Word from the field (Dark Aether)

The stack of reports on her desk had
managed to grow quite a bit over the last few days. With everything
that had been going on in town, the field agents that Jed had
employed were feeding a steady stream of information back to her, and
the news was not good. The Van Creed had kept a pretty low profile
overall, but they were still working in the warehouse. She’d need
some more eyes on the building, and perhaps another look inside.
After writing a short note, the pneumatic tube carried the request on
it’s way to the maze of drops that would eventually place the
instructions in the hand of an operator.

It had become apparent a while back
that in order to efficiently and swiftly gather intelligence, there
would need to be a network of people out in the field gathering
information and sending it back to be checked, verified and
processed. She laughed to herself that while this was possible on
her own a few years ago, it wasn’t nearly as easy or simple now.
While Jed could still operate in some places with the impunity she
enjoyed back in her anonymous days, it just wasn’t possible to do
that in New Babbage anymore. So for once, she was the handler, and
she had managed assets to do the fieldwork.

She’d been diligent, reading all the
reports, putting together briefings for the Mayor, working on keeping
him informed. Tenk would do what he always did, nod, fiddle with his
pipe, make a few sotto voce comments, and say thank you. She had
hoped there would be more firm resolute action, hoping he would say
“take care of it Jed” or something like that. Instead he just
looked distant and peeved that this kept coming up. The man was
inscrutable.

The last two bits came in very close
together. One of the people watching the port reported a large
number of crates being unloaded and carried to the warehouse in the
Gut. Loads in, empties out. They couldn’t identify the exact types
of cargo, only that some of it was heavy and there seemed to be quite
a bit of it. The other was a direct action report, that made Jed
more worried that the cargo going to the building.

“Doors are now intact and secured.
What appears to be a storage tank and distillation equipment
installed in the rear of the building. Mechanical noise coming from
inside. Orpheus sited on grounds. No sight of any Pluto members.
Continuing to observe, will ingress if opportunity presents, or
orders to contrary. JdA”

Jed read the note and made a few
entries into the bound book that kept the information on this whole
affair. She had codenamed Moriarty ‘Orpheus’ since he came back from
the underworld, and the Van Creed had gotten the moniker ‘Pluto’
since they apparently wanted to send us all to Hades…

She fired off a note in reply, and
prayed it would be enough…

“Maintain your watch. If opportunity
arises, send Orpheus back home, with expedition and prejudice. If
Pluto’s minions are afoot, seek to identify and potentially isolate a
subject for closer conversation. Morrigan”

She thought about the Writer, what the
book had said about the raid. Maybe it was right, maybe she
would…somehow, in the midst of that thought, she caught herself in
a new habit that made her stop for a moment. Jed looked down at her
left hand, and noticed that she had been absently twirling the band
on her ring finger as the ideas of what the Writer had said swirled
through her mind. The ring, the silver of the band and the crimson
of the stone sitting against the faint lines of the scars on her
hands. When Moriarty had nearly killed her before, things were
different. Now, she had a few more reasons to fight. Maybe the book
will be fulfilled. But maybe, the book is only what could be. Jed
leaned back and decided that she was going to make sure that the
future was not written.