"So tell me," Julian flopped down in a wool-covered chair and crossed his legs. Trees raced past him as he looked out of the window. "Why are we taking a train instead of a car?"
He was dressed in his usual erratic combination of green short-sleeved pants and a comfortable short-sleeved shirt. His unkempt hair stood in every possible direction like he just rolled out of his bed. Which was actually the case. After a night of training, he only hit his bed in the early morning. He only had a couple hours of sleep before Carmilla waltzed into the squad room and announced they'd depart the same evening.
"As I've told you a thousand times," Carmilla threw her luggage underneath one of the bunk beds hidden in the carriage's corners and sat right in front of her travelling companion. "We can't use government funds to take us everywhere we need to be. People would get suspicious otherwise."
The purple-haired woman brushed her bangs backwards and looked at the windows. She adjusted the buttons on her white shirt and straightened her denim pants. Carmilla flopped her 4-inch heels off her feet and stretched her limbs with a content groan.
"You should try to relax, you know? It will be at least 20 hours before we reach Gromwell." She closed her eyes with a sigh and listened to the train's sounds travelling along on the cold steel tracks. Julian rolled his eyes and grabbed the small stack of papers detailing their mission. There wasn't much to go on.
The only thing it said was to investigate the link of the bomber with Gromwell. That was it. Sure, there had been some strange disappearances, but another squad dealt with those according to the files. It did say they weren't making much progress though…
"Excuse me, Miss, Sir?" A butler knocked on the door of their coupé. Carmilla pressed a button, allowing the man to come in. He was put into a stiff black-and-white suit, coattails included. His shoes bounced the light of the carriage's ornate lamps all around the room as he handed both Julian and Carmilla a small sheet of paper.
"Please fill in these forms for upcoming dinner and breakfast tomorrow. You need only ring the bell should you require any assistance." With those words, the man turned on his heels and left in a whirlwind of cheap cologne.
"That guy smells worse than a washing machine with too much detergent." Julian scrounged his nose and let his gaze fall on the sheet of paper in front of him. For being a second class carriage, the dinner options weren't too shabby. There was the usual variety of fast-food, elevated to bistro-class. However, there were also some unique options like a fresh farfalle with a mushroom cream sauce and spicy chicken pieces. Julian opted for the filet mignon, baked potatoes, fresh greens and a light pepper sauce. Carmila chose the gourmet pizza with 4 kinds of cheese, spring greens and caramelized onions instead.
"…What's that face for?" After Carmilla haad rung the bell and handed the butler their orders, she noticed Julian's perplexed face.
"I just thought you'd go for something more sophisticated. The rumours back at Headquarters make you out to be quite a classy woman, you know." Julian chucked. The week he lived alone in the Artifactors' headquarters were educative, to say the least. Apparently, everyone thought one of the newest recruits, Carmilla, was this high-class lady.
"You'd be surprised how much of those rumours is hogwash." The purple-haired woman replied as she sipped from the coffee she had ordered before. As the heat spread throughout her body, she let out a satisfied sigh and sunk deeply into her train seat.
They sat silently in the coupé for an hour before their food was delivered underneath a silver dome. It was better than Julian had anticipated being train food. In fact, it was delicious. Judging by Carmilla's sheer determination to stuff her face, she enjoyed her food even more!
After they had their dessert, which consisted of a very smooth panna cotta, flavoured by mango and the slightest hint of vanilla, they decided to call it a night. Carmilla had the idea of going over their plan of attack, but she decided against it. Besides, she didn't know where to begin. This was her first real mission outside the capital city. Sure, she had followed some courses of making plans as a leader, but all those lessons were useless in real-life situations.
"Right," Carmilla slapped on her chair and stood up. She brushed her hair backwards and looked at the door leading to the coupé's private bathroom. "I'll take a shower first."
"Hang on!" Julian disagreed with that assessment. He didn't know how much water these carriages could carry: He didn't want to be the one going to a new place and immediately be known as 'the reeking one'.
