A Man of Honor.

Chapter 9: A Painful Reminder of Beacon.

"I'll swallow my blood before I swallow my pride." ~ Al Capone

"That is quite a story Mr. Arc," Ozpin mused to me the morning after I had spotted and stopped the Atlesian in the club trying to take Velvet.

"So what do you make of it?" I asked him, lighting a cigarette and looking out the window to the street outside my apartment. "The clan is getting ready to go to war with the Altesians if Nicky doesn't deliver justice to Junior."

Ozpin chuckled, "justice is a funny way to describe what he is going to ask for but yes, if this leads to a war then it could very well put a damper on Junior's other criminal enterprises."

"You mean the dust robberies," I said knowing that Ozpin cared about only one thing in regard to the Clan's so called criminal enterprises.

"Indeed I do Mr. Arc," Ozpin admitted to me.

"So you want the Clan to go to war?" I asked him, finding the thought a little disconcerting. If half of what O-Ushi had told me about the Altesians being at war was like it sounded like the last possible thing anyone could want. She had told me that nothing was held back or off limits to them, it would doubtlessly be bloody.

"Right now Mr. Arc the Atlesians are the enemy of my enemy, certainly not friends by any means, but a welcome thorn in both Junior's and Roman's sides. If it leads to war then I would be a fool not to take advantage of the situation." Ozpin explained to me.

I didn't say anything to that. So far I had nothing but hatred for the Atlesians and what they had done. "I found something on the guy I caught," I explained to him, "a matchbook for some bar on the west side of town near the railyards."

"That is one of the areas the Atlesian's have claimed as their territory," Ozpin mused, "what of it?"

"If they have control of the rail yard I was thinking it might be a part of their smuggling operations," I explained to him, "After what happened to Velvet I was wondering if maybe it would be worth checking out, it might even be a part of their human trafficking operations."

"I can certainly talk to my friends in the police department about looking further into it," Ozpin said. "What is the name of the bar?"

"The Caboose," I answered him feeling more than a little let down with his response, "I can look into it myself maybe, take a car and just get a look at the area."

"You are not a detective Mr. Arc, and that area would be very dangerous. The Atlesians probably have already heard of you and I have no doubt that they would take advantage of you sneaking around in their territory. Focus on your current task before setting your sights on the rest of the criminals in Vale. Leave it to the proper authorities." he told me.

I wanted to protest. I didn't have any real hope that the police would make any significant breakthroughs considering so many cops in the Vale Police Department were already on the payroll. Bribing cops and public officials to keep their noses out of criminal operations were par for the course in this kind of life. Even if Ozpin did have some trustworthy badges to send in I knew that the corrupt ones would do everything to slow them down. It could take months for anything to happen and by them the Atlesians's would have burned down their operations and changed to something else. Nothing would change the worst people would probably get away.

"Mr. Arc?" Ozpin asked, pulling me away from my thoughts.

"Yes?"

"How are you holding up?" he asked me in a serious but friendly tone.

The question took me by surprise, "What do you mean?"

"We usually have these calls much earlier in the day, but this time and the last you were rather late," he explained to me.