The man hit the ground, and I started searching through the bag but sighed when I didn't find what I was looking for, but that wasn't a bad thing. I had asked the guard to check to see if they had confiscated any platinum and, if they had, to bring it to me. The fact that there was none in here told me that it was not considered contraband, meaning it was not related to Tech in general.
I opened my chest, and tossed the bag in, then reached down and grabbed the dead body, also stuffing it inside my chest. After some pushing and breaking a few bones, I was able to get my chest closed and then headed back out into the main area but immediately stepped behind what looked like a hydraulic press, but the thing had no fluid lines or a motor.
There was someone else here.
"I know that you are here. There is no point in hiding from me, abomination," A snide voice called out, and I spotted the man it was coming from. He was wearing a guard-style uniform, but it was much different than the one the guy inside me had on. Rather than blue with yellow edging on the seams, this man wore something that looked much better quality and was blue and red.
"Fancy name, Bone Bag. What do you want?" I asked, but I projected my voice in all directions, making it echo around the room.
The man looked around and then stopped walking. He had short white hair and would be seen as handsome if his face wasn't so fucking irritating to look at. He looked like the type to walk around with a self-satisfied look on his face, like he always knew more than you. People I despised, but I could tell that there was something clearly different about this person, like the Crime Bosses. They were all strong, and I think the only reason why they didn't attack me was that they didn't know what I was capable of yet.
"Besides the information that you have Hank steal? I would like to collect the bounty that I will get when I turn in your melted body. Numera has been feeding my coffers of late, but I have never seen one that worked as quick as you, Razor. Freshly in the city, and you are already making a name for yourself!" The man laughed, but I had already made an opening in the wall and was sitting outside of the building in a dark alley behind some boxes. I had my rat running around right now, dropping speakers as he did.
"I am impressed, and I had to assume that it would be a specific person that would be sent to hunt me. I don't plan on being melted down any time soon, nor do I plan on handing over my ill-gotten gains, but since you are so talkative, why do you tell me who you are?" I asked from multiple speakers as I watched him look around for me with some small flies that I had just made.
"I am going to be the thing that keeps you up at night. I am one of Ned's personal guards tasked with dealing with mistakes like you. Each time I kill one of your kind, I am given a large sum of gold by Aquaking. The truth is that Ned doesn't care much about you yet, but I am sure that will change if you are allowed to live. The thing is, I kind of like living like this, so if you could just kindly come out... how did a bug get on-Blah!" The man shouted as I detonated a small bug on the surface of his leg. I had another bug that was in the his boot already, but the second the first went off, something fried the second one, and from what I could tell, the explosion did nothing.
I was already gone and headed deeper into the city. The last thing I needed was for this creep to follow me home, so I spent an hour weaving and ducking through back alleys until I was positive that I had not been followed. After that, I headed back to the warehouse and tracked down Miles, who was in an office working on some papers. The moment I opened the door without knocking, the man was on his feet with a stone in his hand, pointed at me, but he lowered it.
"Would it kill you to knock?" Miles asked, and I opened my chest to let the dead guard fall out and the satchel.
"I want this body destroyed and these documents sorted through. Figure out what is useful," I said, and then walked over to the desk and picked up the ledger Miles had been working on, scanning it over.
"What am I supposed to do with the body?" Miles asked.
"Get your boys to make a cover with earth, and then turn the body to ash with your fire magic. You can do that, right?" I asked, and Miles nodded slowly and then looked at the satchel.
"Do I even want to know where that came from? He asked, giving me a sideways glance.
"The guard's station. I asked this one to get me all the information he could on Ned and all the crime families in the city, big and small. You might know most of this information, but I don't, so I want you to sort through it and categorize everything so I can go through it fast," I explained, and Miles nodded.
"That I can do, but some of the papers are going to have magical seals. I will sort them out, but they will be outside of my abilities. Someone like Grand Mistress Manta might be able to help you with them, but be careful of what you ask her," Miles warned, and I nodded but rolled my hand.
"Be more specific, and tell me what you know about guards wearing blue and red outfits," I said, and Miles' eyes went big.
"The Order of Salvation? You ran into their guard?" He asked, and I nodded. "That is a problem. They are the internal army that works for Ned himself. You need to be very careful when dealing with them, as they are feared even in the criminal underworld. If you run into one, it would more than likely be Thomas, second in command, next to Orion. Both men and the rest of the Order can cast without words, and all carry a deadly assortment of magical items and artifacts."
I nodded, understanding what Miles meant. The Order of Salvation was not something to mess around with, but now I had a good reason to find out more about them. I thanked Miles, and then left him to his work, and headed to the room where I had met the crime families in to think about what I had learned today.