Something Wild (Child of the Winter Moon Book 1)

28: Bad News and Risky Plans

Geralt returned to Dijkstra, who was doing paperwork in his office.

"Dijkstra."

The former spymaster looked up "What did you find?"

"Found a second corpse, one of the thieves. Threw up the antidote, just like your man Fonce."

"A beautiful death. Find anything on the body?"

"Not much. Empty vial."

"Wouldn't have left him behind if he was anybody. Common porter, must be. Knew nothing, means nothing. Dead end. Literally!"

"But this isn't." Geralt set the piece of the container he found on the desk. "Seems to me a bomb blew the wall open."

Dijkstra picked up the piece. "Bottom of a silver cylinder, probably. Covered in runes... Interesting... Any idea what it contained?"

"Recognized some ingredients by their scent, wyvern oil and sugar."

"Sugar?! Geralt, I'm in no mood for jests."

"Nor am I. Just saying what I found. Bomb contained sugar."

"Let's think... Sugar would react violently with sulfuric acid... But not so violently to cause an explosion."

"Didn't know you were versed in alchemy."

"Dabbled in it a bit while at Oxenfurt Academy... But this is no time to reminisce. You're to find my treasure, not write my biography. Know anything else about this bomb? Anything at all?"

"Bomb went off inside a drainage pipe embedded in the vault wall. But the grate at the end of the pipe was in place when the blast happened, meaning..."

"The bomb must have found its way into the pipe from inside the bathhouse."

"Exactly. Mighta gone something like this: perpetrator started emptying one of the pools, then dropped the bomb down the drain."

"The bomb flowed down with the run-off, came to rest on the grate and, to quote Bart, big boom."

"Drain pipe's our only promising lead. We just need to know which pool it's connected to."

"Yes... Happen keeps a record of guests, should be able to tell us who used that pool the day of the break-in... You've not done badly." Dijkstra stood.

"Feel honored to be acknowledged," Geralt said drily, following him.

"Oh, that famous sarcasm... I'd missed it."

Geralt raised a brow. "Really?"

"Mhm. About as much as I'd miss a knife in my knickers."

Geralt rolled his eyes as Dijkstra led them to the baths.

"All right. You inspect the pools on the right, I'll take the ones on the left. Holler if you find anything!"

Geralt used his heightened senses to inspect the pools, coming across one that looked like it had oil on the surface. He looked around the pool and soon found a silver lid in one of the potted plants. "Silver lid... Matches the cylinder bottom I found in the sewer... Dijkstra! Come here!"

Dijkstra joined him. "Got something?"

"Yeah." He handed Dijkstra the lid. "Bomb part."