Chapter 4: THREE: Finding a Job, Part One
It was the beginning of another day. Upon rising at 6:00 am on the dot, Edelweiss performed her morning rituals (which consisted of a quick shower, brushing her teeth, and a full hour of combing out all the tangles in her long hair) before getting started on breakfast. Today she decided on frying up two eggs, then serving them with toast, bacon and hash browns. She'd also have a nice tall glass of cold orange juice along with several slices of golden Machado apples.
Such a breakfast was a feast compared to the last few weeks when all she had eaten were granola bars and military rations. Said meal was only possible due to her brand new kitchen appliances, each recently bought through the power of aethernet commerce. She had bought a stove, refrigerator, and toaster to pad out her once empty kitchenette area.
"You know with what you eat, you'll eventually get fat when your metabolism slows down," complained Duke.
She sat down at her (brand new) kitchen table to devour her breakfast. Duke, who was visible at the moment, (minus the mount) was seated behind a large wooden desk that featured prominently in the living area, which also doubled as her office space. The desk was placed facing away from the large bay windows, with two chairs turned towards the table to be used by clients during meetings.
"Elf metabolism never slows down, Duke," Edelweiss said, relishing the taste of the fried eggs as she munched down.
"Tch, not the point," Duke sighed, leaning back against the leather armchair he was seated in. "You should eat more healthy things, kid. You already have enough bad habits like smoking, you don't need to add high cholesterol to the list."
"I'll think about it," Edelweiss said as she continued to chow down on some greasy bacon.
"Well, while you think about that, how about you think about your bank account too?" asked the spirit. "All this furniture, plus the car, and the fuel rods for the generator ain't cheap. All in all, you've eaten up most of your savings with all these recent purchases."
"Uh huh," the elf said absently while chewing on some toast.
"I'm serious here, Ed. You've only got around 400 bits to your name."
Edelweiss blinked. "Wow, that much? I thought I had less than 200, actually. Hmm… I can still afford that new VR game system that just came out."
Duke stared blankly at her. "You're kidding, right?"
"I'm kidding," Edelweiss smirked. "Don't worry, I'm planning on looking for some jobs today."
"Oh? How are you gonna do that? Nobody's answered your ads, your cop pal hasn't called with any leads, and we've had no walk-ins."
"Simple," the elf said. "We do it the old fashioned way."
*****
Edelweiss thought that there was no better feeling than driving through the busy streets in a brand new convertible. Well, technically the car she was driving wasn't new. It was new to her, but as for its age… well, the thing was probably older than she was. As soon as she saw it though she knew she had to buy it.
The car was classic, a 5A 168 Fairlady sports coup. Cherry red, two-seater, 5-speed manual transmission; the car was a work of art. Unfortunately, as one would expect from a vehicle more than a century old, it had its problems. Edelweiss had noted some rust on the undercarriage, as well as small dings and imperfections on the body. Also, some time in its life, the car had been converted to run on fuel rods instead of gasoline; thus the distinctive roar of an ignition engine was replaced with the soft whirrs of an electric one. It was probably for the best though since a truly original Fairlady would be beyond Edelweiss' means. Besides, gasoline was expensive as hell and very hard to procure. As it was, the car had cost twice what she had originally budgeted to spend on a used car. Duke had grumbled all the way home when she bought it.
The streets weren't too packed today as she drove through, keeping the speed under the limit but still enjoying the wind in her hair. Her destination was Pleasant Street, a well-known part of the Port District where most of the dock workers and sailors came in their off-times. The area had numerous points of interest for the hard-working men of the Port, most notably brothels, strip clubs, and pornography shops. But it was the dive bars that interested Edelweiss, the kind of sleazy joints where most of those down on their luck went to forget their problems. Such places were also great sources of news, as well as leads to anyone in need of a Freelancer.
Edelweiss parked her car a block away from a speakeasy called The Tap House. Word on the aethernet forums was that this was the place to be to find interesting things. To be frank, "interesting things" probably meant drugs, but Edelweiss was optimistic enough to convince herself that she'd find something.
"Could you wait in the car, this time?" she asked Duke as she exited the vehicle. "Fry anybody who touches it, okay?"
"Sure," the spirit replied in a bored tone.
The interior of the Tap House was about as drab as its outside. Boring wood walls, sticky hardwood flooring, with numerous tables and chairs arranged throughout the space. The thick aroma of cigar smoke hung in the air, as did the older scents of cheap alcohol and vomit. Edelweiss headed straight for the bar and gave the dwarf barkeep a friendly smile.
"A pint of ale, please," she told him as she sat down on one of the tall bar stools.
The dwarf grunted, then poured her a glass from the tap. He was tall for a dwarf, around 5'4" and had the usual unruly facial hair all dwarves seemed to possess. His was a dark red, the color of which matched both his thinning hair and bushy eyebrows.
"What's a posh girlie like you doin' in this neighborhood?" he asked while passing her the drink.
