Gunelf
EIGHT
The Steinadler Job, Part One
Wang Lei Beckett was bored. He had been standing guard over the package for over two hours. There was nothing but him and the package inside the highly secure railcar, on a train that was headed north through the city to its final destination in the Upper Burroughs. Although he wanted nothing better than to have a nap at one of the benches lining the interior of the railcar, doing such a thing while on a job would make him look bad. Not only that, but such a dereliction of duty would reflect badly on the Guild.
Ever since he had received the lance and shield pin, he was proud of what it represented. Wang Lei knew he was part of a world-wide organization thousands of hands strong. Everything he did, whether good or bad, would represent the Guild. And Wang Lei was driven to never tarnish the good name of the Freelance Guild, not if he could help it.
The sides of the car rumbled as the train sped ever onwards on its one lone track. The noise was even and came in intervals, almost like the heartbeat of a giant monster. It was a metronome made of several tons of steel, an orchestra composed of train parts and grease that was doing its best to lull him to sleep.
Wang Lei grumbled and rubbed at his face, the stubble of his unshaven chin scratching his palms. He began to pace back and forth, the motion of his legs forcing him to stay awake. This was an important job, so he wore his best suit. It was a decision he was seriously regretting since the starched collar of his powder blue shirt was too stiff and made his neck itch fiercely. He might have looked like a thousand gold, but with no one to notice but his silent cargo, dressing to the nines was pretty pointless. His partners for this job, the orc Grunder and dwarf Kordo, had taken to wearing practical and comfortable clothing. They were patrolling the rest of the train while he stayed locked in the secure car, most likely having a more interesting time than he was guarding some crate.
He eyed the cargo. It was a wooden crate that stood up a little bit past his waist, strapped down by nylon straps to the floor of the car. The seal of House Mittag, that of an eagle with its wings outstretched, had been stamped upon its side.
Wang Lei was about to start another set of pacing when his comm unit fired up, and he heard Kordo's voice through his earpiece.
"Lei, head's up. I think there's an intruder on the train," said the dwarf. "One of the external doors was open, the lock melted through."
"Copy that," he replied. "Grunder, we have a situation here. Grunder?"
There was no reply.
"Shit," Wang Lei muttered. He then said louder into his microphone, "Kordo, Grunder's non-responsive. Tell the crew to activate the emergency alerts and to eject this car immediately."
"That's the problem," said Kordo. "I called up the control station before I called you. No answer."
"Well, isn't that just fucking great?" The Freelancer sighed, then unholstered his arc lance, which had been strapped to his back. "Try to get to control, Kordo. I'll hold the fort here."
"Already way ahead of you, lad," his partner laughed. "I'll signal you when I'm at control."
"Good luck," Wang Lei said before all was silence on the line.
Hours seemed to pass. The rumbling of the railcar still resounded in his ears, though now the metronome of sound was not the soft lullaby of before. This time it sounded like the ticking of a massive clock, counting down to some inevitable event that Wang Lei knew he did not wish to witness.
The Freelancer checked both the forward and back entrances into the car; each was locked tight, with biometric systems ensuring that only those whose DNA matched an extremely short list of people could get inside. He himself wasn't even on that list, and he was stuck in the car until the end of the trip when someone would let him out, just as they let him inside at the start of the job. At the time he had thought such security to be ludicrous, but now that he was in his current situation he wasn't so sure.
"Lei, it's me," Kordo's voice almost made him jump when he heard it through his earpiece.
"The crew's dead," the dwarf continued speaking. "Control room's trashed. We can't call for help, or stop the train. Haven't seen Grunder, but I'm guessing he's the same as the crew."
"Understood," Wang Lei flipped a switch on his arc lance, and it powered on with a faint hum.
"I'll be making my way back to you," Kordo said. "Hopefully the two of us can hold off whoever's doin' this."
"Copy that. And good luck."
"You, too, lad."
After that, there was nothing for Wang Lei to hear but the rattling of the railcar as the train sped along, crewless and with a killer on board. He took a kneeling position by the cargo, hoping to use it as a shield. The client wouldn't like it, but at the moment staying alive took precedence over his professional reputation. Besides, whoever was out there was most likely trying to steal this thing; maybe he'd think twice about shooting at it.
