The Night Before

Heavy rain was falling over the city of Azbald. It’s been raining for five days straight, but tomorrow it will stop, it must stop, because it’s the seven hundredth birthday of this great city. Seven hundred years ago it was established, located on a plateau, sheltered on three sides by the Wilhelm mountains, with the great lake in front of it. First as a miner’s village, it grew quick, the mining was going well, the old wooden huts were replaced by brick buildings and after the discovery of concrete, it has taken over the architecture. Only a few brick buildings remain as vestiges of the past around the city, the rest is concrete, metal and glass. Huge windows on every public and private building, to let in as much light as possible during the day, and at night, well this city is also lovingly called The City that never Sleeps, gas lights are everywhere. Brothels, gambling houses, bars, restaurants, shops, even schools, everything is open twenty four seven, no time to sleep.

For the last weeks the citizens were preparing for the anniversary, a big day, with a big parade, and a huge concert in the main city square, hundreds of thousands will gather there tomorrow, vendors from all over the world will come to sell their goods, artists, musicians, magicians, travelers, everyone will come, so the local government was preparing. A couple police battalions were getting ready to ensure peace around the city, even a small regiment of King’s Angels was called upon to watch over the celebration. All of this was not uncommon, but this time is different, every one of them was on high alert.

Past couples of months were tainted with random murders around the city. First the city police tried to find any patterns in the killings, but there were none, a random street food vendor, a politician, some poor homeless guy, a Nomad too, they had nothing in common, the police tried so hard to bunch them all together but they just couldn’t find the glue to bind all those separate cases, twenty seven in total. The only thing in common was the way they died, a vial, holding a volatile organic compound was found on each crime scene, one of them didn’t break properly and it rolled neatly, close to a cardboard box, which somehow created a weak seal, so the compound didn’t react with the air around it and was still in liquid form. The deaths were horrific, the last moments of each victims life were filled with agony, extensive internal hemorrhaging, which after a couple minutes becomes external, ruptured blood vessels, blood spilled from the nose, mouth, ears and tear ducts and finally the liberation from pain through death.

No motive, no clues, no witnesses, the A.P.D. couldn’t do anything, so they asked, no, begged, for help, and their cries have attracted the attention of the best of the best, The Shadow Guard. They’ve sent their best operative for this one, because it had to be done, if the compound would be released during the festival, the fatality numbers would be astronomical, so they’ve sent her.

Faye, was walking at the edge of the city, in the old refinery district, closed for a long time, this district is kept alive as a memento of the past mining days. She was wearing the standard issue coat with a high collar to cover her face and a hood for her head, so you could only see her eyes and the bridge of her nose. Made out of a special hydrophobic fabric, the rain was not a problem, it was an asset, a helper sent from the heavens to muffle all the noise, to cover her footsteps and the swooshing of the fabric, and most of all the subtle noise of her metallic arms. Iron Hand was her nickname in the corps, one punch from those will send you flying through the air in no time, a nickname like this and the title of the best brawler in The Shadow Guard are not things that should be taken lightly. The rain was her friend tonight, if it would be a clear night, in this old part of the city, the quiet hissing of her metallic joints would be heard from afar, so Faye needed the rain, she needed that cover, she needed to be quiet and discreet tonight, she had only one chance based on only one lead from a trusted source an old friend.

He told her about this old refinery at the edge of the city, there was no sign that someone was gathering there, but he have heard from a friend over a beer, that a drunken veteran was talking about himself and his pals going there once in a while to do some “Work for the rebellion”.

The Rebellion was a theatrical way of calling an organized group of disgruntled veterans unhappy with the peace treaty of the last war, they caused some havoc here and there, trying to attract the Kings attention and maybe restart the war, some casualties here and there, but this was different, the required logistics and organization to produce large amounts of this chemical were too much to handle for The Rebellion, it seemed bigger than them, she knew it.

Faye was equipped well for tonight, her two daggers neatly tucked in underneath her coat and her favorite gun a .600 monster of a revolver, with 6 bullets in the cylinder, she was one of the few that could fire it easily because of her metal arms, a touch from this fiend would make a sizeable hole in every trouble maker that had the audacity to cross her. It was her last resort, using it tonight in a place where this volatile liquid is stored is a death sentence, though she was an expert marksman, the risk was too high, the daggers will be her primary tool tonight.

The path to the refinery was easy, just get off the bus at the Old Refinery District station and walk for 3 miles to the last one, except for one small thing, The Nomads have established a camp in the middle of the district about a month ago, they came for the anniversary, merchants and brilliant craftsmen by profession and fierce warriors by birth, hardened by the ruthless beasts of this world, by their never ending pilgrimage and by the elements themselves, it was impossible to best them in a fight. Once in the city they respected every single law and custom that the city had, but, they had a rule, no outsider can go inside their camps, years ago the policing forces of every nation had a clash with them and always lost, so an unwritten law was established, the camps are off limits, since the Nomads never caused any trouble and their temporary camps were always located on the outskirts of every city, town or village where they stopped, it was the best solution for everyone involved.

Faye was walking slowly past the old refineries, birthmarks of the Great City of Azbald, they were the reason it became what it is today, the most important city of the kingdom excluding the capital, and the most populated, that’s why her mission tonight was so important, an attack done here will have unprecedented effects on the whole kingdom, and who knows The Rebellion might get what they want and the flames of the war will be reignited.

She has reached the entrance to the Nomad camp now, Faye took a deep breath and passed by the first tents. She walked slowly, feeling the gaze of the residentsof each tent, the fires inside of each one of them illuminated the whole place, if nobody will react, it will be an easy passage, there was only one path through the middle, the tents were neatly situated on both sides of this central path, no clutter, no rubbish, nice and easy now. She was almost in the middle when she saw movement in the central tent, a moment later a large figure was standing before her. By the tattoos on the naked hands and torso, and by the imposing stature and look on his face she understood that this must be the leader of this Nomad group.

“You know where you are.” he said calmly and slowly.

“Yes, I do.” Faye answered in the same tone.

“Then you must know The Rule, don’t you?”

“Yes, I know it very well.”

“ My question then is simple, if you know where you are and you also know The Rule, what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

When the leader came out, she noticed movement in other tents too, now she was surrounded, escalating was a bad idea, she knew that she broke The Rule, but there was no other way around, if she would try to go by the edges of the camp, it would’ve taken hours and the path was dark and full of rubble from the old, degrading refineries, this was the quickest way.

“I’m only going through, I won’t stop, and I’m not here to cause trouble, this is the quickest way to my destination, and I have to get there quickly tonight.”

“Why should I care about this? One of you breaks The Rule and others will follow, we give you a finger and you bite the whole arm off. Why should we let YOU through, hmm?”

“My work tonight involves you as well.”

“How?”

“A member of your tribe died a few weeks ago, in a horrible fashion, am I right?”

“You better be careful with your next few words.” He said heavily.

“I’m going to a place where the deadly chemical was made, I’m going there to deal with the people behind its creation, I’m going there to stop them before they unleash it tomorrow during the festival and many more die in the same manner, so I need to get through, allow me to pass, please.”

Faye wasn’t begging, she was polite, and she had to get through without causing any trouble.

“You shall pass then. We suffered a terrible loss and the people who did it must pay for their brutality, only one thing, you can pass back through, but it doesn’t mean you or anyone else can do it again, am I clear?”

“Yes you are, The Rule stands as before, thank you.”

“No need, please be on your way.” He stepped away and the path was clear now, rows of people moved in tandem with the leader and Faye started walking.

“May I ask you of a small favor?” she said turning back.

“Let me hear it.”

“You said I can pass through here on my way back too, I believe I will be driven away in a car. Will you grant them passage through here? Since it’s the only way for them to get through, many of these cars will be necessary for transporting the deadly poison as well.”

“I promised a safe passage for you on the way back as well, by car or on your own feet, it does not matter, a promise is a promise and we will not stay in the way of those cars. Now go.”

“Thank you.”

Out of the camp now and in a few minutes of brisk walking she has reached the last refinery.

It seemed empty and quiet, but Faye noticed that the windows were barred from the inside and also there was a guard, barely visible on the chimney high above the roof. He will be her first target. The night was perfect for a stealthy approach, she climbed the side of the big building with ease, jumping from ledge to ledge until she was on the roof. A quick run and she got to the ladder that led up the chimney. The guard never heard her, her shoes had special soles on them that made walking and running imperceptible, now behind him, a headlock, barely any struggle, her metallic arms were to strong, broken neck. She quickly pulled out one of her coat belts, she always had two of them on, very practical things, tied the dead guard to the railings, so from bellow he seemed erect and on duty.