Edelweiss shrugged while taking a sip. Wow, that was really watered down. She took another gulp before replying, "Oh, you know. Times are tough nowadays. Just looking for some work."
The dwarf frowned. "Now look here, I won't have none of that going on in my place! If you want to look for customers, go stand at the street corners like yer supposed to!"
Edelweiss paused in her drinking before she gave the dwarf a vicious glare. "Do I look like a whore to you?"
"Whoa, easy now, lassie," the barkeep flinched. "No offense meant, I've just been getting a lot of low-lives comin' in here trying to sell their drugs or their bodies. My regulars don't need none of that. My apologies."
The elf nodded, then continued sipping her drink. "When I meant job, I meant something more on the up and up. Do you know anybody who might need a problem solved?"
"Problem solved? Are you a Freelancer?"
Edelweiss nodded.
"May I see your Guild card?"
The elf shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I am not affiliated with the Freelance Guild."
"But, I thought all Freelancers belonged to the guild," the dwarf said. "I don't wanna get in no trouble with the law here, girlie…"
Edelweiss sighed. "Look, despite what the Guild may want others to believe, you don't have to be a member of theirs to operate as a Freelancer. I assure you, independent contractors such as myself are very much legal."
"I see," said the dwarf, his tone implying that he was very skeptical.
The elf sighed again. "I'm also much cheaper."
She saw the barkeep's eyes light up upon hearing the magic words. "Ya know," he said, "I might just have a job for ya."
A few minutes later, Edelweiss exited the pub. Upon walking back to her car, she spotted a peculiar sight. Three bodies were laying on the sidewalk right next to the Fairlady. When she got closer she saw that the bodies belonged to three slightly singed teenagers who were unconscious.
After getting into the driver's seat and starting up the engine, she turned to Duke who was sitting in the passenger's seat with hat over eyes, pretending to be asleep.
"Any trouble?" she asked him.
"Nope," the spirit answered. "Nothin' I couldn't handle, anyway."
*****
The drive to their destination took less than ten minutes. Edelweiss parked next to a dingy apartment building, one which had numerous graffiti marks sprayed across its facade. Once again, she told Duke to stay in the car, and once again he gave her a snarky remark.
The interior of the apartment complex was not an improvement. There was trash lining all the hallways and the walls were vandalized with more graffiti. She took the stairs to the third floor, dodging a rat on the way up, whereupon she began to look for room 308.
"I need you to look for a regular of mine," the dwarf barkeep had told her. "Name's Borghi. Borghi Ironskull. He's usually here almost every night, drinkin a pint or two after his job at the docks. Nice guy, even if he sings when he's drunk. Problem is he stopped comin' by about two weeks ago. Have'na seen neither beard nor hair of him since then!"
Afterwards, the barkeep had given Edelweiss the address for the errant dwarf, which he had since Borghi kept a tab at the Tap House.
The door to 308 looked sturdy enough, and there was no garbage stacked up outside the apartment which already made it a hundred times better than the rest of the building. Edelweiss walked up to the door and knocked.
Nothing.
She knocked again.
Once more, only silence.
"I don't think he's home."
Edelweiss flinched. "Damn it, Duke! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"I wasn't sneakin. You just weren't payin' attention."
"Whatever," the elf rolled her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be with the car?"
"No need," Duke said. "A group of hoodlums tried to mess with the car, so I zapped 'em. A lotta folk saw it happen, and they're warning everybody in the neighborhood to keep away from it."
"Well, that's handy."
"Yup."
Edelweiss knocked once more. Again, there was no answer. She tried to turn the doorknob, but it was locked. She looked closer at the lock itself, noting that it was an electronic type with a keypad.
"Duke, can you hack this lock?"
"No sweat." After a few seconds, the keypad display turned green and the lock disengaged. "Easy peasy."
Edelweiss pushed the door open and peaked inside. The apartment was a studio with a small bathroom and tiny kitchenette area. The place was a mess, though the cause was less a sloppy tennant and more of what looked to be an massive interior tornado. Drawers had been strewn open, its contents dumped to the floor; closets had been ransacked and even the mattress on the bed had been tossed off.
"Well, someone was looking for something," said Duke.
"Looks like it," Edelweiss began to look around. "Seems as if this simple job isn't going to be as simple as I hoped it would be."
*****
The two spent about an hour going through Borghi Ironskull's apartment. Whoever had turned over the place had done a thorough job, as nothing of interest seemed to have been left. Still, there were plenty of clues to find even in the leftovers.
"This is a 40-inch Panavision holographic display," Edelweiss remarked as she examined the television. She looked around the floor next to it and found a small black device. "And this is a mini-touch Semiramis Grimoire, limited edition."
Duke had materialized and was pointing to the inside of a closet. "There's a lot of designer outfits in Mr. Ironskull's wardrobe as well. Now, where do you suppose a simple dockworker who lives in this squalid slumhole would get the cash to afford all these neat little toys?"
