Free Industry & Intrigue by Ryan McCall

“You other three, I want you all to head to the South
Alkos Watch office and turn yourselves in. Believe me when I say
that you don’t want us to come looking for you if we find out you
failed to, understood?” The two men and woman nodded
vigorously.
    “ Good, now get out of here,” she
said and they hastily left the room. Connor Wallace was dressed in
far finer clothes than the others, his expensive coat and boots
stood out in particular.
    “ This is what it’s come to? The
watch can’t get the job done without hiring savage beasts?” he said and
sneered at Brenna. She walked closer to him and smashed his nose
with the butt of her gun.
    “ Argh! Fuck!” he shouted. His
nose started bleeding.
    “ Turn around and
pu t your
hands behind your back,” said Brenna. He complied and she pulled
out her handcuffs and put them on him. Brenna turned to look at her
partner, “Snar could you bag all of those drugs and carry
them?”
    “ Of course
sergeant ,”
he replied. “What about them?” he asked and pointed at the three
criminals on the floor.
    “ You didn’t kill them did you?” she
asked.
    “ No, they are merely
incapacitated , they should regain consciousness soon,” he
replied.
    “ Officers from the district
station will
be here soon, they can take care of them. Until then we’re going to
have a chat with Mr. Wallace here.” Brenna turned back to Connor,
he looked at her and smiled.
    “ You can ask whatever the
fuck you
want, I’m not going to talk, not to you, not to anyone.”
    She nodded and said, “Is that right? What
about my partner? You want to talk to him instead?”
    The grin disappeared from
Connor’s face and swallowed but shook his head. “You have an agorid, but
it doesn’t matter. Whatever he can do to me, it’ll be worse if my
boss finds out I talked. Charge me with the drugs and call it a
day.”
    Brenna decided to interrogate
him further when they returned to the station. When the South Alkos district
officers showed up they took custody of the building and suspects.
Brenna and Snar packed the drugs and Wallace into a watch carriage
and headed back to the Justice Branch station.
    Upon checking in the desk clerk said to
her, “A Ms. Zuri Abeliah to see you.” Brenna thanked her. Why had
the skylord mastermage come to visit? It could be that she had more
information about the suicide of Kyle Dunn
    Snar said “The teacher we
talked to at Warded Spirals. Curious, I wonder why she is here.”
    “ She could have new information
or she could be checking in to see if the case is closed. She knows
she wouldn’t get anything by trying to go to Imperial Branch,” said
Brenna. “Put the drugs in evidence and then take this piece of shit
to the interrogation room. And get Officer Selim. He can start and
show you the ropes. I’ll join the two of you once I’ve talked with
her.”
    Snar nodded and led the drug
supplier into the station. Brenna walked into the civilian waiting
area and saw the skylord mage seated and waiting.

Chapter 9
     
    “ Ms. Ab eliah, you wanted to see me?” asked
the red-headed watch officer as she approached Zuri.
    “ Yes Sergeant Moreland, thank you,” she
replied and stood up. “I wanted to know if you found the man that
sold Kyle his drugs.” Zuri hoped the watch officer would have an
answer for her.
    “ Well , we did actually,” replied Brenna.
“He sounded familiar from your description. All I had to do was
check our files and we had his name and address. He caved and gave
his supplier as well. So it’s safe to say he won’t be doing much
business in the future.”
    “ Impressive ,” said Zuri, “how could you
identify him so fast?”
    “ The last few years we’ve
started using these newfangled photography devices, once the
department decided to spend money on them at least,” explained
Brenna. “The dealer is a small time regular so he’s been picked
often enough that we have his picture in our records.”
    Zuri nodded, now came the