"-Lei! I-" Kordo's voice suddenly flared up in his earpiece. "-the bastard! It's an elf! A gods damned elf! I'm gonna-" The line suddenly went dead.
"Kordo? Kordo!" Wang Lei cursed when there was no answer. He quickly aimed his arc lance at the door towards the front of the car. That was the direction Kordo had been coming from, so it was most likely that the assailant would try to get in from there. Thankfully, he'd have time on his side. It would take about an hour for them to try to cut through the solid steel door with an arc lance, and they couldn't use a demon on the lock since it was warded.
Unfortunately, according to Kordo, the lone assailant was an elf. Who knew what such a creature was capable of? A thick steel door might not be enough to hold one off.
Minutes passed and nothing happened. A drop of sweat began to drip down his brow as he waited, his heart thumping in his chest like a military drum. His muscles were tense, as was his mind. He prepared himself for what was to come.
That was why when the attack came, he failed to act immediately.
Wang Lei had been expecting the intruder to make an explosive entrance, either through magic or some other mundane means. He thought that the door would be blown off in a firey blast, or perhaps the metal would melt into a sizzling, molten puddle. He expected something grand and something loud, so when the locks of the door simply disengaged, causing the doorway to slide open, the Freelancer was taken by complete surprise.
Through the open door emerged a beautiful woman, though whether it was actually a woman or not Wang Lei couldn't tell. Even with the skin-tight, figure-hugging black gear they were wearing, it was all but impossible to tell their elf males apart from the females. He only managed a glimpse of long, dark blonde hair and piercing green eyes when the intruder attacked.
With a wave of the elf's hand, a stream of fire erupted from the air in front of them. Intense heat filled the compartment as flame raced towards Wang Lei. He quickly scrambled behind the cargo just before the fire could engulf him. The man cursed his luck; he had faced many mages with gas as their affinity before, but he had never fought an elf. Elves wove magic like some sixth sense; they didn't need clumsy grimoires in order to phase shift. And this one was able to combust thin air, which meant that he or she was an expert in the field.
Luckily for Wang Lei, it seemed that his guess about the elf wanting the cargo undamaged was right, since as soon as he ducked behind it, the flames at his back dissipated. He chose that moment to act, coming out of cover with his arc lance held high. Once he got a bead on his assailant, Wang Lei held down the trigger, sending pulse after pulse of plasma towards the elf.
The intruder crossed their hands in front of them right before the first plasma shot hit. The green, glowing cloud suddenly veered off to the right to impact with a sizzling splash at the far wall. The same happened to the next shot and the next, and Wang realized that the elf was controlling the air currents in the car to move each shot away from them.
Wang Lei quickly stopped shooting lest the elf thinks about sending one of the plasma blasts back at him. Instead, he drew a knife from his belt and threw it towards the elf, hoping that the solid chunk of sharpened steel would be too heavy for the elf to move with their magic. His assailant didn't even bother magic, as they simply twisted to the side to avoid the flying weapon.
Before Wang Lei could bring his arc lance up to fire again, he suddenly felt the air rush out of his lungs. He gasped and choked, fingers clawing at his throat, but he could find no air whatsoever around him. His insides burned, as did his tongue. He collapsed onto the metal floor of the car as his eyes began to bleed, still fighting desperately to take a breath.
Ignoring his plight, the elf sauntered over to the wooden box and with a flip of their hand wrenched the lid off with a solid gust of wind. They dug around in the packing foam until finally finding what they came for. The elf smiled grimly as they pulled out a heavy statue of an eagle composed purely of gold.
As he lay dying on the floor, asphyxiating in a room full of air, Wang Lei had one thought. Just before his world turned black, he asked himself, "All this shit for a stupid bird?"