"Definitely not at his job, that's for sure," Edelweiss said while sorting through a stack of Borghi's pay stubs. According to the paperwork he worked for Larann Shipping Company and they paid him a measly eight bits per hour. "Looks like we'll need to pay Larann S.C. a visit."
As they exited the apartment, Edelweiss was relieved to see that her Fairlady was still in one piece. The thugs who Duke had electrocuted were all gone, most likely dragged away by their friends or woke up by themselves and then ran off. It was at times like these that she was glad to have an ex-demon on her payroll, even if she didn't actually pay him anything.
*****
Larann Shipping Company was a small shipping firm which operated out of the Dockyards. They had a fleet of about five ships and handled mostly medium-sized cargo. According to their online public manifests, the company mainly did business in Pfeil, Aegis, and the Free Republics.
"Hello there," greeted Edelweiss as she entered their Dockyard office.
"Uh, hello," the scrawny human clerk blurted out in greeting. He seemed surprised to see an elf walk into his place of business, though such a reaction was common for Edelweiss. "Can I help you, miss?"
"Yes, my name is Edelweiss and I am a Freelancer," she passed her business card to him, a simple white card with her name and information on it. "I was hired by the family members of one of your employees, a Mr. Borghdi Ironskull. He's disappeared and they're worried about him." It was a lie, but it sure sounded better than telling him that his barkeep wanted him found.
"O-oh?" the clerk seemed nervous upon hearing the name. "I… I never knew Borghi had any family."
Edelweiss smiled. "We all have families. Oh, can I have your name, please?"
For a moment, the human looked like he was about to refuse. "Er, I'm Ying Fletcher."
"I see," Edelweiss pulled out her Grimoire and began to jot down some notes. "And how long have you been working here, Mr. Fletcher?"
"Um, two years," the clerk replied. "W-why are you asking this exactly?"
"Just curious," the elf jotted down that information as well. "So, about Mr. Ironskull…"
"Yes! Yes, Borghi." The clerk seemed very happy to talk about something other than himself.
"When was the last time he came to work?"
"Oh, well, let me check. Um…" Fletcher typed something on his computer. "Ah. According to this, he hasn't been to work in about two weeks."
"I see. Does it say why?"
The clerk looked at the information. "No."
"Okay," Edelweiss then looked the clerk in the eye. "One more question, Mr. Fletcher. How long have you known that Mr. Ironskull was being paid to smuggle things into the country?"
Fletcher paled. "W-what? What are you talking about? No! I… no!"
"Easy, buddy. Calm down," she raised her hands as if in surrender. "Look, whatever little operation you've got going on here, I don't care. I'm not the police, Mr. Fletcher. I'm just a Freelancer. All I was hired to do was find Borghi Ironskull."
"R-really?" Fletcher asked, still trembling in terror.
"Really," Edelweiss nodded, then put her hands down. "Now why don't you tell me, from the top, what's going on and where I can find Ironskull."
"W-well, I don't know what happened to Borghi," Fletcher said. "I swear to the gods I don't. When he disappeared though, I knew it had something to do with the late night crew."
"Late night crew?"
"Yeah. For the last few months, the boss has this thing going, where a few of the guys stayed late after hours to deal with some extra cargo. It was supposed to be overtime pay, no big deal right? But then I noticed that the guys on the crew weren't getting overtime and that none of the hours they worked at night was on the books. I asked the boss about it and he got really mad, told me to forget about it or I was fired." Fletcher paused for a moment to lick his dry lips. "I really need this job, you see, so I kept quiet. Boss even passed me a few extra gold pieces, off the books, I'm guessing for keeping my mouth shut. But then it all changed two weeks ago. Borghi stopped coming to work, and the boss is acting all scared."
"Scared?" asked Edelweiss. "How?"
"Well, you know. Frazzled. Jumping at shadows. Always in the bad mood. It was in his eyes, something really spooked the hell out of him."
"I see," Edelweiss said. So, that night two weeks ago during the late night shift, something happened to Borghi while they were in the middle of smuggling whatever it was they smuggled. The boss got scared and was freaked out, so much so that the clerk noticed his behavior. "Your boss. Could I talk to him, please?"
The clerk frowned. "Well, that's gonna be a problem."
"Oh?" Edelweiss raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Fletcher said. "The boss hasn't come to work in three days."
Oh dear.
*****
Glossary of Terms
Freelancer: An individual not affiliated with any nation, company, or group that performs various duties for money. Not to be confused with mercenaries, since the latter's duties are more focused on combat matters. Freelancers have been known to do any job, from mundane to martial, from legal to illegal. In previous ages, they have been known as [adventurers].
Angels: Spirits designed to protect various systems and subsystems within the Aethernet. They can be found everywhere, from personal grimoires to military networks. Any system that requires security protection has an angel guarding it. Some angels are old, created during the foundation of the Aethernet, and thus have become very powerful. They protect the fabric of the Aethernet itself.
Demons: Spirits designed to attack and break into secured networks. Very malicious. See also [Fallen].
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone