Bounder Ch. 03

To maintain some minimal pretense of fairness, just so I wouldn't have to explain to the young patrol woman why I had shot a man in the back, but this nominal act of chivalry was entirely unnecessary. I was about to call out to him a split second before I fired, but he'd either heard the doorway of my refuge opening or he'd sensed my approach behind him. I only just had time to discharge my firearm as he spun sharply about as he fired his own weapon with uncomfortable speed and accuracy. He moved with the quickness of a snake and even though I had the advantage behind him and wielded the faster (and more accurate) pistol, the two gun shots sounded close enough together for their echoes to quickly merge into a single larger sound as they reverberated down the long alleyway.

His shot, taken in extraordinary wild haste after being nearly surprised, just barely missed my flesh but quite punctured my cloak, while my own lead stuck straight and true into the center of his chest. In anything resembling a fair fight, the assassin would have beat me. I'd never seen anyone, even professional duelists move and fire that quickly! I had escaped near certain death only by the aid of this young and toothsome young patrol woman!

"That was an extremely precise shot, sir." The lass commented while inspecting the assassin's dead body and especially his discharged firearm.

"Long hours of practice and a good quality weapon. You need both, lass... remember that. Take his pistol. He won't need it anymore, and it looks like an accurate enough weapon, rather good quality even for a matchlock. Customized, I think, and much nicer than the usual crappy cheap-ass military pistols that get flogged off to the guard these days. You can split the contents of his purse with your sergeant too; I'd be very surprised if you didn't find at least a dozen gold royals inside of it."

Actually the purse held nearly fifty of the small gold coins. A very good fee for an experienced hired professional assassin, and far more than the young patrol woman and her sergeant would earn together honestly in a year. The lass gave the corpse a very thorough search for any incriminating papers but the killer was a professional and left nothing on his body that could identify him or the man or men that had hired him. Privately, I was positive that this was the work of the Blackguard too, bringing in one of their hirelings in the murder for hire business to help clean up a mess.

I didn't mind losing the fifty gold royals, or even a share of it. I could earn that same amount easily in a night of card playing and I wanted to cultivate a friendship with the young lady. She seemed honest enough and she had been very stealthy while tailing me. Enough so that I might want to hire her in the future to do some tail work for me someday. I hated to admit it, but if she hadn't helped to distract the assassin, I'd be the one on the ground now with a great lead filled bleeding hole in my chest.

If I were the honor bound sort of hero, instead of a dishonest scoundrel, I'd have felt some sort of lingering debt to the young lady. But since that was completely against my character, I decided to think happier and much more selfish thoughts instead... like making the young lady my newest pet sometime later, when all of this madness and confusion was over and I didn't have Sir Adrian breathing down my neck! Later! The thought of the young patrol woman naked and obedient on her knees brought quite a rise to my codpiece, but fortunately the oversize leather had some room for internal growth, but I'm sure it gave my hose a distinct twitch or two.

I needed to look away in apparent thought for a few moments to get my urges back under control. This was the exact sort of intemperance that got me into all sorts of trouble back in Mirabelle! No! A missing patrol women would be searched for, possibly even by magical means and I was sure that Sir Adrian was clever enough to put his eyes back focused upon me, should the young lady make a sudden disappearance to my private cellar dungeon. The woman was quite fetching, but alas, she really could not become one of my pets! Furthermore I needed my thoughts focused upon survival now. There wouldn't be time for that sort of play until all of this was over, and the murderer(s) found. Playtime must wait!

"I assume you and your sergeant can make sure that this particular fellow doesn't end up for public view or social contemplation and gossip anytime soon? I'd suggest a trip to the swamp myself, as the river tends to yield up its dead far too frequently, and promptly, for my tastes. I need to meet some associates in private, but I trust I can send a message to your captain should I desire acquiring your future services again soon?"

The lass agreed and was happily counting out bright shiny golden coins when I made my departure. The coast was clear ahead of me and I was very safely away into the bowels of my home neighborhood just before the full sunlight of noon flooded into the once dark alleyways I'd taken my passage through.

