Chapter 60: Chapter Sixty

Once Cark was gone we finished our drinks and headed for the library. As we walked, Jessie spoke up. "That poor guy. I can't imagine having someone steal your younger sibling. Do you think we can keep an eye out? Just in case we run into anyone whose heard anything. I can't believe someone out there is just grabbing kids." She sounded angrier than I'd ever heard her, and I couldn't blame her. Aside from the terrible fact that someone was taking children from their homes, I imagined losing a sibling struck a chord with Jessie.

I nodded. "Of course we can. No way we wouldn't at least keep our ear to the ground about something like that. But I bet you he finds her soon. Cark seems like a determined guy, and anyone who makes G rank at twenty five with zero backing or resources is pretty damn impressive. I can try to talking to some of my sources about the problem though." Once again no one asked how I HAD sources already, and I was grateful for that, but it made keeping my origins from them seem kind of pointless the more they had to willfully ignore how bad I was at hiding it.

Zeke would probably be able to find something though. I could understand how it hadn't gotten around. The sheer density of people in the city made any news that affected less than a million of them pretty small time info. Zeke's sources might be able to dig something up anyway though, given their obviously pervasive and incredibly efficient nature. I wondered how long it would take me to cultivate my own sources here. Hell, maybe old Abner would be one of them, or maybe the bunny man counted.

We followed the directions we'd gotten from Riley until we found ourselves outside a run down looking building with boarded up windows. Like the Bad Night Moon the building was shrouded in darkness, not only lacking in any sort of it's own illumination, but bracketed by empty or abandoned buildings the robbed even the nearby area of light. Unlike the Moon though, this place had an entrance at street level, and when we knocked no hatch swung in. At the sound of my knuckled the door opened, though it was stopped by a chain about two inches into the space. A man's face appeared in the gap, old and worn and suspicious.

He glared out at us, his eyes a bright, feverish hazel and his weathered face covered with a thick bushy beard that did little to hide the scowl under it. "What do you want?" Unfortunately this particular place didn't have a lame pass phrase, we just had to tell him what we wanted and hope he could help.

Jessie stepped up, smiling brightly and waving, ever the people person of the group. "Hi there! I'm Agria, this is Solomon, Clockwork, and Nightstrike. Riley over at the Bad Night Moon told us you might be able to help us find some information?" Her usual happy demeanor was disarming enough to make even the obviously grouchy old man pull up short. The librarian just kind of...blanked.

It took him a second to rearm mentally and by that time Jessie was happily chattering away about how nice it was to meet him. I was ninety percent sure she did this on purpose. My friend was one of the most talented social engineers I'd ever met, and I was always unsure how much of that was intentional. The old man finally came to his senses and interrupted her. "Fine! Come in. Can't have you out here yammering. If Riley sent you I suppose that's good enough. Old gnome makes a shitty cocktail but he knows his business."

He slammed the door and we heard some scrabbling before he opened it up, gesturing us inside. Despite all of us being G rank, I got the impression Abner wasn't worried about dealing with an attack, which meant he was probably at the higher end of G rank rather than lower like Callie and I. Once we were inside he shut the door, relocking it, and turned to our group. "I don't have any drinks or anything, I don't like visitors, but we can sit in the reading room. You can ask your questions and then be on your way. I don't have all day to entertain kids."

He led us into a surprisingly cozy room lit by a roaring fire, with thick black carpets and overstuffed red chairs lining the massive book shelves. He gestured for us to sit down and took a seat in the corner where he could watch us all. "Now, you said Riley sent you? He's decently connected around here, so I'm assuming it's something fairly niche. You're lucky I owe the little man a favor or I wouldn't have bothered letting you in." His tone was bored and annoyed, but his eyes were sharp and focused, clearly assessing the situation.

I shrugged. "Well, not just Riley. Riley seconded the recommendation, but this bounty hunter named Cark mentioned you first. Riley was the one who gave us directions to the place though." I was curious to see what kind of impression Cark left on the old man, so I made sure to mention the bounty hunter had sent us here as well. It would be an easy way to gather come intel on both men.

Abner raised one bushy eyebrow. "Well now, I hadn't expected to hear about him again so soon. Regardless, ask your questions boy. If they sent you to me it's probably something historical or based in folklore I'd guess. I am several centuries old." Jessie gasped and the old man laughed. "You have to remember that Impact slows aging. At G rank you age a year for every twelve lived. The inverse of your Impact. Any G ranker you meet who looks as old as me has been around for quite some time."

