruku adopted us lost strays a couple of years later.”

“Lost strays my foot,” Ruku said. “They were taking over the criminal underworld and repelling an Imperial Invasion when we met. But we need to move forward from here. I will be taking over the liaison between the two groups, Colonel.” He looked to Captain Lee, “I assume you are the local spymaster or whatever you call it here?”

“Special Services Division. Yes, I am in charge.”

“Therefore, you are responsible for controlling information out of this city.”

“Wait a minute,” The Colonel interrupted, “Are you two OK with him just taking charge here?”

“Dealing with the military is what he does best,” I said.

Wiremu spoke up, “He is retired, but you had better be introduced properly. Meet Major Ruku of the Royal Marine Commandos, Aquatic Infiltration Division and Master Fisherman.”

“Do we also get to know your real name, young lady?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t trust you enough. Let me say this as well: if this leaks, regardless of why, you won’t ever see me coming, but I will come.”

“You guys need to take that seriously,” Captian Lee said, “I never saw her once, and she watched my every move in the “training exercise.”

What she doesn’t know is that it is easy to follow someone when you can sense through solid objects.

“When will you be ready for the next trial of the formation?” The Colonel asked.

“Tomorrow,” Wiremu said.

“Where would you like to do this?”

“If we are going to sell the decoy base, having a bunch of army turn up with a special delivery will help,” Wiremu said.

“I have been tasked with security, and I am serious about that,” The Colonel said. “How can we keep tight security?”

“That is going to come down to her,” I said, pointing at Captain Lee. “Controlling information in and out of the city, and you should know who the Imperial Spies are. Controlling their information sources and pipeline home is the key.”

“I can increase the watch on them,” she said.

I rolled my eyes, “You seriously don’t know about their contract with the Mad Mongrels, even after my display at our first meeting? Surely you didn’t leave the investigation to the City Patrollers?” I shook my head, “I have been here three weeks, and I worked it out.”

“A leadership battle is going on, which has stopped the investigation.”

Wiremu’s expression and eyes didn’t move, but I felt them boring into me anyway. Oh well, it had to come out sometime, “They were using the Free Traders to smuggle information into the empire. The Free Traders recently had a change in their leadership, so I will know if they try to get anything out to the north. If they do, it means you have failed at your job,” I said to Lee.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“How on earth did you do that?” Lee asked.

“It really wasn’t that difficult.” This time, Wiremu’s eyes really did bore into me, and I shut up.

The Colonel butted in, “Well, Captain, you obviously have some work to do.” He turned to Ruku, “I expect to be hearing from you, Major.

“Just Wai here.”

“Lieutenant Puriri here will be our liaison. She has my authorisation and will come and see me directly if there are issues.” he paused, then said, “On a personal note, I will be having a hangi this weekend at my local Marae, to which you are invited. Everybody in this room is invited. Let the lieutenant know the numbers. It is a private affair, just friends and family. I am from a small village, too, and while it won’t be the same, it will just be a relaxed social time.”

“Thank you, Colonel,” Ruku said, “We will let you know.”

Wiremu disabled the Granite and reengaged Veneer. Puriri removed the wood, and we stood to leave.

We were silent until we got back out to the quarry. Težka was sleeping by the gate. We went to Wiremus’ hideout, and he opened the stone for us to enter and then closed a thin layer back over.

“How are you really,” Ruku asked Wiremu.

“I will be fine. It did hit me harder than I thought. For many years, I thought I would never make it back home. Now I am here. Everything is familiar, the culture, the land, but it is different. I know I am different, but there is also nobody here. No family. No old friends. It is like it is empty. And I can’t even relax.”

“We don’t have to be so cautious of the Republic, I think,” I said.

“It is going to leak,” Ruku said.

“And we need to be gone before it does,” Wiremu said. “Speed is still our best defence. Keep ahead of them all.”

“That is going to come down to you and Mayakku sorting out this enchanting,” I said.

Wiremu nodded, “We haven’t been getting a lot of sleep. Matua is a help. Laura, not so much. We will have several variations to try, and we now know what to look for, so we should be able to stop before we damage anyone else.”

I decided to bring up the other issue, “What do you think Rodion’s game is?”

Ruku answered, “Probably the same as it has always been. We just made his mission harder by sending him away. The Kingdom wants us to succeed, so he is working toward that. I also think he is grateful to Wiremu for his bonds. He wouldn’t have his pack without you.”

“Any idea if Runa is with him or not?”

“Hard to say. It is more likely they stuck together than separating.” Ruku said.

“Should we take them back?”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Ruku said. “They can keep doing their thing from the Kirghiz embassy.”

“They know a lot of secrets,” Wiremu said.

“Less now,” Ruku replied. “There is always a limit on how long a secret will stay a secret anyway. It always comes to light eventually, in my experience.”

“Speaking of secrets coming to light, are you Queen of the Underworld yet, Tabitha?” Wiremu asked.

“No,” I said.

“You mean not yet?” Wiremu prodded.

“It is only three minor outfits so far. The first really was a small local crowd; everything was there for the taking, but they didn’t have the contacts for new Identities, so I had to approach the ones they paid protection to. However, they were a bad-tempered lot. It was Modrica and Umreti that sorted them out. The city official for the ID’s actually worked for the Free Traders, fudging their goods for tax and smuggling purposes. They threatened me with Imperial backlash If I upset them, so I figured they had imperial contacts, and here we are.”

“You forgot about the Mad Mongrels,” Wiremu said.

“I am just watching them at the moment. Maybe messing with them a little to see how they react. They really are a bunch of thugs trying to branch out into other areas. The Imperials are paying them for information and to be muscle. The information they are providing is dodgy at best, and it is easy to feed them false information as they don’t check. It really is best to leave them for now. We can crush them later.”

“So we have a legit trader, Essential Traders, a semi-legal transporter company, the Free Traders and two illegal gangs all in three weeks?”

“I merged the two gangs into Shadow Company. We also have the quarry we could start up again, a mill and potentially a grain farm to supply it, but they are all owned by the Essential Traders. Except this quarry. Tama Forrester owns this directly.”

“How did you manage all that in three weeks?”

“Seriously, this place is too easy.” My Racketeering Class has also risen two levels. I like this place.