All was quiet for a few moments before I slowly turned and looked at Alistair.
"Give me one good reason that I shouldn't kill you right now."
Alistair got off the ground and held out a hand toward me.
"For the same reason that you don't kill me everyday. Without me you won't be able to handle the administrative duties and soon collapse out of exhaustion."
I pushed Alistair's hand away and pushed myself to my feet.
"One day I'll find a way to resolve that problem." I then looked at the carriage. "So…..why did you tell me not to fight them?"
I then turned to look at Alistair and saw that his head was tilted to the side, almost like he was listening to something.
Alistair straightened his head then turned to me. "I'll tell you later, right now we have company."
I immediately stiffened and reached for my daggers.
'I don't care if Alistair says that I shouldn't fight, there is no way that I'm going to suffer that humiliation again.'
As I stood grimly by the side of the road, I soon heard a sound coming from further up the street.
I tilted my head to the side and tried to make out what the sound was.
'It's kind of a clip-clop sound.' It then hit me after a few more seconds.
"Horses." Alistair suddenly said.
'Horses?' I thought in confusion. 'Then it shouldn't be those thieves.'
I then turned to look at the carriage.
'I better check inside the carriage, who knows what they did inside there.'
I then took a step forward…but immediately felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and looked back to see Alistair shaking his head.
"It is for the best that you don't enter the carriage."
"Why?" I asked warily. "What do you think is in there?"
"I'm not sure, but it's best that when those horsemen arrive they find us right here." Replied Alistair, he then gave me a dampened smile. "Trust me."
I sighed then sat on the ground. "I hope this time me trusting you won't lead to a blade at my throat." I returned his smile. "It tends to reduce my faith in you."
"Naturally." Replied Alistair as he joined me on the ground.
By now I could see the horses galloping down the road.
"So what do we tell them?" I asked as I glanced at Alistair.
"Why the truth of course." Replied Alistair, he then thought for a moment before continuing. "Just don't mention where we were before this."
"What should I say if they ask?"
Alistair waved his hand dismissively. "Come up with something, ohh and be sure to act in the right fashion....they're here."
Just at that moment the horses were about to pass us by, but neighed as their reins were pulled back.
The front rider then got off his horse and walked toward us.
When he reached us he held down his hand toward me. "Are you two ok? We got a report of a coach robbery so we hurried over from our outpost."
I studied the man. The man looked to be in his mid twenties, had black hair and wore leather armor which had a badge that depicted a silver shield with a star in it.
'The police.' I thought as I glanced at the badge. 'Just my luck.'
I frowned then smacked his hand away and stood up.
"Yes we got robbed, and what took you so long to get here?"
"I'm sorry sir, but we got the report only a few minutes ago and…"
I held up my hand and cut him off.
"I don't want to hear any excuses just find whoever did this."
Alistair put his hand on my shoulder and turned to the man.
"I'm sorry sir, my friend here is still shaken, I'm sure you will forgive his rudeness officer..?"
"No, it's understandable, and you can call me Sergeant Tali."
Alistair nodded his head.
"And by the way, who reported that there was a coach robbery?"Asked Alistair.
"We don't know," Replied the Sergeant. "Someone walked into the outpost, gave the report, then walked out before we could ask who it was."
Alistair nodded his head. "Interesting."
Another of the officers then walked up to Sergeant Tali and saluted him.
"Sir the coachman is dead."
Sergeant Tali closed his eyes then let out a huge sigh, when he reopened his eyes I could see a very deep tiredness in them.
"Call the outpost, tell them to come collect and identify the body. Once they do that they should contact the next of kin."
The officer saluted him again and walked away.
"The Underworld is getting out of control, everyday we're getting more and more reports like this." Sergeant Tali clenched his jaw. "And that useless chief of ours still won't…"
He then took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," Sergeant Tali seemed to have called down. "So where…."
"Sergeant!"
Sergeant Tali gave us an apologetic smile then turned around. "What is it?"
I looked behind the Sergeant and saw one of the officers that came with him come out of the carriage.
'When did he enter? And what is he holding?' I suddenly got a bad feeling in my gut.
