Chapter 30 - New Business Acquaintances

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The morning light woke her.

Jett squinted as the rays speared through the windowpane, lashing across the bedclothes in smears of yellowy orange, the fiery orb of the sun rising between Wildhearth's buildings to wake the city. Blinking sleepily, she yawned and pulled a pawful of duvet close to her chest, snuggling deeper into the soft cocoon of warmth the bed had become. Just above her head, she could hear Karno's breathing.

They'd shifted in the night. She lay with her back to him, her body fitted up against his like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. One of his arms lay beneath her head like a pillow, the other draped across her waist. Jett exhaled slowly, trying to sort through how she felt. After a couple of minutes deliberating, the only thing she concluded with any certainty was that she'd slept better last night than she had in weeks. Everything else was background noise.

Shifting slightly, she tipped her head back, nuzzling the base of Karno's jaw gently, clasping the paw around her waist in hers. He stirred a few seconds later, his chest swelling against her back before he let out a yawn of his own.

"Morning," she said quietly.

"Oh...morning," he replied, sounding a little surprised. For a moment, they just lay there, listening to the waking city, but he didn't move away, gently gripping her paw and resting his head on top of hers. She could feel his heartbeat, each gentle rise and fall of his breath.

"How'd you sleep?" he asked eventually.

Jett smiled dreamily as she gazed out the window. "So well."

"Me too." Another pause. "Thanks for letting me use the bed."

"I think it worked out better for both of us."

Reluctantly she stretched, yawning again before gently unfolding herself from Karno's embrace and pushing up into a sitting position. She ran a paw through her dishevelled headfur, then looked down at him. He looked a little uncertain, his eyes questioning as though looking for some kind of clarification. Did any of it mean anything?

It meant something; she knew that much, but now was not the time to get into it.

"We'd better get a move on," she told him softly. "I needed that. I've just been...alone for a while, you know?"

He nodded, the edges of a smile fading from his mouth. "I understand."

"No, I don't mean—" she blurted quickly before realising she didn't know where in the Peace and Fire she was going with that sentence. She slid back down towards him, resting her head on the pillows and looking him in the eye, taking hold of his paw again. "I don't know what I mean. Let's just finish what we started. If we're still in one piece at the end of it, then we can come back to this conversation. Deal?"

"Deal." The smile came back quickly, and Jett felt a surge of relief flood through her. She couldn't sort out the mess of feeling in her head right now, not when they still had the wolfkin to deal with. Everything else had to take a back seat.

She touched her muzzle to his for a moment, then clambered out of bed. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she refocused, putting everything about Hera, the wolfkin, and the city to the forefront of her mind.

Time to start to put the pieces together.

***

"So this is the secret hideout, eh?" Karno chuckled, casting a dubious eye over the machine shop's exterior. They'd arrived in the Gjornharr district a little after noon-four, and the sun was beginning to edge back down behind Wildhearth's buildings, bathing them in an orangey half-light.

Jett shot him a withering glance. "Sorry, not Silk enough for you?"

"Oh, I dunno, just wasn't what I pictured for the grand headquarters of our little rebel band."

"That's a very generous description of what we are." She smirked and stepped forward, her companion falling in behind her as they approached Rapid's establishment. Her wary eyes flicked left and right, scanning the steady trail of citykin that flowed back and forth, keeping a close watch for any wolfkin in the crowds. Or any other kin who didn't look right, for that matter. She searched for any sign of that slightly glazed over, vacant stare that had marked out her pursuers at the raid on the warrenary.

She led Karno into the machine shop.

Two of Rapid's guards waited for them inside, a female and a male, both armed to the teeth with armbows and spiked cudgels. They jerked upright as the pair walked inside but relaxed—slightly—when they saw Jett. The male foxkin's gaze flicked to Karno, his lips drawing back in a snarl.

"He's with me," Jett said quickly. "He can help. Rapid's expecting us."

"I know he is," the guard snapped, his paw flexing on the grip of his armbow. "Though Peace knows why he hasn't just gutted you and turned the corpse over to the wolves."

Jett stiffened, ready to grab for her longclaw in an instant, and she felt Karno tense alongside her.

"That's enough, Brushki," the female hissed, nudging her comrade with an elbow. "Rapid's got reasons for whatever he does. Now take 'em through. I'll make sure nobody stuck to them on their way here."

Muttering a curse under his breath, Brushki motioned with a flick of his head. "Follow me."

