The Chay Ong Casefiles, Volume One: Always Chasing Rainbows.

Chapter 12: Reconnaissance and Infiltration

"...And that's what she told me.", Chay said into her phone.

Chay was perched on top of a nearby warehouse, close to Val's place, using the focus feature on her hellphone as a makeshift telescope. The weather was less humid then it had been the previous two days, and she had gone back to wrapping her scarf around her face. Below her, she could see some of Val's employees chatting it up near the building, either smoking or displaying what they had to offer (two of them were even making out with each other in order to entice business. She wasn't sure if it was working).

"I shoulda' figured that they'd be recruiting Imps.", Husk groggily answered. He was hanging out on top of a fire escape next to the empty building that was once's Flynn's dive bar. The studio for 666 News could be seen just down the street, and a billboard with the grinning visage of anchor Katie Killjoy was polluting the view in Husk's binoculars. "Imps get treated like garbage as it is down here, so they're easy marks for shit like this."

Munching sounds could be heard from Crol's end. "You were right, Husk. These donuts are amazing!".

"Fuckin' told ya!", Husk replied.

Crol had managed to take the donut shop as his area of surveillance. Crol thought it would be a good mid-way spot as it was located in an area that was equidistant to both the Red-light District and the border with Pentagram's center.

(Chay, of course, thought he took it because he was a coward.)

Crol was sitting on the street corner outside of Evil Donuts, eating his way through a box of chocolate-glazed crullers and eyeing the scantily-clad demon ladies that wondered past him. One demon's particularly voluptuous rear-end had especially caught his attention.

"Just don't get distracted.", Chay said. "I don't want to have to do this again tomorrow night if I don't have to."

"How are we sure they'll even make an appearance?", Husk said. He was focusing his binoculars on the road, the sidewalk, and every possible entryway onto the street. "They ran away with their tail between their legs last time, don't you think they'd rather lay low for a couple of days and regroup?"

"Oh, they're gonna make an appearance. I'm counting on it. If what I think about their leader is right..."

Then he heard the skidding tires.

Crol immediately jumped up from the sidewalk and climbed up the Evil Donut's drain pipe, plopping himself on the building's roof.

"Guys, I think I hear them coming!"

"Which way are they going?!", Chay shouted.

Crol peeked over the side of the building, eyes darting left and right. The black assault vehicle had finally made it's appearance, drifting around the street corner and slamming into a light pole and a mailbox before taking off down the road, leaving dust and rubber-burned smoke in it's wake.

As far as the kobold-demon could tell, it was heading west.

"It's heading downtown, Chay!", he shouted into his phone through a coughing fit. His nostrils burned with the smell of burning rubber.

H usk spread out his wings, giving them a test flap. "Alright, I'm ready for a fly-over if you need it!"

Chay focused her hellphone's camera towards midtown. " Understood! I'll see if I can get a trace of..."

There was a puff of smoke, and the sound of an explosion reverberated towards Chay's location.

"I think Cherri may have just intercepted them!", Chay cried.