The officer then hurried over and handed Sergeant Tali a package.
"We found this hidden in the carriage."
A look of recognition passed by Sergeant Tali's eyes when he saw the package.
'Yep this is definitely not good news.'
Sergeant Tali then opened the package and looked inside.
A few seconds after he looked inside, he closed the package then turned to Alistair and I, and this time I could see a guarded look in his eyes.
"You're both going to have to follow me to the district headquarters." Said Sergeant Tali grimly.
-
-
-
"Do you know why you're here Alex?"
I stretched back on a metal chair and glanced around the dimly lit room.
"No I don't." I replied casually. "But I'd love to hear why."
A woman walked out of the shadows and stopped in front of the chair I was sitting on.
"You're here because we found this in your carriage." The woman then tossed a package on the ground.
A weird expression passed across my face as I looked at it.
"Look familiar?" Asked the woman as she studied my face.
"No," I looked up and stared at the woman. "I've never seen that before, what is it?"
"Have you ever heard of diom?" The woman ignored my question and slowly walked away.
"No," I was getting frustrated now. "Why are you asking me all these questions, what is in that package?"
The woman paused in the middle of taking a step, she then swiveled and turned toward me.
"In that package is a drug called diom." Said the woman. "It's a very dangerous drug that is made for those that have awakened, but it's been banned here in the Pain Federation."
I glanced down at the package once again then looked up at the woman with an indignant expression. "Well I'm not the one who put that there, either the coachman was smuggling it or the thieves put it inside the carriage."
"Oho," Replied woman. "And why would the 'thieves' do that?"
"I have a lot of enemies," I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe one of them wanted me out of the way."
"What do you do, that you have a lot of enemies?" Ask the woman.
"Transportation of goods." I replied casually. "It can be a cutthroat industry."
The woman walked up to me.
"Cut the crap Alex, I know what you really do."
I folded my hands defensively. "I have no idea what you mean."
"Don't play dumb, I've been watching you for a few months and I've got to say, at the young age of thirteen you sure do a lot of shady stuff for very dangerous people."
I looked up at the woman in amazement. "Shady stuff? Dangerous people? What the hell are you talking about, I'm just a normal student of Freestone Academy. I don't know anything about diom or anything like that."
I then looked at the woman suspiciously.
"And who are you anyway? It just occurred to me that I don't know who you are, I mean I haven't even really seen your face, that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me."
The woman leaned down.
"There, happy now?"
The woman seemed to be either in her late twenties or early thirties, she had fiery red hair, brown eyes and an oval face, she was also wearing the same leather armor that Sergeant Tali wore.
"You still haven't told me who you are." I replied.
The woman turned to the left.
"My name is Linda Maxwell and I'm a lieutenant in the police force."
On her shoulder I saw the shield badge only this time there were two stars in the shield.
Lieutenant Maxwell then straightened up and walked around me.
"And back to what I was saying, I know you use that 'transportation' business of yours as front for your really job, transporting diom all over this city."
I opened my mouth to reply but I immediately felt a strong pressure coming from Lieutenant Maxwell.
"Don't talk yet," She put a finger to her lips. "I'm not done talking. As I was saying, you use your transportation business to move diom all over the city and since you're a student of Freestone Academy and have the immunity that comes with that, we can't touch you or your business without solid, airtight proof that you committed a crime."
"Imagine my surprise when I got a report that said a package full of diom was found in your carriage," Lieutenant Maxwell burst into a laugh. "Supposedly you got robbed and while searching the crime scene an officer discovered that package hidden behind a panel in your carriage."
Lieutenant Maxwell clutched her side and bent over, when she straightened up I saw tears in her eyes.
"I didn't even have to kill myself trying to find a reason to bring you in, you messed up and came right to me. Isn't that funny?"
Without waiting for my reply she continued talking.
"So I'll give you a deal since you're a kid," Lieutenant Maxwell stood behind me and put her hands on my shoulders. "If you tell me who's supplying you the diom, you'll only go to prison for three years. Isn't that a great deal? You'll be out when you're just sixteen, it won't be that bad, just be careful not to drop the soap."