With her stomach flipping nervously, Jett turned to Karno. "Come on."

Without another word, they fell into step behind the guard as he led him to the back rooms where Rapid plied his trade. She moved slowly, an even more uncomfortable silence descending as they made their way down the corridor. Light shone beneath the doorway at the end of the passage, but before they reached it, Karno grabbed her arm.

"Jett, you sure about this?" he whispered, pulling her to a halt. "This feels wrong."

"He'll be here," she assured him, gently peeling his grip away and holding onto his paw for a second. "Rapid's no fool. They're just keeping a low profile."

"Keep walking," Brushki growled over his shoulder. "You got one chance at this meeting, so this better be good." He stopped at the door, looking back at them expectantly. He gave his armbow a shake. "Just in case you really think I'm askin'."

Jett shot him a sour look and nudged Karno, indicating he should follow her. Squaring her shoulders, she walked forward, pointedly ignoring Brushki even as the guard shoved the door open and ushered them through.

The next room was a bland cube of nothing, maybe ten meters across, with metal walls and a single exit at the far end that hung open to reveal a shadowy corridor beyond. And in the room stood a ring of half a dozen grizzled foxkin guards in shabby coats and homemade armour, most of them aiming armbows at the pair. Jett froze, instinctively reaching back to grab Karno by the paw to halt him in his tracks. No-one moved. The guards just stood there, watching, waiting. Then a voice cut through the silence that filled her with both anger and relief at the same time.

"Well, by the burnin' Savage Fire," Rapid chuckled, shaking his head reprovingly as he stepped into the room from the other door. "And I was so damn sure the wolves had carved you into a skin rug."

"If it makes you feel better, it wasn't for lack of trying," she returned, giving him a withering look. "I'm afraid we're not off the hook so easily."

"More's the pity, eh?" He waved a paw at his guards. "Don't mind them—gotta be safe, eh? Ease down, lads. Little lady Jetts and I got a date."

"Is Bronco here?"

"What, the guard?" Rapid gave her an evil smirk. "Yeah, he's here. Got him under watch in the back. Think I'm gonna let that big slab have the run of the place so he can shut me down when this is all over? I don't think so, girl."

Jett bristled but swallowed down her retort. "Okay, can we go?"

"Hang your tail a second." The albino stepped forward, axe turning back and forth in his grip as he looked Karno up and down. "You didn't mention your friend was a wolf. I don't want a wolf in my house."

"He's the only reason I'm still alive right now." Jett bared her teeth in a snarl, stepping forward to put herself between them, her paw flashing to the longclaw in her belt. "So leave him be."

He narrowed his eyes, staring at her. She saw his grip tighten on the haft of the axe, but he stopped his advance, weighing up the likelihood that she would actually draw her weapon on him.

"He stays with you every step he takes around here," he said eventually. "And the pair of you will have a guard for your stay. No exceptions."

"By the Peace and Fire!" she swore in frustration. "We don't have time for this, Rapid! Can we please get this done before the enforcers come knocking down your front door?!"

He curled a lip, exposing a hooked canine, before gesturing to his guards. "Bring 'em."

The guards surrounded them in a loose horseshoe shape, corralling them to follow Rapid as he trudged from the room. They followed, being led away from where she thought the nerve centre of the operation was situated. Instead, they were ushered down a narrow, dimly lit passage that sloped downward, descending into some kind of basement sublevel beneath the main machine shop. A tingle of apprehension went up her spine, and she shifted closer to Karno as she walked. This was a side to Rapid's outfit she'd never seen before.

She wasn't sure she would like it.

The slope turned rather abruptly into a boxy flight of stairs that descended at least two levels before they reached an armoured door. She exchanged a worried glance with Karno as Rapid punched in a code to the accompanying keypad, disengaging the lock with a heavy clunk of moving mechanisms.

The room beyond the door looked like some kind of underground hangar, an arched ceiling stretching away from them for well over a hundred yards in the distance. For the size of it, the place seemed sparsely populated, mostly with foxkin but with a handful of felkin and otterkin sprinkled through the ranks. It looked like some kind of workshop, with tall vats bubbling along one wall and long conveyor belts grinding along the other. The workers hunkered in fenced-off cubicles, and the scent of unfamiliar chemicals assaulted her nostrils. A faint haze hung over the whole place. It reminded her unpleasantly of the perpetual smog in the Iolk district, and it was hot—sickeningly hot.