*****
Drakhaven was a large city, and being a large city, one could often find services that didn't ask too many questions regarding why you wanted their services to begin with. Wolton Worliss provided such a service. The gnome alchemist was well known around the Docks District for his quality goods as well as his discreet manner. So when Edelweiss needed several pounds of smokeless gunpowder for her reloading needs, she knew just the alchemist to go to.
Worliss was a bit terse and taciturn for a gnome, but he certainly knew his stuff. Though he had never created a batch of gunpowder in his life, he claimed that he would be able to do so within the day. Edelweiss was a bit skeptical about the little man's claims but decided to hire him anyway. Finding a good alchemist was always a chore, and finding a good one that wouldn't report her to the law was even more difficult.
Thus she was pleasantly surprised when Worliss called her at the end of the day to tell her to come pick up her order. He adamantly assured her that the powder he concocted was perfection itself, and of course, for such quality, he demanded a higher price than what was agreed to. Edelweiss managed to talk him into lowering it a bit once she promised to return to him in the future whenever her current supply ran out. What she didn't tell him was that she planned to do her own testing of his powder herself, lest his quality be less than the perfection he claimed, with the resulting explosion losing her a gun. (Not to mention some fingers.)
She was just exiting the shop with the large, discreet bag in her arms when her Grimoire beeped loudly, signaling an incoming call.
"Answer," she said aloud, using a vocal command to answer the call since her hands were currently full.
"Hey, Edelweiss. This is Detective Kuro Ju Schmidt with the STU," spoke up the voice on the line, loud enough for her and only her to hear.
"Detective," Edelweiss said, her lips turning up in a smile. "So nice to hear from you. Are you calling to ask me out?"
"No," he replied bluntly. "I'm just calling to let you know that I may have a job for you if you're interested."
"Of course." The elf had just arrived at her car and began struggling to pull the keys out of her pocket.
"In just a few hours, House Mittag is gonna put up a reward for one of their little treasures that just got stolen from one of their private trains," the detective said. "It's a bit of a mess. All crew are dead, along with the three Freelancers hired to guard the train. Thankfully, the train's spirit hit the emergency brakes when it neared the last stop on the line, else we'd have an even bigger mess to deal with."
Edelweiss managed to get the passenger side door of the Fairlady open. She placed the heavy brown bag onto the seat. Pausing in thought for a moment, she then shrugged before reaching down and securing down the bag with the seatbelt. "What about the treasure that was stolen?"
"A statue of an eagle. Twelve inches tall, twenty-six pounds, and made of 18 karat gold. My sources tell me that it's called the Steinadler."
Edelweiss let out a whistle. Someone stole the Steinadler? It was House Mittag's symbol, a treasure that's been with them since the House's inception more than a thousand years ago. Well, that ruled out another Elven House ordering the robbery. Stealing another House's symbol was tantamount to declaring war.
"They're also putting a bounty on the thieves," Detective Schmidt said. "I probably don't have to tell you, but this is a crime against one of the High Houses. Deadly force is authorized."
"I don't take assassination jobs," Edelweiss told him as she entered the driver's seat. "Unless they don't leave me with a choice, I'm taking them all in. Alive."
"Roger that," Schmidt said. "Oh, and the Freelance Guild will probably post up a bounty on the assailants as well. Three of their own are dead, they're gonna want payback."
"I don't blame them." A turn of the key caused the engine to hum to life, and Edelweiss quickly sped down the empty street. "What station did you say the train was stopped?"
"I didn't."
"Okay. What station is the train stopped at?"
Detective Schmidt sighed. "Rastplatz Station. Why?"
*****
"Of course." Kuro Ju Schmidt frowned as he saw the familiar light blond hair near the police line. There were only a few curious onlookers about, so it was easy to identify the elf among them, even in the dwindling light of early evening.
"Detective," said one of the patrolmen. "She says she knows you."
"Hello!" Edelweiss waved to him with a grin.
The Detective was tempted, oh so tempted, to pretend that he didn't know her. But in the end, his pragmatism won out. The elf's instincts were pretty good; maybe she could help them out in investigating this mess. After plastering a frown on his face, he waved for the patrolman to let the Freelancer in.
