Chapter 37: Thirty-Seven
Paul Walker stopped the audio feed coming through his pad. He would have preferred a video, but those things were not as discrete. He knew one of the voices belonged to the rat, Mare—though even the other sounded quite familiar as well.
"Interesting," He thought, 'Very interesting.'
Before he could continue his pondering any further, his pad blinked with a name he had been waiting for. He tapped the screen.
"Motherfucker! I wake up to the sound of you—you, banging on my fucking doors?! Walker, what in the bloody hell are you doing ignoring the truce we've set?! Do you want to paint the streets red again?!"
The face across the screen looked like that of a 14 year-old boy. With long black hair, pale-brown skin, and golden eyes, the male raged with fury.
"Truce?" Paul laughed and relaxed into his chair a bit more.
He found it interesting how the man looked more youthful than the last time he saw him, but his mind moved to remember the words the Reaper had told him when she came for help in exchange for simply telling her where that boy, Lux, lived. He was already behind on payments for two months, had evaded him for a month, forced him to come knocking personally, and yet he still had the gall to get in trouble with a Reaper? It had its own sort of impressiveness to it.
He narrowed his eyes to the hovering screen before him.
"The City's expanding, you idiots," He mouthed, "That truce is all but a joke now."
And it wouldn't be long before the other two lords caught wind of it.
"Wha—what? Really?"
The boy looked shocked, disbelief was written across his young face, but he didn't care whether the other Slum Lords believed him or not, especially not this one.
"Come out of your shell, Brian, give up the district. Else, I will knock harder."
"Fuck you."
The video cut off. There was silence for a moment.
"Sir?" A voice piqued up behind him.
Paul Walker smiled.
"Phase 2 it is then."
The rat might have escaped his hands, but that didn't matter. Information was only information and he would have to do things a bit more old fashioned, that was fine; there was nothing that couldn't be solved in the slums with absolute might. All that would matter was how hard he needed to knock.
"Get me Chase, as well."
Though, that did not mean he was done with her and her helper.
— — —
The ride was momentarily silent. Rose thought about her payment, but her mind still jumped to an even more important oddity she had noticed previously.
"What information were they looking for?" She turned to the passenger seat of the dune-buggy. "It's not about entering the city, is it?"
"Oh god no," Mare chuckled, "The Slum Lords already know how to do that. Bunch of stuck-ups that keep it guarded—I stole the information from them in the first place. I simply thought that would pique your interest more than the real one—it always does."
The girl hadn't seen through her fake caution, but she had been quick on her feet even before then, choosing her words carefully to rile her up to save her. Smart, Rose thought.
"Then, what is the real one?"
The info-broker smiled.
"The location of Brian Chaz's base."
"Who?" Rose tilted her head.
"The Slum Lord that controls half of the 5th rim and the Red District. I've worked with him and his sister multiple times before for espionage and other similar things," Mare spoke matter-of-factly, then muttered, "He's the most peculiar of the bunch. . .rarely showing his face and hiding as if his life rests on a balance."
"Though. . .it makes sense." She shrugged. "He's a 'Lucky Lord' who, 6 years ago, just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
'Another Slum Lord. . .' Rose thought, realizing they had become a common tongue of hers as of late. 'Suppose Walker is looking for him?' The next pondering connected a lucid dot, but she still had to give voice to an idea that seemed clear to her.
"Why not just give it to them? You could even sell it, no?"
At that question, the info-broker turned to stare at her with a look that utterly questioned her intelligence.
Rose raised a brow. ". . .what?"
"I don't give nor sell customer information, that's bad for business!"
Mare seemed shocked, peeved, and even angered at the idea.
"Does it even matter if you lose one customer?"
"Very," The girl said, tersely, "Everyone else would know I betrayed the trust of business, either way, and that's that—I would lose plenty more than just one."
At that thought, Rose had to agree. She certainly would not feel right in trusting an info-broker, or spy, whichever occupation she decided to take, if she couldn't even trust the person in question with keeping things confidential between them.
She nodded.
"That is likely true."
"Indeed—take a left here."
Rose turned the vehicle into a street devoid of life. The shacks around there were boxed-houses at most. The dune-buggy moved less speedily under the light of the moon. There were few things to see at this time of day, the place was quiet and the only sound she could hear was that of her motor's wheels on asphalt. Soon, the car stopped in front of the dilapidated 'house' she was familiar with. Rose did not question the girl's choice of living quarters, thinking the info-broker quite frugal.
"Don't look at it like that." Mare pursed her lips, on the other hand, vacating the vehicle with a knowing expression. "My real house is underground, come on."
The girl made way with light steps. Oddly enough, Rose found herself running to catch up. She did not feel any change in mana, doubting the girl could even do Mana Channeling, and she could only attribute the speed to the girl's natural Dark-Elf body.
"I can't leave my mother below-ground for too long, you see, she needs some fresh air from time to time," The girl stated as soon as they stepped inside, justifying the prior situation Rose had found her in, "She should be asleep now."
They passed by the bed to the side and came upon the circular table they had once shared a conversation across. Mare knocked 6 times on the table's surface, following a rhythm, and a small squared portion of the top parted to reveal a blue screen.
"Passcode, fingerprint," Mare said as she quickly made her way through the security measures and finished with, "Back up."
Rose did as she was told.
The table shifted aside with the rest of the wooden floor. Before she knew it, there was a silver-iron platform Mare stepped onto.
"Come on, come on."
Rose stepped forward as well as the info-broker tapped her feet 4 times, following a different rhythm. The platform below them shook and slowly began to descend.
"This. . ." Rose spoke, her eyes wandering about the set up, "Looks expensive."
"The elevator and the place took about three hundred thousand lixels—at least, that's what father said."
The platform stopped and Mare stepped out into a room.
Rose blinked her emerald eyes, adjusting to a sudden burst of light, and when she finished, shock filled her mind.
The place was like a metal box. She spotted two doors way back, but in her direct surroundings; there was a board on the left wall, filled with parchments of papers that had been pinned there, on the right wall was a giant squared screen of blue, with two smaller ones to either side of it and a chair in front. And, smack dab in the middle was a circular table that blinked a large image of a map into the air.
"Is that. . .the slums?" Rose stared with widened eyes.
It most definitely was the map of the slums, but it looked so packed. It was littered with information, color coded with names, and every building seemed to have some sort of info attached to it—even the city of Alos at its center.
"It's a map I update regularly." Mare spread her arms, grinning in front of the table with bright, sunburn eyes as she looked to Rose.
"Welcome to my little Rat Cave."
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