Chapter 3.
In an unused basement of the Sheriff's station, in the lowest pantry of the manor house that used to be here, was a trapdoor in the floor that was kept locked at all times. Ezreal and Caitlyn were the only ones who had keys, and that was where they were going tonight. The trapdoor was heavy. They pried it open, dust cascading over the edges, and stared into the darkness below.
"What's going to be down there?" asked Caitlyn. She was armored for combat if it should come to that.
"Hopefully, nothing," said Ezreal. "No one, I should say. The tunnels aren't a bad place." He handed her a flashlight and tapped the smaller pistol on her belt. "Have it ready, but don't get jumpy."
"I'm not jumpy!" said Caitlyn indignantly. The flashlights revealed a narrow staircase, walled on both sides. They descended as quietly as possible into the warm, inky darkness. Caitlyn kept close to Ezreal, wishing, not for the first time that day, that Vi was there. She felt deeply uncomfortable with nothing to aim at.
"I'm having the Patrol check the rest of the tunnel systems, but we already have quite a bit," said Ezreal. The staircase opened into a large passageway, and he held the lantern up to illuminate the walls and ceiling of was large enough to be a train tunnel. "Like I said, there's tagging – does it look like Jinx to you, or is there any chance it's an imitator?"
Bright pink spray-paint marred the brick walls of the tunnels nonsense scribbles, the name "Jinx" all over the place, rude sayings such as, "Piltover's Finest Muff Munchers," a few penises, and a depiction in graphic (if cartoonish) detail of Vi, completely naked, strung up by her ankles, dead, judging by the X's on her eyes, with her hands cut off. Caitlyn fixated, on this drawing, growing increasingly horrified as she thought of Jinx talking to Vi in the square yesterday, and the fact that Vi was driving home from the capital alone. "That's definitely Jinx," said Caitlyn, her voice shaking a bit. "Still no sign of Vi? This looks to me like Jinx is targeting her personally. We should—we should provide her an escort or something."
"Well—no, Caitlyn, look at this," he unfolded a miniature version of his map of the Piltover tunnel system and shined the flashlight on it for her. "The red dots are places where Jinx has tagged. Look at it!" The red dots formed an almost perfect X, with the vertex of the two lines right where they were standing, under the Sheriff's Station. "We think she's going to attack here next, we think it's a threat," he said. "We need to check around here for bombs and—,"
"But what if this is just a distraction!" Caitlyn insisted. "Vi is out there on a motorcycle, alone, at night. Do you understand? No roof. No walls. Nothing to protect her from bullets or poison darts, or, this—!" She gestured to Jinx's drawing. "We can't just let her—,"
Ezreal held his head. "Okay, if it would make you feel better, deploy a couple of officers to escort her. Meanwhile, we really need to check for whatever we can find."
Caitlyn sighed with resignation. She pressed the button on her walkie-talkie, and said, "Please send two cars up to the east exit to escort Officer Vi when she returns from the Capital," she said.
"Gotcher', Sheriff," said Henry's gruff voice.
Ezreal and Caitlyn scouted the area, which was more complex that it initially looked. There were back-tunnels and alleys and boxes and loose bricks and hiding-holes that had to be checked for explosives or whatever else Jinx might have planted. Caitlyn did her best with the pick and the flashlight, but Ezreal ended up having to come and check everywhere she had already looked. He had charted these tunnels, so he knew where everything was. Caitlyn couldn't have been expected to have his level of understanding of the tunnel's intricacies, but she still hated feeling like she wasn't contributing.
"I don't believe there's nothing down here," said Ezreal stubbornly. "She's gotta have something down here. Maybe not a bomb, but a stash of ammunition or something." He pressed the communicator to his own Patrol. "Guys, bring the Dragon to Tunnel CI-094, and I need three people to divert over here. We're looking for new damage."
"Jinx has never planted a bomb before... what's the Dragon?" asked Caitlyn skeptically, but she didn't have to wait long. Using Hover technology, four black-clad Patrol members whizzed into the tunnel with a huge hover lamp tethered between them. They settled it in the middle of the tunnel, then one of them took off on a hover craft.
"Guys, start checking everywhere for signs of new damage or alterations. We've already got the graffiti, but check under it." Ezreal's team started scouring the tunnel with sticks and needles and special lights that showed the brick walls in different colors.
"Your team uses hovercrafts?" Caitlyn asked. "The city never gave my officers hovercrafts."
"I know what you're thinking, and it's not the case," said Ezreal. "Jinx's hovercraft is of a completely different kind from ours. It's not Yordle-made at all."
"And she couldn't have altered it to suit her needs?"
"I suppose it's possible," said Ezreal, "but I assure you, she's not a Patrol rogue."
That thought hadn't even occurred to Caitlyn. "Alright," she said. "But if she's been into your supplies, it's possible she's down here masquerading as Patrol member. It would be impossible to tell." The Patrol dressed in black body-suits that helped them to hide from the many criminal gangs that sometimes showed up in the tunnels, avoiding any conflict that might endanger the structural integrity of the tunnels.
"You honestly think someone that crazy could effectively take on a different persona?" asked Ezreal with a laugh. "She'd give herself away in an instant."
"I think you underestimate her," said Caitlyn grimly.
Just then, Caitlyn's walkie-talkie crackled. "The gates are closing for the night, Sheriff. No sign of the Deputy."
