The Assignment

Chapter Nine

April 8th, 1912

Ellicot

Ellicot Inn

Mustang's Claimed Office

9:00 am

Mustang was exhausted and ready to just pack up his men and leave. Hawkeye and Havoc had traced the horse thefts, a group of stable hands had been selling them to Drachma. Amestrian horses were known for being the best war horses on the continent, much like the soldiers who rode them. The men had all been arrested, and the last batch of horses retrieved.

The sale was to go through today, and after careful consideration of his team Mustang decided to pull a sting operation. One of the stable hands, a boy of about sixteen, had agreed to help them in exchange for a lesser sentence. Havoc would be leading the team who were in charge of catching the buyers.

Meanwhile, Mustang had found himself buried in paperwork. He loathed paperwork. So, he sat at the desk in his temporary office, the former Innkeeper's office behind the check in, and was considering the state of dust in the corners of the room. Hawkeye, as usual, seemed to know the exact moment his attention began to wander and had appeared in the room before he could start looking for something to clean the room with to remind him that the paperwork had to be finished before they returned to Command. He sighed but picked back up his pen and returned his attention to the forms.

Temporary Sick Room

Falman was relieved to learn that Breda would make a complete recovery and was grateful they had been found as quickly as they had been however, he was still fidgeting. He worried now that the things that had been said in the basement would change things between them. He was more worried that they wouldn't, that Breda would choose to pretend that conversation never happened.

Once the door had been opened, Falman couldn't force it closed again so easily. He wished Breda would spend just a little more time awake so they could talk about it, but Breda kept drifting off. Just this morning he had fallen asleep in his oatmeal. Just for a few moments, but long enough for him to decide not to ask Mustang what he intended to do next. They were off the case at any rate and had been ordered to focus on healing.

Falman was still musing over everything when he noticed Breda was awake and watching him. He attempted to force a smile before sitting himself up and asking for an update. Falman filled him in on it and Breda was concerned that they had failed the mission. "We have not disappointed Mustang. He came by earlier to inform us personally that our situation was entirely unavoidable. From what he had gathered they intended to capture us before we could report in and had failed to notice our first call."

"We still walked right into a trap. Now neither of us are going to be fit to return to duty for weeks, we- I failed." Breda said sadly.

"Did you mean it?" He hadn't meant to ask. He as going to just leave things be for now, it had just slipped out.

"Mean what?" Breda asked with a frown.

"What you said in the room. When we were concerned the others would not arrive."

"Oh. Yeah. That. Yes, I did. I am sorry I should never have put you in that uncomfortable of a situation."

"No, not at all. I mean, that is. I meant it too."

"Oh. Okay. Good." Breda said, before they were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door and Mustang walking into the room.

"Excellent you are both awake. Unfortunately, no one seems to know what became of your luggage. I have arranged for some borrowed clothes when it is time to leave." Mustang said with a smile.

"I am sorry we failed to solve the mission sir." Breda said.

"Nonsense. I already informed Falman that we have found more than enough evidence to suggest that they had been plotting to abduct you both as soon as they knew you were in town. It was unavoidable." Mustang said. "Provided things go as expected this afternoon we will be headed back to East city within the following two days."

"Thank you, sir." Breda said.

Stable Outside of Town

10:00am

Mustang, Hawkeye, and Havoc were hidden in the tack room, while Fuery stood with their prisoner turned informant, Stephen Richardson. There were an additional fifteen men posted throughout the area, posing as farmhands or hidden.

They didn't have to wait long before a truck with a horse trailer pulled into the space in front of the stable and two men climbed out. Stephen looked a bit nervous, however the men didn't seem alarmed by this as they approached.

The taller man, with grey peppering his black hair and a rigid scar over his eyebrow spoke first. "Good morning Stephen." He said in a calm but not especially friendly tone.

"H-hello Mr. um Ivan." Stephen said in return. His hands shaking slightly as he stuffed them in his pockets.

"Who's this?" Ivan asked gesturing to Fuery.

"New guy, his name is Kain." Stephen said, forgetting the fake name he was supposed to give but at least not giving away anymore information. "Michael sent him with me since he couldn't come. Said to help load em up."

"Ah I see." Said the second man, slightly shorter and younger than Ivan though clearly related. "Why was it Michael could not meet us this morning?"

"We had a bad birth over at the stable this morning. Breech. He said it would raise flags if he were to leave before the foal was stabilized." Stephen said, sounding more confidant than he had before, now that he was talking about the horses.

"Very well." Ivan said. "What do you have for us then?"

"Three mares. All trained to join the ranks this summer." Stephen said.

Ivan nodded as Stephen gestured for the horses to be brought out of the stalls. Undercover soldiers led them out one by one as the men examined them. Finally, they nodded to each other and handed Stephen a thick envelope before they asked for the horses to be loaded into the trailer.

Mustang and Havoc appeared as the horses cleared the room, Fuery pulling Stephen to the side in case things turned violent. "I am afraid you will not be leaving with any horses today." Mustang said calmly as the rest of the team cut off the escape route.

"I knew it was a set up, I told you Piotr." Ivan grumbled as he raised his hands. The younger followed his example, and the arrest was over quickly.

Stephen looked ready to collapse from stress as they loaded everyone into the back of cars and the horses were led back to the stalls to be taken back to their own stable after the excitement was over. Mustang was pleased with the end result. It had gone smoothly; the paperwork should be minimal. He could, in fact, now send the entire case over to Central and let Hughes worry about it from here.

Now he just needed to get his team home and hope that nothing new had popped up needing his attention while he was out of town. The whole case around the local ring was staying in his command as long as he could manage however, because it was his men who had been kidnapped and tortured and he didn't want it swept under the rug.