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I blinked at that. Stricture had said during our intake that they didn't know how Impact effected aging. Was that just because there were so few G rankers and higher in the city that it never became common knowledge? Or was the standard of information in lower level cities really just that poor? Regardless that was good info to have. It made me wonder how old my parents actually were. My father looked to be in his early thirties. That must make him pretty old, even if he had only hit a higher rank when he was already older.

Still, I was getting sidetracked, as useful as that intel was, it wasn't the information we came here for. I reached into my pocket and once again pulled out the card, passing it over to the old man. He took it from me and his eyes narrowed, lip curling up in a snarl. I raised an eyebrow. "Seems like you recognize the symbol, anything you can tell us about it would be appreciated, the people it belongs to and I have had some...disagreements." I was beginning to get excited about this, it seemed like he might actually know something.

He passed it back, shaking his head. "Nothing specific. No name or anything, but I know the mark. I've seen it before. It shows up sometimes on buildings, usually ones where terrible things happen. I've made something of a...habit, of tracking where they appear, and you can directly link them to all sorts of murders and things of that nature. Where that symbol goes, death follows. It's not consistent or anything, sometimes they show up clustered together, sometimes you won't see one for years, but I've seen that mark before, and not just on Callus."

That...I blinked. Could it actually be that easy? They'd proven that they liked to leave their calling card, literally in my case, and if he was telling the truth I would be able to find these bastards just by searching for the mark. I felt myself start to relax. "Do you know where any of the marks might be at the moment? Any showed up lately?" This could be a real viable lead, something that could take us exactly where we needed to go. Of course from what he said the marks were on places they targeted, not just bases or whatever, so we would need to scope the place out, but still it was more than we had five minutes ago.

He shrugged. "Some. Like I said, new ones are inconsistent. There are a few that are always around though. Older ones or places I think they use more than once." He gave me a piercing stare. "You going after them?" I nodded and he chuckled. "Not sure how smart that is, boy, but it's gutsy. Fine. I'll hand over a few spots I know. But in return I want the info you have and the stuff you've yet to gather. I show you mine you show me yours as it were. I can tell you know something about them I don't. Spill."

I blinked behind my mask in surprise. That was impressive. He might have been fishing, or maybe just had much higher Perception than I did, but regardless of reasoning he had me pegged. I sighed and nodded. "Yeah, fine." It wasn't like I risked much by sharing anyway. I doubted someone this old and well known around here was a sleeper, and even if he was I was literally in his house asking about the symbol, so that blew any anonymity out of the water. Not much to lose and plenty to gain. "My sources say they're called the Heartripper Society. They're a sleeper cell of the Black Sorrow Cult."

The old man sneered. "Might have known. Damn cultists can't do anything without making it sound all dark and spooky. That symbol is just their style. I'd ask where you stumbled on that information but I know when not to push." He stood up, walking to a nearby shelf and skimming his fingers across the bindings of the books until he found a specific volume, and then he pulled it out. It was a huge leather bound tome, and when he opened it I saw it was hollowed out and had a wooden box about the size of a brick in it.

He pulled the box out, popping it open and withdrawing a few sheaves of paper. Then he walked over to a table, pulled out a blank page and a bottle of ink, and started drawing a map, referring back to the papers as he went. The map was beautifully done and extremely detailed, and it flowed from the pen like cracks spiderwebbing the page, his hands moving with the surety and speed only a Skill could have conveyed. Some kind of cartography Skill probably, which was interesting.

He took about two minutes to finish the map, filling in spots with marks and labeling them neatly based on order and how long since he'd noticed them, along with a little note about what he'd seen at each place to prepare us. He blew on the map a bit to let it dry and then passed it over to me with a nod. "A deal is a deal. Remember to come back and update me on anything you learn from this." I nodded seriously and thanked the old man, with the others doing the same, and then we left.

Instead of following the map though, I folded it carefully and slipped it into my pocket. "Alright guys, I think that's enough adventure for one day. This will be a dangerous search and I want to get some more points under my belt before we undertake it. We should head back topside for now and come down refreshed another day." Everyone voiced their agreement and we all headed for the canister to take us back up to the station. This had been a big day, and I had a few questions for Zeke. After that...well it wouldn't hurt to get in a bit more training before we met the enemy on their turf.

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