"Damn," said Caitlyn quietly. "Ezreal, you and your team can work on this. I'm needed above ground." She handed him her flashlight, and jogged back to the staircase into the office. There was a great commotion up there as desk workers transferred thousands of case files into the armored trucks that would take them to the Archives. Every window was shut and covered so that no one on the outside could see what was going on. If Jinx really was targeting the Sheriff's station, and Caitlyn figured she must be, they needed to get everyone and everything important working in different location without Jinx finding out.
Caitlyn herself immediately went to the garage and started up one of the motorcycles. She needed to be fast. She took her communicator out of her pack and typed a quick message. "Vi, if you are not in distress, please respond ASAP." She buckled it into her belt so that she would notice immediately if Vi responded, and then took off on the bike up to the gate, which opened for her with the swipe of her badge.
Once on the street, she wasn't even sure where she was going. If Vi was already in town, she might have gone to her apartment. It was only a block and half away from the station. Caitlyn parked her bike in the alley beside the walkup apartment building where Vi lived. She raced up the stairs to the second floor and pounded on the blue door before impatiently pulling the backup key out of her pocket.
"Vi?" she called into the darkness of the apartment, but she already knew her partner wasn't there. The gauntlet-stand beside the door was empty. "Damn," she said to herself, and returned to the street. She clenched her fists, wanting to do something but unsure where to go. The gate? It was closed by now, too late. She might still be out on the highway – in that case, she'd have to come in by the north entrance to the city. It was the only gate that was open around the clock. She sped up and down the hills of the city, taking advantage of her immunity from traffic laws like never before. It was like Jinx's drawing was seared into her eyes and she couldn't slow down if she wanted to. She needed to find Vi.
A crackle in her walkie-talkie. "Sheriff," said Henry, "the Deputy has arrived at the station." At almost the same time, the communicator on her belt vibrated and a message read, "Distress? I'm not in distress, where are you?" Caitlyn could almost physically feel the anxiety ebbing away from her chest, but she felt just as stupid as she felt relieved. She shook her head and turned around, taking the shortest route back to the station.
The stir had greatly diminished when she returned up the stairs from the garage. Most of the staff was done relocating and had gone home. Seeing no one in the commons, Caitlyn went upstairs to check that her own office was cleaned out properly. She saw through a gap in the open door that Vi was sitting inside, hunched over something on her desk. Caitlyn knocked lightly on the open door and walked inside.
Vi nodded in greeting, wordlessly.
"How did it go at the Capital?" Caitlyn asked. She sat on an overturned wooden crate beside Vi's desk. Vi looked exhausted, her eyes drooping and her whole person looking diminished. "Normally you won't have to drive back after a fight," Caitlyn said, when Vi didn't respond. "They have dormitories up there for the champions."
Vi glanced at Caitlyn with a curious expression. "It was okay," she said, dropping her head onto the table. "I had to fight Sejuani. It was fun."
Caitlyn was tempted to reach out and rub her head, running her fingers through Vi's messy pink hair, but she resisted. "Is that all you did?" she asked. "Just a 1 v. 1?"
Vi's eyes went up to Caitlyn's face again, with that same curious expression. "Yeah," she said. "And one of the Summoners gave me a little tour afterwards."
"So I guess we'll all go up together this weekend," said Caitlyn. "That will be fun. You, me, Jayce, and Ezreal."
Vi propped herself back up. "Are you sure that's a good idea? With Jinx running around? Henry told me you sent an escort, but I missed it."
Caitlyn blushed. "Yes, I did," she said quietly.
"What's up?" asked Vi, looking perplexed.
"Oh, I just thought you might… think I was being a mother hen, or something like that," said Caitlyn. "Ow!" She had swiped her hand on the wooden crate, and now a rather large splinter was stuck in her finger.
Vi gestured for Caitlyn to give her the hand. She fiddled with the splinter for a moment, then, to Caitlyn's surprise, she put the finger in her mouth, massaging the splintered area with her tongue till she got a good grip on it with her teeth, and pulled it out. "There you go, cupcake," she said, returning Caitlyn's hand. There was a brief silence, and then Vi made that strange expression again. "Cait, can I ask you something?"
"What kind of thing?" asked Caitlyn suspiciously.
"About something Sejuani said today."
Panic and dread overtook Caitlyn's body. Had Sejuani told Vi that...? She tried to put on a smile and change the subject. "Vi, yesterday, you didn't want me to act like your mum, and now you want me to give you advice on personal issues?"
Vi blushed. "Who said it was a personal issue?"
"Well, whatever Sejuani said, she was probably exaggerating," Caitlyn snapped. She stood up and began putting her personal affects in the wooden crate she had been sitting on, hoping that through force of will she could make the conversation end.
Vi looked confused. "Okay…? I didn't even tell you what she said."
"I don't want to hear what she said!" Caitlyn insisted. "I know the kind of things Sejuani says. Believe me. I know."
"So, you know her pretty well, eh?" asked Vi, also standing up and getting her things together.
"Yes," Caitlyn confirmed. "I know her pretty well."
"Right, well," Vi slapped Caitlyn on the shoulder. "We better get out of here before that blue-haired freak pops a cap in our asses."
"Wouldn't want to ruin our arses," Caitlyn agreed.