The Assignment

Chapter Two

April 3rd, 1912

Ellicot

Train Inn

3:45 am

In the roughly six months they had worked together, Heymans had learned many things about Vato. Vato, while coming across as stoic, had a sense of humor to rival Jean's. Vato was fiercely loyal to the team and Mustang. Vato visited his mother every Sunday, not out of obligation but because he enjoyed his mother's company. Vato was also very bad at cards and held his liquor better than anyone else on the team.

Heymans liked Vato. He considered the other man a good friend. He would gladly dive in front of a bullet for him. However, right now Heymans wanted to smother him. The one thing he hadn't known about Vato before tonight was that the man snored. Not a soft, almost non-existent snore as they had all heard from Mustang. No, it was a loud, horrible sound that was keeping Heymans awake.

He wondered if perhaps the other man was coming down with something? Surely no one made this much noise normally. Heymans groaned and buried his head under his pillow in an attempt to block out the sound. Vato rolled from his side to his back, and somehow grew louder. Heymans couldn't take it anymore.

He sat up in the bed, glared at his travel companion, cursed the innkeeper for putting them in the same room…and threw his glass of water on the older man. Vato sat up with a start, glaring around the room looking for the source of danger before settling his gaze on Heymans. "You snore. It was keeping me up." Heymans said before rolling over to face away from the other man.

"I do not snore!" Vato replied with a huff. He glared at his now damp pillow before flipping it over to try to lay back down after drying off his face on the single towel that had been provided with their linens.

"You were snoring tonight. SO, either you always snore, and no one has told you, you are lying, or you are coming down with a cold." The bundle of blankets that was once Heymans before he became one with the bed.

"My bed it wet now." Vato said. "And I don't snore." Heymans however, ignored his friend and promptly fell asleep.

9:00am

Vato was still annoyed with Heymans as they finished their breakfast under the hateful glare of the Innkeeper. He had not been able to fall back to sleep following the water incident. He didn't understand Heymans behavior.

Vato did not snore. If he snored surely someone would have said something to him before now. It just didn't make any sense for Heymans to claim it was thanks to snoring that he had been soaked. Heymans was usually funny and lighthearted, though he did tend to cheat at cards and drink like a fish, they got along rather well, or so Vato thought.

Heymans had finished his own oatmeal before Vato before they thanked the Innkeeper's wife and left the Inn. They had a lot to deal with today and didn't have time to continue their argument now. Soon enough they reached the military stables and asked to speak to the manager.

After a few minutes a middle-aged man in overalls came out to see them. Vato stayed back as Heymans explained that they had been sent out to look into the disappearances of the horses. The manager, who had introduced himself as Grant Parks, had been the one to file a request for help to Eastern Command. He was pleased that they had sent help so quickly, which he, mentioned on the way to his office.

Once they had settled into chairs across from his desk, Grant began, "I noticed the problem for the first time two months ago. I came in one morning and we were short one mare. I didn't really think about it at the time, because other hands are allowed to check out the horses and ride them if they are comfortable.

"By the end of the day, we were still one horse short, and I still hadn't found any paperwork on where she might have gone. So, I asked my hands. None of them knew where she'd gone either or so they claimed. I was annoyed but assumed there had to be something somewhere that I had overlooked because why would she just be gone?" Grant said. "Then, another mare disappeared the same way a week later."

"How many have gone missing at this point?" Breda asked as Falman copied down notes.

"Fifteen near as I can tell. Maybe more." Grant said. "That first one? Paperwork finally popped up on her about two weeks later, claiming she'd gone out with General Harlens company to the Creta border."

"…General Harlens?" Falman asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Yup. Only that don't make sense. Harlans men moved outta this area seven months ago." Grant said. "So, I went through the paperwork again three days ago, and it claimed we sent all ten horses out to Harlans, and I contacted Eastern Command for an investigation."

"I need to look through the records, for the last five months, to find out how many horses went out and who handled the transfer." Breda said with a sinking feeling. Harlans died in a border skirmish five months ago. Someone was clearly stealing the horses, but why and where was what they needed to uncover.

"The horses, had any of them finished the Cavalry Training?" Falman asked quietly.

"Better than that, they were back here for rest. All are seasoned war horses." Grant said.

"Thank you, sir, you have been a great help. Would you mind pulling the records for us so we can look through them?" Breda asked.

"Yeah, give me a few minutes and I'll get you, their files." Grant said as he stood to head over to the file cabinet. He dug around for a few minutes, before handing off a stack of files. He then disappeared back into his books before he pulled at him. Inside was the answer he assumed. Now it was a matter of unraveling the pattern.

6:00

Inn

Files were spread all over both beds as the two soldiers read through them in search of the pattern. At least one person working in that stable had to be involved in this. They were in search of names that signed out frequently, and ones who may know about horses.

It was slow tedious work, compounded by Breda's exhaustion and hunger. He sighed after a few minutes as he closed his current file. Falman looked over curiously. Breda frowned as he said. "I don't know about you but there is no chance of being productive until I eat something."

"It is close to dinner time." Falman said as he closed his own file. "Perhaps we should venture further into town however, the innkeeper does not seem to appreciate our presence."

"Yeah, probably."

A few minutes later the two men set out in search of a restaurant separate from the Inn. Both had left their uniform coats back in the room, not wanting to stand out if possible. A few blocks down they came to a pub, and luckily it offered hot sandwiches as well as drinks.

Vato had just excused himself to the restroom when their food arrived. Heymans debated if it would be rude to start his own food before his companion returned when three men sat in the booth next to him. He recognized one of them from the stable thanks to a large scar on the side of his head.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, Heymans took a drink from his mug and slowly ate a singe fry while he waited for Vato. The three men all ordered from the same waitress and didn't seem to notice Heymans in the busy room. Vato returned and frowned at Heymans gesture to be quiet. Heymans then gestured to the other table, getting Vato's attention.

"We may have to take a break. Some nosey issues from the city stopped by today." The one with the scar said to his friends.

"Are they going to be a problem, you think?" asked the skinny man next to him.

"It'll be fine, Ian can talk circles around anyone." Said the first man.

"Well, if they get to be a problem, we'll just take care of it." The second man said. "Not like we actually need a shipment this week, we're ahead of schedule."

"Not enough to lay low more than a couple days. They best finish whatever business they have here real quick." Said the third man.

"It'll be fine, and this is not a good place for this talk. Anyone could overhear and what would they tell our families then?" said the scarred man. "Ian said sooner or later we'd have to deal with this kind of thing."

"Why doesn't Ian ever just join us?" said the third man.

"Ian's not social." Said the second man with a shrug. "We can head on over to his place after we eat."

Heymans and Vato nodded to each other. This was the lead they were hoping for, and they weren't going to let it slip away.