Rastplatz Station was a small one. Compared to the main terminal over in the Central District, it was positively tiny, perhaps less than a quarter of the main terminal's size. Rasptplatz mostly handled cargo shipments coming in from the docks as well as mail packages and private shipments. There were no passenger trains stopping at the station, therego the usual flair put into decorating such an area was completely absent. The floors, walls, and ceiling were all bare concrete, the facility a dull gray series of buildings in a quiet part of the Docks District.
Usually, the place would be empty of all living beings. All functions of the station were completely automated, controlled by Rastplatz' main administrator spirit. Today though the area was filled with both uniformed and nonuniformed police who had descended on the quiet train station upon being notified by its spirit that an unscheduled train had just docked, one with numerous dead bodies in it. What's more is that said train was registered to the Old Touch corporation, the manufacturer of numerous consumer-level appliances and electronics as well as the main distributing arm of the Elven High House of Mittag. This made the situation even more dire.
"I'm guessing the Special Taskforce Unit is in charge of this investigation?" Edelweiss asked as Detective Schmidt escorted her towards the train platform.
"Yes, this falls within STU jurisdiction," the man replied.
The two of them entered the main building whereupon they climbed a set of stairs to get onto the train platform. The trains in Drakhaven ran on a monorail, which was vastly different from the trirail systems Edelweiss was used to back in Leronte. The monorail train in front of her was smooth and aerodynamic, its metal shell painted black with yellow trims running along the side. The Old Touch logo (an upside-down pyramid with the words "Old Touch" in front of it, printed in a wide font) was etched onto the side of the train cars. Alongside the logo was a stamp of a golden eagle with its wings outstretched, the seal of House Mittag.
"This is one of House Mittag's personal vehicles," Edelweiss said. "It wouldn't have their crest otherwise."
A very tall human in the same type of black suit that all the detectives wore met the two of them as they neared the train.
"Ms. Edelweiss, so good to see you again," the human greeted her with a smile. "Though I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Detective Second Class Tsuki Azul. I'm Detective Schmidt's partner."
Edelweiss shook his hand and returned his smile. "I'm glad to finally meet you, Detective Azul."
"So, are you here to help us out in the investigation, or did you just stop by to see Kuro, here?" asked the smirking policeman.
The elf chuckled. "As much as I love seeing my dear Detective Schmidt, I'm afraid I'm here for business and not pleasure."
"Speaking of which," Schmidt said, interrupting the conversation. "We have a crime scene to look over."
"Of course, please lead the way." Edelweiss nodded to the two men, and they began to escort her to the train.
"This is where the attacker, or attackers, got in." Detective Azul pointed to a side door in one of the forward cars. The locking mechanism looked like it had melted off. "We think they used a plasma arc lance to get through the door."
Azul then lead them to the next car whose side door was open. He entered the interior of the train, quickly followed by Edelweiss and Schmidt. The elf noted the faint scent of ozone in the air, a distinct clue that arc weaponry had been discharged inside the car.
"The control room is towards the front of the train," Azul said, "that's where we found the crew's bodies. They were all burned, most likely from a high-powered arc lance due to the severity of the burns." The tall man lead them into the next empty car. "Same with this guy."
On the floor in front of them was the charred, blackened corpse of what had to be a dwarf. The body was laid down on its back, its singed arms still clutching at the melted remains of what looked to be an arc lance.
"Kordo Wiresmith," Azul read aloud the info from his grimoire. "Fifty-seven years old, Gold-ranked Freelancer from the Freelance Guild."
Edelweiss frowned upon seeing the body. She wasn't a fan of the Guild, but seeing a fellow Freelancer dead just about turned her stomach. "He was working security?"
"You got it." The detective flicked at the screen of his grimoire until he found the information he was looking for. "He was part of a three-man team with Wang Lei Beckett and Grunder Stoneblud. All three of them were Gold-ranked."
"Where are their bodies?" Schmidt asked.
"Well, Beckett's is inside the secure car where the cargo was. As for Stoneblud, well, we found him floating down by the Sienna River. Probably tossed off the train when the assailants came in."
