Living_Hellfire Posted Sunday at 12:21 AM Posted Sunday at 12:21 AM Friday May 23, 16:48hrs Local Time, 2025 Abdul Rafiq stood at the corner of First and Fisher in the warehouse district South of the Green Line awaiting his contact. The sun was just lowering itself, but there would still be another couple hours of daylight. Thunder rolled in the cloudless skies over Independence Port and he knew he wouldn't have to wait much longer and he was right for shortly thereafter came the unmistakable sound of hard-soled leather loafers on pavement. "You took your time, Mr. McRae." The Man in Black shrugged and grinned behind his cigar, stopping a good six feet from the other man. He plucked the cigar from his mouth with the first two fingers of his right hand and let his arm drop to his side and the smoke coiled around his arm like a snake. "Well, I'm here now. How can I aid ye?" There was no point in arguing with him. "My bosses need your help. Our intel reports have revealed that every night, right around six o'clock a squad of specially refitted Sky Raider Skiffs have been making runs to Sharkhead Isle." "Go on." "They're leaving from Skyway City, specifically one warehouse in the Northern District. When we investigated the warehouse we discovered a massive operation producing Superadine." "Aye, well... Trolls, innit?" Abdul grimaced and waggled his head "Well, yes and no. You see, the operation is being run by a woman." The Man Black narrowed his eyes behind his burnt-orange lenses. "A female troll?" "No, Mr. McRae. A woman. The Trolls call her Boss-Lady." "Hardly a creative bunch. Who is she?" "Well, that's the thing, we don't know. We've heard her voice on surveillance and our CI on the inside has seen her, but no pictures are available, she rarely is on scene and seems to avoid any window that isn't blacked out. What we DO know is that she is very much in charge." "Tell me about yer informant." "He's an ex-con, but that's the other thing that's unusual about this. Trolls don't hire outsiders, but this operation is so massive they don't have a choice, but nobody would willingly work for Trolls so they're forced to hire ex-cons. The kind of guys who can't get a job anywhere else." Abdul sighed. "These guys... they really don't have any other options and from what our informant tells us most of them figure that even if they do get pinched working for Trolls that the worst that happens is that they get hit with an accomplice charge and released with time served and, frankly they're probably right about that." The Man in Black jammed the cigar back between his molars and breathed deeply, sending a plume of blue smoke into the air. "An' so ye'd like me tae shut it down, then, is that it?" "Not exactly, Mr. McRae. You see, as you know it's highly unusual that the Sky Raiders and The Trolls would be working together at all and what's truly exceptional is the notion that they both may be cooperating with a third party in the Rogue Isles. Moreover, this mysterious "Boss-Lady" figure can't be identified so there may even be a fourth player." Abdul sighed and looked around, making sure, not for the first time that they were more or less alone. Cars hissed past, but the sidewalks were empty and all visible doors and windows were closed. "What we want from you is a little more... subtle." The Man in Black chuckled. "Subtlety is 'ardly me speciality, Abdul." "I - WE know, but we'll get to that. You see, Dr. Keyes developed a kind of nano-tracer pigment that functions like a kind of marker or... what are those things old people use when they play Bingo?" "A dauber?" "Yes, that's it, a dauber. Every day about a dozen crates leave this warehouse in Skyway and are loaded onto four modified Skiffs to be transported. We know they fly over Khalisti Wharf towards the Rogue Isles, but that was all we knew up until about a month ago, which is when we managed to convince our informant to use this dauber to mark one crate every day. So, for the last few weeks, one of those crates got marked and every single time they ended up at the same place in Sharkhead Island." "Positron is aidin' ye? I'm rather shocked, the only person Positron aids is Positron." "Well, no, not exactly, this is tech he developed for other purposes, but we managed to get our hands on it, so no he's not directly involved in this." "I'm less shocked." Abdul pressed his lips together. "So, ye'd like me tae shut down the warehouse in Sharkhead, is that it, then?" "Well... no. We'd like you to follow the skiffs, but we don't want you to do anything other than scare them." "Scare them? Am I the boogey-man, now?" "Well... I mean... " Abdul shrugged. "Alright, point taken. So, skiffs leavin' o'er Khalisti around six o'clock aimin' t'wards Sharkhead. Have ye an address?" "Seven, Seven, Four, Three, Seven Kelprun Circle. It's another warehouse." "An', ye jes' wish me tae frighten'em? Who, the Sky Raiders or whosoever is at the warehouse in Sharkhead?" "Well, either. Both. Look, as I said, there could be up to four players involved here and this operation is incredibly well run, smooth, quiet. We have no idea how long this has even been going on before we caught wind of it. We need to know who's involved and in order to do that we need to make them panic a little, shake the bee-hive and see what comes out. Maybe they relocate, maybe someone with doubts decides to turn state, for sure it'll set off a flurry of communications that may help us pin down what we're dealing with, but either way they seem pretty comfortable in what they're doing and we need to change that. Make them make a mistake or something." The Man in Black puffed his cigar and stood silently for a few moments. "Why me? Surely you've got operatives what would be capable o'reconnoiterin' such a place." "Well, yes, but we don't just want to observe it, we want to shake the tree and to do that we would have to make ourselves known. These people, whoever they are are not afraid of law enforcement, that much is clear. So we need something bigger, more dramatic to really send the message." "Why nae another like me? There are plenty o'heroes in this city what would be willin' tae render aid." "Mr. McRae, there is no one 'like' you in this city or any other city. You are one of a kind. You are exactly the sort of message we want to send. If they think YOU are onto them and interested then they'll panic and quite probably make a mistake and that's when we can grab them." "Flatterer." Abdul rolled his eyes. "Will you help or not?" The Man in Black nodded and grinned. "Aye. I reckon I shall." Before turning on his heel and walking away. "Wait, where are you going?" "Fishin'!" Came the answer back, over the sound of hard-soled loafers and the sickly, sweet scent of tobacco. Thunder rolled over Independence Port and Abdul Rafiq was alone. He wiped the sweat from his brow and whistled for a taxi and made his way home. 1 -The Legendary Living Hellfire "The newest person in the room is always the most important person in the room"
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