Now the difficult part, down the ladder, she found a big enough gap in the old roof to slip through and now she was inside. She jumped on an old metallic bridge, high up beneath the roof and now she had the whole place beneath her feet. One big space, the old machines and refinery tools were missing, in their place stood barrels, everywhere, probably filled with the compound, maybe explosives too and in the middle three large glass containers, about six feet tall and six feet wide, each one connected to one tube that slowly was pouring a white milky liquid inside, at the bottom of each one there were other tubes connected with a machine that was pouring the same liquid into barrels, all hermetically sealed.

She expected more people inside, the production wasn’t as large, but the amount of stuff they made was enough to kill tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.

There were six armed guards bellow and ten workers, even the workers had revolvers on them, all of them wearing protective suits and gas masks, so their vision was compromised, theywere sure that no one can find here ,after all no light or noise was getting out the building, plus nobody ever comes here anyway. Faye had the element of surprise.

Her mission was simple, keep as many alive as she could, for further questioning, if no one survives, she’ll get chewed out, but nothing more. The way the guards were positioned, she knew, as soon as she takes one out, everyone will see her, so no need to be stealthy anymore, but she couldn’t use her gun, any damage to the barrels or the containers meant a death sentence to her and who knows how many others.

Very quickly she got to the ground floor, when running down one guard suddenly turned back to check on something and saw her, the daggers were out, he didn’t even feel his head separating from his body. Her movements were quick and calculated, while the guards and the workers scrambled to understand what was going on, four of the guards were already down. Now she focused on the workers as well, everyone was reaching for their revolvers, no shot can be fired, last two guards with machine guns were on opposite sides of one of the containers, she slid on the ground kicking the feet of one of them, as he fell, a blade was pushed through his skull, by the time the other guard saw her, it was too late, she was a foot away, a quick slice and he’s done, the guards were down, now the workers, all of them between were somewhere between the glass containers with their revolvers ready. She jumped and pulled herself up on one of them, four beneath, a quick jump and she was between all of them, swift hits with the pommels on their skulls, maybe one or two will survive, the second container, same thing, once she was on the last one, only two workers remained. A shot, one of the poor bastards understood her plan and predicted her movements, he shot her in her left leg, right through the artery, this was bad. A second shot, but it hit the ceiling as she pressed her dagger into his heart with one hand, while grabbing the hand with the revolver and pointing it upwards towards the ceiling. The last one was on her left, she covered herself from the third shot with his friends body and threw one of her daggers into his mask, it hit him with the pommel, the force generated by her hands was enough to knock him out.

All done, now outside, she barged through the main entrance, got her flair gun and shot a red flair into the air, the police and medics will come soon, through the camp and to the refinery, now with the second belt that was still holding her coat she tried to stop the bleeding, but it was bad, she couldn’t focus, in those couple minutes she lost enough blood, Faye was dosing off, the last things she saw were the police and medical cars approaching, then she was out.

It was sunny today, the festival was in its full glory now, a celebration filled with colors, songs and food. Joy was the word of the day, people in traditional attire, travelers from all over the world, friends, families, lovers, all were gathered in the main square, none of them knew what happened last night and what could’ve happened today, and no one will ever know.

On the east side of the city, in “Queen Anna’s Memorial Hospital”, the best hospital in the kingdom, Faye was having a conversation with her ward neighbor, an elderly lady with a broken leg. She broke it by slipping on the stones of her garden path, they were discussing gardening, their favorite flowers and the dinner that they will get tonight, it should be good, it’s a special day, the doctors should give them something nice to celebrate, her name was Mira now, nobody should know her real name, except for the members of the corps. The old lady wouldn’t be able to guess what Mira does for a living, or that she saved countless lives yesterday, her hands were covered in bandages, so the metal won’t show, her leg was stitched and bandaged too, a couple days here and back to work, a new place, a new name, a new assignment, never known, never recognized, never applauded, that’s her life, Faye is a Shadow Guard after all.