"Let's flip a coin. Heads or tails?" Julian pulled a copper out of his coat's pocket, along with some other rubbish. Carmilla chuckled as he put it all back into his pockets. She had heard his old office desk, back at Cybersecurity, looked like a veritable typhoon had passed through it. It seemed those rumours were true!
"I choose tails." Carmilla flashed her companion a confident smirk as she leaned against a nearby wall. Although it had been made of thin plates of wood, it was quite sturdy. It had been finished with a classic lacquer, so it looked like some antiquated room. Carmilla was more a fan of modern rooms, yet she appreciated the level of detail the craftsmen had put into their work.
Julian flipped the coin and slammed it on his hand. When he peeked through his fingers, he clicked his tongue and threw the coin back into his pockets. He fell onto one of the bunk beds with a defeated sigh and waved dismissively at the bathroom door.
"What a sore loser you are sometimes, Julian." Carmilla chuckled as she disappeared behind the door. Julian pouted and let the sound of falling water lull him into a light sleep.
Until a short scream roused him. Julian shot up, bounced his head from the bunk bed above his own and nursed a minor headache as he focused his ears. At first, he thought he had imagined it. That happened to him sometimes. Once, he had imagined someone was laughing inside his house until he realized it was his ringtone.
The sound returned, however. He slowly straightened up and reached for the gun strapped to his hip. He hadn't had the time to practice with it, but he figured it couldn't be that hard. Pull the trigger, kill anyone in the bullet's way.
"Carmilla?" Julian's voice bounced against the sound. However, there was no response. Slowly, he took a step out of bed and looked at the door. It was unlocked, but he couldn't remember if it was already like that or… With a couple of quick steps, he reached the door and locked it. With his back against the cool wood, he took a short survey of the room. One of the cups they drank from had fallen over, spilling its contents over the carpeted floor. Julian thought he saw a footprint in the stain, but it had disappeared when he looked again.
His heartbeat loudly in his chest. His mind flooded with images from his past. With a couple of deep breaths, Julian managed to calm himself down. Once he was certain no one entered the room except Carmilla and himself, he took a swift step towards the bathroom door.
The noise sounded louder. The closer he got to the wooden door, the more apparent it became. He cocked the hammer of his gun and tapped on the door. No response, except for the noise. He saw that the door was unlocked. After a deep breath, he grabbed the handle and swung the door open. In one step, he was inside and looked inside the small bathroom.
"Ah, fuck… That hurt." Carmilla stood hunched over, nursing her little right toe. A trickle of blood seeped through her fingers. Julian frowned and disengaged his pistol. After he had put it away, he took a step towards the cursing woman. Cursing wasn't like her, Julian thought. As the steam of a scorching shower escaped into the dining room, Julian's sight became clearer.
Carmilla sat right next to the washbasin. Julian saw a small trickle of blood leading from her tiny toe to the drawer's right corner underneath the washbasin.
"W-Who's there?" The woman temporarily forgot she only loosely wore a towel around her well-developed body and reached out towards the washbasin. After flopping her hands around uselessly for a bit, she finally found her spectacles and placed them on her face. She gasped as she saw the figure in front of her.
"Ju-Julian? What're you doing here?" Carmilla grunted and slowly straightened her back, whimpering as she leaned on her aching toe.
"I heard a scream, so I came looking…" Julian had to admit that sounded rather pathetic. He had no way to prove his claim. In fact, by barging in here instead of just asking like a normal human being, he made himself even more suspicious.
"Right… Heard a scream." Carmilla ogled him with a gaze that screamed 'I totally do not believe you!' and walked past him. A wave of wild roses and lavender washed over Julian, along with a healthy dose of steam. Before she left the bathroom, she glanced over her shoulder. A smirk tugged at her lips.
"Oh, before I forget. We're all out of warm water." With those words, she threw the door shut behind her and strode over to her own bunk bed. She climbed up and flopped down into the comfortable bed sheets.
