Babysitting The Special Agents

17: Putting Together Puzzle Pieces

The air vent that I am currently perched in is cramped and hot. I have five minutes before the shift change and then I need to drop in and follow the new guards into the vault.

It's strange, Sal has always had a handle on the criminal underground circles. They're like weeds that we'd always managed to keep at bay but lately they're more active, they're plotting and they're harder to stop. I suppose it could be due to the mole but that seems unlikely. The mole is a new factor, only prevalent since our team formed whereas these operations must have been long in the works.

Here in Mishgest they have hollowed out an entire tree without anyone knowing (harming the trees is considered crime here, after all the trees are what they live in and from. Only naturally fallen trees are harvested and hollowed). They've been using this tree as a base, transporting illegal goods such as magically duplicated food and wares and Etherbell. Magical duplication lowers worth of things, and quality but, if good enough, can be sold at the same price or higher.

We wouldn't know about this holding if not for Tarryker and Fizelora's spyfly. She has an intriguing fondness for her magictechological bugs. In my attempts to be friendlier I tried engaging in a conversation with her about them. She started to talk but then shut down. I suppose people don't really want to converse with people who assaulted them. 

"Crawl in 10," Obalari's voice comes through my earpiece, "9." I move the previously unscrewed air vent and prepare to crawl out and on to the ceiling. All Laconni's master plan. As much as I hate to admit it she really has taken to planning missions, like a thief to gold. "And go."

I slip onto the ceiling, invisible due to the charm in my pocket—Sal issued, not available on the street. I crawl above the two masked beings, following the turns and matching their pace. When, at long last, we reach the vault I pull Fizelora's spyfly from my pocket.

"Careful Agent M." She growls in my ear.

"I won't harm your baby." I roll my eyes and tap it to wake it up. The fly immediately starts to record, storing the movements that the guards make while opening the vault. There's some noises and movement before the vault door opens, I wait by the top of the door as they do a check for intruders and stock. They leave and as they swap with their guards standing by the door and enter the closing passcode I scuttle in, spyfly on my shoulder.

The vault door clangs and I drop to the floor as the fly glows in the dark. That's a pretty cool trick, I think as I start to make a mental list of the vault's contents. Jewellery, fake enchanted items, containers filled with fake grain. I grind my teeth at the sight of the fake food, I have half a mind to spoil it. Stop it being sold to some poor, starving family for more than it's worth only for it to go bad in a day or not give them any nutrients or relief from hunger. But that's not my mission, and my impulse control is second to none.

I start to sift through the boxes of paperwork, "what have you found Agents?" Obalari asks, "you have a half hour before they rotate again." He's in their system, he knows when the guards shift will be before the guards themselves.

"I've found their single Etherbell plant, there's about five dupes in here, but they seem to be studying the plant as much as they're duplicating it. What's Spock found?"

"Spock?" I ask, subconsciously raising my eyebrow, even though there's no one in here with me to see it.

"My spyfly, duh." Thufex replies, "haven't you named yours?"

"No." I say dully as Fizelora begins to chat about how Spock suits the fly well and how 'spock' has found their bread duplicating line.

"Stop talking." I tell them as I open a box filled with the very paperwork we're after. There's four letters in this box, a box labelled 'to go'. They're all addressed to 'hothouse heating company' but there is no way they're for an actual heating company. I reckon these letters are the confirmation we've been after. Somehow Tholafa's Duck is linked to the Mishgest gangs.