Tepic meets the Man in the Blue Suit

Dear Miss Henrichs,

i’s writing this report so’s yer know i listened after the accident with you know what. It were the day after, an i were going to me camp, but as i reached the clockwork milk cart on the slope out the gates, i smelt a right pong. It were the stuff that toff in the blue suit splashes all over him, so i takes care an looks over the wall down to me camp.

Would yer believe it! He were standing there bold as brass, looking me stuff over! Well, i picked up a good sized stone from the wall, and were about to drop it on his bonce when i remembered yer wanted me to think first, so i calls down to him an asks what he were up to! He wanted me to go down an talk to him, but i ain’t daft, an told him we could talk the way we was, an he weren’t to make no sudden moves or reach into his pockets or he would get a close look at me rock.

He told me he were there to warn me off, an if i stayed in the City he would do me in, which were a bit weird, cus most people don’t really bother with me. Seemed ter be a lot of trouble ter go to fer one urchin, an he were quite specific, he weren’t really after me at all, recon it’s cus some of us gets by whatever, an we ain’t wanted.

He told me he were working fer someone else, who had given him instructions, an that bloke likes to gloat, an didn’t want no one hurt, he showed me a bunch of letters he was supposed ter have posted, warning people away from the places he was gonna blow up, but he hadn’t sent em. I told him ter leave em in my camp, an i would deliver em, but he wouldn’t, cus they said where he were goin next. Seems he don’t always do what he’s told ter do, though he didn’t seem to be worried one way or the other.

Asked him if he had had one of them head thingys they do at the Asylum, cuttin bits of yer head to make yer not worry bout stuff, he said his head had been cut, but not that way.

They ain’t out to knock off the urchins, they wants em cold, hungry an without anywhere to stay, so i recons it’s some factory owner or bloke as needs young uns an others to have ter work for em cheap. Could be worth lookin out an seeing who is buying places?

When i told him we knew he’d lost a bloke in the warren, he said he had replaced him already, but in a weird way. Said he had captured someone and “persuaded” him ter work fer him. Said he were right good at persuading, an might recruit an urchin ter work for him! Told him straight, i did, that no urchin in the City would ever work for him, but recon he would threaten ter kill em if they didn’t, an some ain’t gonna stand up ter that sort of thing.

His boss wants ter make a name for himself, an blowin stuff up an killin people ain’t really his sty;e, but the toff in the blue suit, well, he don’t care who gets hurt, an though he says he don’t take any pleasure in doin people in, i don’t believe it. He knew i was tryin ter rile him up an get him spilling the beans, an he said he hadn’t told me nuffin.  Them as is too smug in their own opinions of emselves don’t know as what them as can listen right can hear, so i hopes this report lets you know some useful stuff.
I told him as no giant eyeballs, plagues of zombies, morlocks, mole men or flying winged monkeys had made me scarper from the City, so him an his boss had better give up an scarper themselves. He thought that were right funny, an started up into the City, so i remembered what yer said an did a runner. Fer some reason, i ain’t sure a rock on the head would stop this bloke.

Tepic

Oh, fer the moment, i ain’t sure where i’s staying, recon it’s best to keep on the move, cus when the foxhunters are after you, yer got to be where they ain’t!