"Not so glamorous as upstairs," Rapid explained with a crooked grin. "But a better place to talk. Lots of noise down here—no words travelling more than they have to." He gestured them forward with the flick of a claw, and the group moved on, winding through the hot clatter of the hangar until they reached a sectioned-off office area tucked way towards the back right of the room.

In it, they found two more guards and Bronco.

The vulkin shot upright with a speed Jett wouldn't normally have associated with his massive frame. His uniform was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a grey bodywrap and a thick black kilt with his powerful calves and large paws protruding out beneath. A gear bag laid off to one side, bulging in various places.

Jett lunged forward before anyone could stop her and hugged him tight, relief swelling through her. His stolid, dependable presence made her feel much safer inside Rapid's den of thieves.

"Good to see you, too," Bronco said, though the unease was clear in his voice. "Didn't realise you and Rapid were such good friends." They stepped apart, and he gave her a knowing smile.

"Business acquaintances," she corrected, shooting Rapid a sidelong glance. "He treated you alright?"

"As well as someone like me can expect." His gaze flickered past her. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Karno. He's helped me a lot over the past week. We can trust him."

"I sure hope so." Bronco appraised the wolfkin with a suspicious eye but nonetheless stuck out a paw to shake. "Good to meet you."

"And you, big fella." Karno accepted the grip with a wry smile. "I'm just here to stop my crazy kinmates from wrecking the city."

"Easier said than done, I reckon."

"They're a determined bunch."

"Alright, alright," Rapid interrupted with a snap. "Didn't bring all you felons here for a meet'n'greet. We got work to do."

"You checked out the districts?" Jett asked, her mind quickly focusing again, the prospect of digging deeper into the wolfkin plot snaring her attention.

"Oh, we checked 'em out," he confirmed, face darkening. "Jetts, I think you got us dug into some real filth, no mistake." The edge in his voice made her instantly worried—Rapid wasn't easily unsettled.

"What did you find?"

"Couple of my folks tried to check out Belforra."

"Tried to?"

"No transit links in that we could find. They got close as they could walking thoroughfares, but there's some very unofficial guarding going on."

She gave him a curious look. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Place looks deserted for sure. But we kept an eye for the best of a day, and there were patrols on the outskirts—not like you'd see normally. Just little groups, most of them wolfkin, but some of them were groups of other kin. No uniforms neither, just dark clothes and shiny long armbows and black blades. They ain't there to turn people away politely, that's for damn sure. There's one train that comes in—could set your clock to it. Arrives in the middle of the night and ships out a couple hours later. Nothing else goes in and out of that place."

"Doesn't sound like they're doing a great job hiding it," Bronco grunted.

Rapid glared at him. "Maybe to you, y'big bucket o'bones. If we didn't already know where to look, we'd never have seen that train. Nobody knows about Belforra. Place doesn't even come up on newer maps of the city anymore—all the records have it as cleaned out, hundred percent."

"So we know someone is going to Belforra." Jett nodded to herself more than anyone else. "What about the other places?"

"Those districts you flagged for me? Checked three of them out myself. Those places are damn-right ghost towns now." He shook his head, teeth showing as his lips twisted with a snarl. "Wouldn't ever have known there used to be real communities there now. Places are all cordoned off—enforcers and watchguards walking the perimeters keeping anybody out."

"I wouldn't want to make any assumptions," Karno piped up, folding his arms and casting a pointed glance at Rapid. "But it strikes me that if you and your people wanted to go somewhere, you could do it, guards or no guards. Did you even try?"

"Didn't have to."

"What do you mean?"

Rapid held Karno's gaze for a moment, then nodded to one of his subordinates. The lean-framed foxkin disappeared from the room with a patter of pawfalls. Jett stood silently, her claws flexing with nervousness as she waited. But of the many things she'd expected to see when the guard returned, it hadn't been this.

The foxkin emerged back into the office and behind him walked a young female deerkin. She was a little taller than Jett, her face soft with a gently lined muzzle and big, dark eyes. Short, leaf-shaped ears pierced through a tangle of black headfur that swept down to the base of her neck in an unruly waterfall. Her upper body was swathed in a thick grey coat, with long legs encased in an ill-fitting longkilt above a pair of hoofed feet.

"Those relocations?" Rapid grated, jerking a claw at the deerkin. "Our friend here was part of one. Only she didn't want to be moved. Meet Gallant, a nose-to-tail doctor who got a good close look at what happens to the people getting 'relocated.'"


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