"Goddammit, Carmilla!" Julian's voice remained ignored by the entirety of the train.
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"You really need to take a look at your hair, Julian. You look like an overgrown porcupine." Carmilla chuckled and ignored Julian's mumble as they disembarked.
"And whose fault do you think that is?" Julian tried to flatten his hair, to no avail. The young man grumbled and cursed his companion under his breath. After a dreadfully cold shower, he managed to fall asleep once his body temperature was back to normal. However, he'd only achieved two hours of sleep before the butler woke them up for breakfast. Which was good, but not delicious enough to clean the cobwebs out of Julian's mind.
"Don't look at me like that. You're the one who decided to go through with taking a freezing shower. I had nothing to do with that." Carmilla scaled the staircase that led to the outside of the train station. As Julian followed her, he looked around.
Being a city located on the border with the Elven kingdom, Silvestris, it was eerily quiet in the station. Besides the electrical humming of trains arriving and departing and the occasional whistle of a train conductor, there wasn't any other noise. No street vendors trying to sell their wares, no smells of various spices wafting through the corridors leading to the platforms…
"What's with this place?" Julian got the chills of the scenes around him. He was used to the bustling capital city, and he had imagined Gromwell to be as energetic. His expectations were drilled through the ground.
When he walked out of the station, it all became more apparent.
"Are those… casino's?" Julian looked at the flashy buildings lining every possible nook and cranny. He wasn't afraid of a monetary den like that once in a while, but to have them outnumbering the regular houses was just crazy. Everywhere he looked, the lifeless facades of the closed establishments looked back at him. Julian's nostrils were filled with the classic smell of a city: The scent of human with a dash of fresh fuel vapour along with a waft of garbage.
"Yep. Gromwell is Hominum's capital city of gambling. Incidentally, the number of casino's outweigh the residents here." Carmilla grabbed her phone and tapped in an address. She looked around for a bit before she resolutely walked into a nearby street, her gaze fixated on her phone. Julian had to shove her aside quite a bit whenever she threatened to walk on, in or over filth. Julian remembered cleaner public restrooms than this city.
As they walked through the city, they suddenly hit upon a mass of people. Most of them were taking pictures of something down the street. Carmilla shot Julian a single glance before she forced her way through the crowd. Julian barely managed to keep up as the path Carmilla managed to create was immediately swallowed by onlookers. When he finally managed to squirm himself between a couple of muscled blokes, he reached a weird scene.
There was no destruction, nothing wrong with the surroundings either. However, in the middle, there lied a body. At first, Julian assumed it was a drunkard that had passed out on the street. On their way here, they had seen more than a couple people sleeping through their hangover on the cold hard floor. However, this man's body was… unique, to say the least.
Every fibre of his body stood to attention like his entire body had been filled with steel piles. Only his heels and the back of his head touched the concrete, the rest arched towards the sky. His mouth had been frozen wide open, his eyes gazing at the heavens with a terrified expression. There were no other injuries, however.
"Julian, take a look." Carmilla pointed at the manç clutched left hand. Julian pinched a tiny plastic bag from between the man's cramped fingers. It was filled with a multi-coloured grainy powder.
"Well, well…" Julian opened the small bag and took a sniff of the powder. He recognized the stale smell immediately. This was the same drug that he encountered in the capital. However, Julian had no idea what it did here. According to his information, there weren't any cases of addicts in Gromwell. Let alone the rest of the country.
"All right, make way!" A booming voice echoed from behind the wall of onlookers. The sea of people quickly parted in half, making a pathway for a group of people all wearing the same uniform. A dark green buttoned-up vest with tight denim pants of the same colour clung tightly to their frames. Their brown shoes reflected the sunlight as they strode towards the corpse.
"Nothing to see here, get going!" Several people of the group ushered the people away from the crime scene. After everyone had gone, only Carmilla and Julian remained.
