Ignite the Sun
Chapter 75: Mission accomplished

Chapter 75: Mission accomplished

"Nothing is happening..." Alison mumbled.

"Told you - they won’t come anywhere near here for the foreseeable future." Maya tried to stretched, but failed miserably.

They were squeezed into a narrow loft above an empty house near black rose’s headquarters, quietly observing the streets - the speech took place three days ago, and they have been here every day, yet they haven’t seen a single soul leave or enter the building.

"Can we please just go to Piff and buy information? My back is killing me, and this is completely pointless." Maya pleaded.

"Fine." Alison sighed. "But do you even have the money to buy information?"

"Of course I do - I was saving up for my eventual escape from the Pit, but now that I got a free ticket out of this shit hole I have loads of free money." She winked. "It does mean we’ll have to stop at my safehouse though."

"You have a safehouse?"

"A few of them in fact, but most were owned by the organisation - this specific one was basically my home though."

"Well, lead on then."

***

The safehouse was, perhaps unsurprisingly, located completely underground - to get to it you had to find a hidden trapdoor located in a dark alley, which led to staircase ending with a heavy door.

When Maya placed her hand on the handle the lock clicked, and the doors swung open.

"Blood lock." She explained to her confused companion. "Much safer than a regular key if you ask me."

"How on earth did you get something like that? Only the most important places get locks like that."

"Piff, where else - half of his merchandise is complete garbage, but if you know what to ask for you can find real treasure."

"Do you know who’s his supplier?"

"I do, but you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you." She motioned inside. "Come on in, my home might not be that spacious, but I’m sure we’ll fit."

Maya’s home consisted of two rooms - a bigger one for sleeping and living, and a smaller one serving as a rudimentary bathroom.

For a assassin who only trained or killed people, her bedroom was normal and cozy, at least as far as the conditions in the Pit allowed. Ther was a bed, nightstand small dresser, and even a bookshelf with a few books.

"I thought you said you didn’t have any hobbies." Alison pointed out.

"Those? Unfortunately they are work materials, and not exactly fun to read."

Alison was sort of curious as to what kind of ’work materials’ a paid killer could have, so she looked at the titles - and quickly regretted doing so.

Among the books were such works of art as: ’107 human vital points and how to exploit them’, ’Most efficient ways of body disposal’ and ’Contemporary torture methods’

"I haven’t had the time to read spicy romance novels or heroic novels I’m afraid." She shrugged as she lifted one of the floorboards to reveal a hidden compartment.

Inside were over a dozen of coin pouches, each filled to the brim - Maya have managed to squirrel away a small fortune there.

"This should be enough I think" She picked up one pouch and secured it to her belt.

"I have a dimensional bag you know." Alison said. "Since you’ll be moving to overcity we can pack everything now and you won’t have to come back here again."

Maya shook her head.

"Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather leave it here until I have a place of my own in the city." She secured the board once more hiding the stash and moved to the exit. "Time to visit Piff."

***

"I rarely get the same client so often." The merchant commented. "From what I’ve heard your plan worked rather well, so I assume you’re here about something else?"

"Yes and no, were here to learn whether our plan worked actually, which you already told us, but if you add the details I’ll still pay you for the information." Maya said.

"Much appreciated." Piff grinned. "Well, following your stunt there was a pretty big chaos, both inside the organisation and between other gangs."

"And?"

"Two days later black rose officially disbanded, the decision was made unanimously by the lower council. The smaller gangs all signed an agreement between each other that they won’t expand too much under the threat of everyone else coming after them."

"And the former members?"

"Most of the lowest level members decided to leave the Pit and try to make honest living through manual labour, while the higher ranked ones either joined various other organisations or haven’t done anything yet."

"Did they decide what they were going to do with the building?"

"Not to my knowledge, but if I had to guess they’ll sell it and split the money between the lower council." Piff leaned back in his chair. "If you want to know something else I’ll throw it in as a freebie."

"Since you insist..."

Maya described to him the strange behaviour of the items they’ve bought from him, and asked whether he knew anything about it.

Piff shook his head with wide eyes.

"Trust me, if that cloak was capable of things like that I would have known - I did extensive testing on it, and never noticed anything."

"And the smokestones?"

"I have and entire box full of identical ones, and they all work normally - no girls, someone definitely helped you."

"Well, thanks anyway."

Maya took out a few coins from her pouch, placed them on the table stood up to leave.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

***

"Why did you take the entire pouch if we only needed a few coins?" Alison questioned.

"Because as a thanks for getting me a job I’ll be treating you to a dinner." Maya winked at her. "Come on, lead us to your boss so that we can report our job."

Verdant Watch’s headquarters were located in the middle of the city, so the walk there wasn’t particularly long. When they reached the building, Alison walked in and confidently strolled to the front desk.

"I finished my task and want to speak with Damien." She demanded.

The receptionist frowned.

"Your task...?" She paused. "Surely, you don’t mean taking out the black rose... and who’s that?"

"Yes, I mean exactly that." Alison pointed at Maya. "And that’s the daughter of black rose’s boss who helped me kill him."

Maya waved with a smile.

"Well, in that case let me check if Mr Damien is free-"

"No need, I’m already here." A tall and thin man with dark eyes and even darker hair approached the desk. "Do you have any evidence that you did what you’re claiming?"

"How exactly do you expect me to get evidence of an illegal organisation disbanding?" Alison tone was almost mocking. "You can send scouts to confirm it yourself if you don’t believe me."

"Oh, I will." Damien sneered. "You can go back to your work, you have a mountain of paperwork to fill because you were missing."

"I filled in the mission application and it got approved, I shouldn’t have gotten any documents while I was out."

"Did you now? Well, I suppose it must have gotten lost somewhere - but the paperwork won’t fill itself, so go and do your work." He started walking away.

"Wait, what about the promotion you promised me?"

"What promotion?" He snickered. "Don’t be ridiculous, that was just a joke."

"Oh, was it? Because I remember that quite differently" Someone new entered the building.

"Lady Sylara!" Damien’s eyes widened.

"You see, your little challenge for Alison sounded very interesting and caught my attention, so I decided to follow this case." Sylara came closer to Damien. "Do you have any explanation why you punish the girl instead of giving her the promised prize for doing the work you couldn’t?"

"I... But... It’s..." The capitan struggled to form a coherent sentence.

"Save it, you’re relieved of your duty effective immediately, and Alison is being promoted to a lieutenant." She turned to the two girls. " Do you have any suggestions who should replace him?"

Alison thought for a bit and nodded.

"I think Boris would be a good fit, my Lady."

"Excellent choice." Sylara smiled and addressed the receptionist. "Gilly my dear, would you be so kind as to get the documents ready for the new jobs for those girls? Oh and inform Boris about his promotion once he comes back from the patrol."

"Of course, my Lady." The young receptionist started rummaging through the stack of paper on her desk.

"Well then, I’m done here."

Sylara left just as suddenly as she arrived, leaving the lobby in stunned silence.

"Did she say jobs? as in plural? How the hell did she know you promised me a job?" Maya whispered to Alison.

"I think she’s been watching over the entire mission, not just the beginning and the outcome." She smiled a little. "At least now we know who helped us during the speech."

"...if that’s true she was weirdly chill about me holding a decapitated head as a scare tactic."

"I mean it’s not like she protects the city with just kind words and smiles." Alison shrugged. "Now come, I have to explain what your new job entails."