SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER || k. brekker || CURRENTLY UPDATING

1.3

     HAVING ACQUIRED a Heartrender, successfully taken before Pekka could get his filthy hands on her, the Crows made their way to Dreesen. The woman they'd agreed to pay was dressed in faux riches; or at least that's what they looked like to Victoria. No woman in Ketterdam would advertise true wealth the way this woman does - she acted as if she were Ravkan royalty.

     Kaz's lips curled up in a sly grin as the five of them drew nearer to Dreesen's territory, before the Heartrender began to speak up. "I really appreciate new business, but you've only paid for an hour of my time, then I have to be back at the Orchid." She sounded rather worried, Vi supposed it was rightfully so. Four dodgy figures hiring a Heartrender for such a short time? It made little rational sense.

     "The Orchid isn't safe tonight. Your life's in danger with this job. You should make yourself scarce for a few days afterwards." The bastard didn't bother to face the Heartrender as he spoke, continuing to walk at an impressive pace, his cane making little sound on purpose.

     "Mr. Brekker, are you threatening me? Really?" Well, this woman didn't understand the concept of association. "Even if I'm nice, my boss will call the stadwatch on you."

     "Look, lady. It's association. You're being paid to help us, but now we have given you our enemies. People will look at you and see you as one of us, hence why you should make yourself scarce once this is over." Vi got bored of listening to her preposterous misunderstanding, and her tone did nothing to disguise this.

     "It's not me you're in danger with, it's Pekka Rollins." Kaz stopped walking to turn and face the Grisha woman.

     "As I said, association." The Shadow Summoner mumbled to herself, looking up at the building they had to get this Heartrender into.

     "My boss would call the stadwatch on him as well." She tried to act big and clever, but the Crows knew the end of this already.

     "Which is why your boss is already dead." There was no remorse in his words, more a satisfaction as he revealed truths.

     The five of them strode up to the gate of the courtyard which was plagued with damp leaves, before a member of that private security called out to them.

     "Who are you lot?" He asked confrontationally.

     "We're here to see Dreesen." Kaz told him, stopping a short distance from the boundary.

     "You're not with Pekka's crew." The bodyguard spoke, and Vi knew where this was going. Debts and vendettas held crews in the barrel high, it was how Pekka cheated his way to such power.

     "And you're not in Pekka's pocket anymore if you don't owe him." Dirtyhands aimed to bargain, tossing a small pouch of kruge the bodyguard's way, the man catching it with ease.

     Well, that was certainly easy. Now they were well on their way to meeting their impending doom, which seemed to feel like a normal day in the recent times of the barrel.

     "Hey, where did you get that coin?" Jesper queried, and on cue, the man shouted; "Hey! One of these has a hole in it!"

     "Saints." The Zemeni man had to stop himself from chuckling more than he already was, and Vi felt a small sense of accomplishment. "So they were all counterfeit? And here I was hoping we'd get more kruge from that nobhead." The saint knew better than to trust that false coin Jesper revealed anyway, but one can dream.

     Kaz had a slightly fumbled look on his face as he ushered the Crows and Heartrender. "Inside. Inside." Jesper was teetering on the edge of hysterics as they made their way into the building in hopes of getting the job from Dreesen.