"Again, in front of a store." A man, whom Julian presumed to be the leader of the small group, looked around. He wasn't wrong. A couple of feet away, there was a shop. Julian glanced over the wares behind the window. It was filled with Elven specialities like silver rings, trinkets and other immaculate items. It all looked quite high-class.
"You two, go in and tell the shopkeeper his store needs to be closed for a few days." A couple of people curtly nodded at their commander and strode into the shop. The leader's gaze fell on Carmilla and Julian, who stood over the body.
"Hey, you two! Get away from that body." The man stormed towards the two and grabbed a thick stick that hung from his black leather belt. He swiped towards Carmilla before she swiftly dodged his strike and pulled on his wrist. With a shocked yelp, the man landed on the corpse. Before he had the time to recoil, Carmilla turned on her heels and fled the scene.
"Don't go after them!" The leader yelled as he noticed some of his subordinates readying themselves with a pursuit. Julian smirked and quickly ran after his purple-haired companion. Only when they were out of earshot of the soldiers, they stopped.
"So those were Gromwell's private guard, huh." Carmilla rubbed her chin as she adjusted her clothes. Julian wheezed and pressed his hand against his midriff. Drool accumulated in his throat, limiting his air intake. He reached for his inhaler and squirted some of the white powder down his lungs. Only when his body had calmed down, he faced his female companion.
"What do you mean," Julian coughed up some drool. "private guard?" The young man patted his sides to limit the aching.
"Three months ago, when the Elves and the humans signed some regulations regarding Gromwell's trade climate, they also created a new division in the city's law enforcement. Supposedly, they are a sign of Elves and humans working together." Carmila explained as she tried to get her GPS up and running again.
"Well, their teamwork clearly doesn't work if there are corpses on the streets." Julian followed the purple hair of his companion as she rounded several corners. Her male companion barely managed to keep pace with her steps. They crossed the lifeless city, walked past numerous casino's until they arrived at their hotel.
Julian thought it was some kind of lookout tower at first. It easily surpassed the other skyscrapers in the vicinity as it towered high above the city. Its white concrete reflected the sun and spread warmth throughout the street. Splashes of greenery hung from a couple of balconies, giving the entirety some much-needed life.
"Let's go. We need to create a plan of attack." Carmilla paced through the rotating door and waltzed straight to the reception. The clerk immediately handed them their keys, along with a small map of the surroundings. While Carmilla handled the formalities of payment, Julian looked around.
The hotel looked pristine and clean with a white marble floor and gold-accented pillars holding up a glass ceiling. The sound of a fountain created a rather relaxing atmosphere.
Their room was on the upper-most floor. After they took an elevator to the twentieth floor and found their room tucked away in the furthest corner of the hallway, Carmilla and Julian relaxed. The purple-haired woman locked the door and procured a small notebook from her purse.
"Let's see… I suppose we should start with the reason that we came here for—the mysterious ticket on the bomber." She produced the charred piece of paper along with a digital rendition of the man's face. Julian had blown him up with his own dynamite, but they could recreate the man's features out of his DNA with current technology's help.
"The station staff might remember him. However, it might be better to try the town hall first." Julian proposed. Carmilla nodded and scribbled something on her notebook. She adjusted her glasses and sucked on the back of her ball-point pen, looking out over the city.
"We also need to figure out what's up with that corpse. Having a corpse and that powder together makes for too much of a coÏncidence." Carmilla tapped her pen against the paper.
"I suppose our best plan of action is going to the town hall. We just need to keep out of sight of the governor." Carmilla rubbed the bridge of her nose. This was promising to be a fascinating case, to say the least. A dead body in the streets, a missing person turned up as a bomber in the capital and the multi-coloured powder presence on both occasions.
"Let's go. If we're quick, we can still visit town hall before it closes." Carmilla took off with her notebook tucked firmly in the breast pocket of her jacket. Julian hid the small plastic bag with the multi-coloured powder under the nearest cushion and followed her out.
Neither of them noticed the shadows watching their every move from a distance.