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Once at the brothel, I hired a trio of local street urchins hanging out upon the back steps to run the messages I had written earlier back at The Crown. This was common practice for handling guild business and general errand running. For the most part they were all reliable, most were already working the lowest rungs of the thieves' guild social ladder and could be depended upon to handle routine business like message deliveries and keep their mouths shut. These were the older sons of the working whores inside, for the most part. The more enterprising ones would soon be pimping their own sisters or otherwise making their own place within the guild. Even the stupid ones had enough sense to follow orders and knew their place. I didn't recognize a couple of these lads, but the working girls here came and went, often rotated to other brothels or occasionally retired as new younger whores arrived.

Maitlan ought to have already been here, but the house mother informed me that he was taking lunch at a favorite street food bar just a few blocks away, but he could quickly be found there. His uncle was undoubted at my home nearby, just a few blocks away, and could also promptly arrive. Finding Koch might take a little while longer, but not considerably so.

I procured a jug of decent wine from the small kitchen downstairs and took my usual corner room upstairs on the top third floor where I could discreetly watch down both of the external main streets for any signs of trouble. I'd completed the last six or seven blocks of the journey here via obscure back alleys. This is an old neighborhood, full of narrow dark walkways between buildings scarcely wide enough to swing a rat, with plenty of places to lose an unwanted watcher or disappear without any trace. The tenants and local shopkeepers know better than to speak out of turn to the vigiles and the guild does a lot of business in this area. This was a main reason that I chose this neighborhood for my primary home, rather than a fancier house in Riverside, or someplace further up the hill. This area is moderately upscale and prosperous enough for my relatively simple daily needs, but with a decisively seedy underbelly, especially after dark!

From my corner perch I observed most of what was happening outside but could remain hidden, unseen behind the lace curtain covering the windows. The corner front bay windows were ideal for watching down both main streets and I could see my corner house a full three blocks down the street to the west, but from this distance no obvious lurkers were waiting around there for me, or at least not in any numbers. From the window in the small attached private bathroom I could also peer down the back alleyway. In an emergency there was a sturdy drain pipe that I could reach outside this window and climb with little effort hopefully unseen up to the roof. Once there, the roofs of other nearby buildings were near enough that the gaps could be jumped with little effort, to make an escape over the rooftops, if necessary. It is very important to always try and be in a place with at least two potential escape routes.

Nothing seemed out of place nearby behind us as well, and I noted with pleasure that each of my three associates arrived secretly via the back alleyway also and didn't approach the front door. They also spaced their arrivals adequately, so that no one watching would likely associate them as being together on furtive business. We'd discussed this and other basic security matters on several occasions and my small but discreet staff only rarely disappointed me. Another reason that I was quite willing to pay my henchmen what their true value was worth to maintain their services.

Each in turn arrived at our private little upstairs meeting room which was plainly furnished with just the usual brothel bed and a small table with a few chairs. No one at the brothel ever used this room except for us, so it was always kept neat and extremely tidy. Koch was indeed the last to arrive, but right about when I had expected him. My men each gave brief greetings and took their seats and each helped themselves to a tin tankard full of wine. I had my own tankard about half full but I remained standing. I think better when on my feet and rarely ever sit during one of our meetings. This is also so that I can better watch the street for signs of possible intrusion, like any group of loitering armed men... much like the collection that was slowly now assembling a bit down the street, just inside the doorway of a nearby ale house.

They weren't that obvious, to most casual observers, but I could now count at least five men with similar mercenary leathers and wearing war belts, each with short stabbing swords best suited to the demands and necessities of indoor brawling where space to swing even a long sword was usually limited. These did not appear to be roaring boys, mundane street brawlers, but rather hardboys instead, veteran soldiers or mercenaries skilled with a blade. Definitely not vigiles either. These lads looked like either professional hired blades or else off-duty Blackguards trying not to look too menacing or official, and mostly not successfully. A closer look showed that a few more similar sorts of gentlemen were nearby on the street as well, with perhaps a few more already inside the ale house waiting.

I'd obviously used this meeting place one time too many, or else someone within the guild had blabbered to outsiders. Perhaps even one of the whore-sons had betrayed me! None of these options was good. We needed to get out of here fast!