Azul leads them through two more cars before they arrived at what was called the "secure" car, which was basically the armored railcar that housed the Steinadler. From what Edelweiss could see, the door had a sophisticated biometric lock attached to it. At the moment though, said door was missing, the ragged, melted edges around the hatchway showing that a laser cutter was used to get into the interior.
"The open door was us, by the way," Azul said. "When we got here, nobody could open the lock because of the biometrics. So we cut the door open and found this mess inside."
"If the door was still locked when you got here, how did the attacker get inside?" Edelweiss asked.
"We don't know," Azul answered. "Just one of the many weird things about this case."
Edelweiss stepped into the car and saw what he had meant by "mess." The walls of the car were marred by plasma burns, most of them by the entrance. The wooden crate that held the cargo was lying on its side, and under it was the body of a well-dressed human whom Edelweiss deduced was Wang Lei Beckett, the other Freelancer who was tasked with guarding the train. Unlike the other bodies, Beckett wasn't burned. Instead, his eyes, nose, and ears were leaking blood, and there were scratch marks on his throat that looked to be self-inflicted.
"Until the autopsy, we won't know what killed Mr. Beckett here," Azul said. "None of us are really sure what killed him. I've never seen anything like this."
"I have." All eyes fell on Schmidt. "It's a technique gas practitioners use in combat. They forcibly pull the air out from around their target, leaving said target to suffocate in a vacuum."
"Seriously?" Azul let out a whistle. "Damn, that is messed up. And the burned bodies?"
"Same." This time it was Edelweiss who spoke up. "Fire is just combustion. All a mage would need is oxygen and he would have a perfectly working flamethrower."
"Hold on," Detective Azul said, looking unconvinced at Schmidt and Edelweiss' theory. "A mage couldn't have killed Beckett. This secure car is Faraday warded. A grimoire wouldn't be able to function as a spellcasting tool since it wouldn't be able to contact the Aethernet. Nothing but the wired comms would work inside the ward."
Detective Schmidt frowned. "That's because the killer didn't need to use a grimoire to cast his spells."
Azul paled. "You're not serious are you?"
Schmidt merely shrugged. "It's the only explanation."
"Shit," the other Detective shook his head and sighed. "An elf did this? Holy hell, this is way beyond our paygrade, man."
"Not only an elf but a master at gas manipulation," Edelweiss stated. She walked over to one of the walls and rubbed a hand across a plasma burn. "He, or she, was able to redirect plasma blasts from an arc lance just by manipulating the air currents around them."
"Aw, hell. I did not need to know that."
It was at that moment that a female uniformed officer entered the car. "Detective Schmidt?"
"Yes?" asked the detective, turning around to address her.
"There's an elf here to see you," the officer said, sounding nervous.
Edelweiss looked up, looking startled. "But I'm already here." As if to corroborate this fact, she pointed a finger at herself.
"No, not you, ma'am," said the officer. "Another elf. Three of them, in fact."
"Oh," Edelweiss said.
Things just got a whole lot more interesting.
Glossary of Terms:
Freelance Guild: An organization started thirty years ago whose aim was to unite and represent all Freelancers. It started up in the city of Brenner's Hold, Aegis, before eventually going national. As the Guild's membership and influence grew, they eventually set up offices in other nations such as Machado and Pfeil. Through the Guild, Freelancers are offered jobs at standardized rates and will legally go after any client that refuses to pay after a job is done. Freelancers are also offered health care, equipment and support on their jobs, all of which are paid for through the Guild's collected dues and fees. Because of such benefits, most Freelancers choose to join the Guild, many especially joining when they first start out. Membership is open to anyone, regardless of race, sex, or religion, a fact that has made the Guild's numbers swell. More often than not, any Freelancer you hire is a member of the Freelance Guild.
The Guild ranks its members by experience, which is represented by a badge color. From lowest to highest, the ranks are: Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, then Platinum. Administrators within the guild dole out work to each rank depending on how difficult they deem the job to be. Copper members may be given simple jobs such as courier or pest killing duties, while Platinum members are usually hired by government agencies for nigh-impossible tasks.