HS&S:WT short

[sabremeister]

Blimey, it's been a long time since I did one of these. Thought I'd better, though, to introduce them to the facebook people. It's worth mentioning that if I ever get enough of these, they're going in a book of their own.

Part4

Sergeant Terney heaved on the crowbar and pulled the lid off the last barrel. It, like the others was empty. "Shit," he muttered. "Oy! Kavnar! Your tip-off was bollocks!"



"Sorry, Sarge," the guardsman replied. "He's usually reliable."

"Yeah, yeah. Alright." He sighed. "Okay. Since it was your tip-off, you can break the news to the owner of this little lot."

"Right Sarge." The unfortunate guardsman trudged out to talk to the merchant who was fuming outside.

In anger, Terney kicked the empty barrel and turned to lean against its' neighbour. The whole City Guard had been on the trail of smuggled wine coming through the docks for some time now, and nothing had got them anywhere near stopping the flow, or finding those involved. The Heim division were doing their heads in, and running both the Day and Night watches ragged after leads, trails, clues and suspects, that always seemed to end up leading to nothing – and this one appeared to be even more unproductive than usual.

"Alright, you lot, start tidying this lot up. We'd better try and put it back as we found it. Though why anyone wants two score empty barrels is beyond me."

"How do we know they haven't had that wine in before?" asked a guard.

"Have a sniff of them," Terney gestured at the empty barrel he was leaning against. "None of these are more'n a few months old, and they've never had anything in them."

"There's something in this one," one of the guards called. "A note!"

"What?" Terney came over as quickly as he could. "Where?"

"There, wedged behind the top band."

Terney looked and saw the folded piece of paper, with the word HEIM scrawled on it. "Well, I'll be. The bastards are taunting us! They set this all up to waste our time, and they left a note to let us know it!" He reached in and roughly pulled it free. "Here's what I think of their bloody note!" He unfolded it to better tear it, and stopped. He goggled, and read the note again.

"Sarge?"

He swallowed, and hastily folded the note, tucked it into his armour. "This is … more important than we think," he managed. He shook himself and started barking orders. "Alright, get this lot cleared up! Felton, you're in charge. As soon as you're done, report back to the Guard House. I've got to take this to a Heim Captain right now, and you lot have got work to do, so move it!"

He left his men to it and hurried out. He went straight back to the Guard House as quickly as he could, and didn't stop to take any of his kit off before climbing the stairs. He knocked at the office door of the person he needed to see, and went in without waiting for an answer.

"Sergeant Terney! It's customary to wait for permission before-"

"He's contacted us."

There was a moment's silence. "You've had a message?"

Terney nodded. He pulled out the note and laid it on her desk."

"Yes, Captain. This was tucked inside one of the barrels me and my men took apart just now. You know, that tip-off?" The Captain nodded as she unfolded and read the note. "It must have been bloody hard to hide, tucked behind a band, inside a barrel. He must have been the source of the tip-off, he must've made us need to search it."

"I see. Did you read this note, Sergeant?"

"Yes." He shook his head. "But I don't understand it. I only know, it's him."

"And therefore, I needed to see it." She read the note aloud. "145 ALR, P, 1 ALN, 2, and a crude drawing of an owl. Signed Ander T and Lilith R"

"I know the names – my son, and that must be Lilith Rothsun – and the owl must mean 2 o'clock of the Night owl watch, but I don't know about the rest. It had 'Heim' written on the outside, so we wouldn't think it was rubbish and ignore it. I thought it was the smugglers, baiting us."

"Happily, it was not. It means, 145 Arten Logren Road, code P – which means success – one person to come alone at two in the morning."

"One person? I'll go!"

The Captain shook her head. "I'm sorry, Sergeant, you can't."

"But he's my son!"

"Yes, and because he's your son, I cannot allow you to go – you might make an emotional decision based on your relationship which could put the success of the mission in jeopardy, and I cannot stress just how important it is that this mission succeeds. It has be a Heim Officer that goes, anyway. I'm sorry."

"Yes, Captain."

"You can wait for him at Heim Headquarters, if you like. You'd have to arrive with me when I take this note there, and wait until I leave in the morning, in order to not let anyone in on your connection to this."

Sergeant Terney nodded. "I understand, Captain. When will you leave?"

"A few minutes after your men get back, which should be in a few minutes. You'll have to tell them something so as not to arouse their suspicions about why you're needed at Heim Headquarters."

"They know about the note."

She nodded. "Of course. Tell them I volunteered you for a sneak mission, and you need to go and be briefed."

"A sneak mission?"

"Yes – the note was bait left by the smugglers, and you've had enough of all these wild goose chases. So you're going to make noise in one place, while the Heim does things quietly in another, and you need to know how to pass on to us what you learn as quickly as you can. Understand?"

"A double-sneak. I understand. Don't worry, I'll be convincing."

"Good." The Captain smiled.


And, if you want to read the other parts (and the other short stories), here they are.

I will probably be posting another short story just before DWCon2010.