As Max climbed down the ladder, the air gradually warmed up. Under Town, as it was called by the goblins, was a surprisingly large civilization underneath Fargo, built in a set of tunnels and catacombs that had been dug around and underneath the city's sewer system. The wasn't very bright, as most of the lights came from potted fires or shop signs, but it was still a very impressive city.
Max came to the bottom of the ladder, and dusted his hands off on his jacket before making a beeline for a large and gloomy looking building. It was roughly three stories tall, and was lined with six windows per story. It was a busy day, with numerous goblins passing by the windows every few seconds, no doubt working to keep Galgan's death under wraps. This building was the Goblin Embassy.
Two uniformed orc guards stood next to the doors, each holding alarmingly large rifles in their hands. Max nodded to them, and they nodded back as he passed, stuffing a twenty dollar bill into their pockets shortly afterwards.
The doors were automatic, and shut behind Max in the blink of an eye. Low power fluorescent bulbs lit the area above him, and Max took in his surroundings. They'd changed things up a bit. New desks, and the originally concrete floor was now marble. Max nodded in approval. The embassy looked better every time he visited.
He strode over to the front desk, and rang a service bell. An instant later, a goblin girl scurried up from what he assumed was a filing room. She was short, like all goblins, and wore a suit jacket and tube skirt that reached her knees. Her hair was tied back, and she wore a pair of square glasses. Where she differed from male goblins was her face. Her nose was rounded and small, rather than being long and pointed like the male's noses are. Her ears were pointed, and when she smiled, like she was now, she had pronounced dimples. All in all, Max found her quite cute.
"Hey there, what's your name?
"My name is Gwen" She said, gesturing to a name tag on the left side of her chest..
"Okay Gwen, I need to see Gane. Tell him Maxwell wants to see him."
"Yes sir. If you could take a seat over there?" Gwen said, gesturing over to a row of padded chairs on the other side of the room. Max obliged, grabbing a magazine from a nearby table and flipping through it absentmindedly.
A few minutes later, he heard the elevator door open, and saw a rather flabby goblin waddling towards him.
"Max! It's been too long."
"Gane. How's the wife?"
"Could be worse. How have you been?"
"Fine enough, but I'll be better after we talk. In private." Maxwell said, putting extra emphasis on the last phrase.
Gane nodded. He gestured for Max to follow him and waddled back over to the elevator. Max grinned and waved at Gwen before he left, but the secretary ignored him.
After a quick ride up to the top floor and a short walk to Gane's office, the duo entered quickly and shut and locked the door.
"I'm here about Graven. I assume the public doesn't know yet?"
"I should have known. Yeah, there'd be riots if they knew."
"He was that popular?"
"Hell no. No one really knew him super well. It's more that he was potentially killed by elves."
"I see. Well, I have a few questions to ask you about Galgan."
"Fire away."
Max pulled his notebook and a pen from his pocket and nodded at Gane as he asked his first question.
"You're the head of the ambassador's security team, yes?"
"That is correct."
"All right. Do you know where he was last night?"
"I do. He went to dinner with Graven and those other two. They went to some place in the elves' part of town."
"I assume they were meeting the elves' ambassador?" Max asked, jotting down everything Gane said in his pocket notebook.
"I would imagine so, as he'd had a meeting with them earlier that day."
"I see. Were you present for this meal?"
"No. However, one of my men, Guqo, was."
"Hm. May I speak to him?"
"He hasn't shown up yet today, and he hasn't called in. I think something may have happened to him."
"And why's that?"
"I dunno. Maybe he heard or saw something he shouldn't have."
"Potentially."
"All right, can I have Guqo's address?"
"Sure."
Gane waddled over to his computer, and typed something into the keyboard. A few seconds later, he beckoned Max over with a wave of his hand, and the mage came over and scribbled down the guard's address, along with a doodle of a map.
Max closed the notebook and looked at Gane pointedly. He put it back into his pocket and sighed.
"Well, I imagine that I should head out now. I'll be back to ask you some more questions once I know more."
"All right. Good luck."
Maxwell turned to leave and walked over to the door quickly, aiming to end this case as soon as possible. From what he'd gathered, Guqo's fate was looking rather grim. Either he was dead, about to be dead, had been or was being abducted. Granted, this was assuming that he didn't just have the flu and was asleep, or that he wasn't hung over. Max shook the last two possibilities out of his head. As much as he'd prefer them, this was most certainly a government conspiracy, meaning the other options were far more likely.
Just as Max reached the door, Gane cleared his throat.
"Hey, you may wanna be careful on the way to Guqo's house. He lives in a pretty bad part of town."
"I see. Well, I'll keep an eye out then. See ya soon."
"Good luck again. Stay safe."
Maxwell nodded, and left the building. With a quick look at his map and then the surroundings, he found that it was going to be an annoying trip. The road was narrow, and rocky, and on top of that it was crowded.
Under Town was not very big, and the roads were rather narrow, having been built for goblins, meaning that Maxwell was quite the anomaly, as he towered over even the tallest goblins. So he shuffled awkwardly through the alleyway, trying not to step on pedestrians by accident.
After bumbling down alleys and through gutters and streets, Maxwell came to the address listed on the paper.
The small shack that stood before him was stubby and dirty, with worn walls made from recycled concrete and a grubby wooden door, with two windows on either side of it. The house was roughly three meters tall, which meant that it was going to be a tight space for him. The door was shorter than him, so he had to bend down slightly to knock on it properly.
His knocks rang hollow, and a sinking feeling took form in the pit of Max's gut. Something was wrong, and he could feel it.
All of a sudden a terrible crash shattered the tense silence and was followed by a horrific screech, like something, or someone had been injured.
Max took a step back and kicked the door with all his might, obliterating the door instantly and blasting a shower of splinters at whoever was inside. He ducked in, gun in hand, ready to fight.
A battered goblin who he assumed to be Guqo lay in the middle of the floor, his nose bent and an ear torn, with his left arm bent in at least six different places, all in unnatural ways. Around him stood six other goblins, all of them armed with either a pistol, or a knife or club of some kind. None of them wore masks, and turned to face Maxwell so quickly that they seemed to turn instantly. Without a single word exchanged, Max pointed his H&K 23 down at them, and they pointed what he assumed to be Glocks up at him.
"Why did I have to be right?" Maxwell groaned before the shooting started.