Chapter 11: In Search of Answers

September 2nd, 2316 – 11:50 PM – Nedlo, Tneicna

A couple hours later, Tails, Knuckles, and the local regiment of soldiers figured they'd all collected enough testimony from witnesses to piece together what happened at Athara's Tavern. It frustrated Knuckles to learn that they'd just missed Nack by a minute or two, although they'd learned a lot of interesting clues.

Knuckles, Tails, and Captain Relis were now sitting around a table in his barracks, comparing notes. Several candles flickered on top of the rustic wooden table they were sitting at, casting eerie shadows of their bodies upon the bare brick walls of the room. A lantern hung from the ceiling above them, illuminating the sparse wooden rafters, as well as a heavy iron door with a tiny barred window in it.

The room certainly didn't feel relaxing at all, considering it was often used to interrogate criminals and such. However, since this room was deep within the building, it ensured that nobody could listen in on their discussion. If more people heard about the huge bounties on the heads of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, some of them would most definitely make an attempt to collect it. They really didn't need any more enemies right now.

"I got a lot of information from a rat who was a cook in the tavern," Knuckles said.

"How'd he have a lot of info?" Tails asked.

"He heard Nack through the back door of the tavern, because he was working in the kitchen at the time. Nack was talking to someone he called Canma."

"Canma?" Relis said. "Some people around in the neighborhood said they saw a purple vixen walking around with Nack."

"Really?" Tails asked. "We were chasing a purple vixen across the rooftops earlier too!"

"Canma must have been her name then," Relis said.

"I see," Knuckles answered. "I still can't get over how much money we're worth.

"Yeah," Tails said. "Twenty million demens for all of us... Who'd wanna pay that much money for us?"

"No idea," Knuckles said. "But, neither of them mentioned Carrie or Blackie Sten at all, so that probably means she's still safe."

"I'm glad for her then," Tails said. "What about Sonic though? Did they say that they had him?"

Knuckles shook his head. However, Relis got a bright smile on his face and turned to Tails.

"I remember something the witnesses were talking about," Relis said. "They heard Nack and Canma shouting 'He's got Sonic!' while they were chasing after a black truck that was roaring down the street."

"I guess that's the third bounty hunter we were talking about before," Knuckles said. "Anyone get a good look at his face through the windows?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Relis answered, shaking his head. "But at least we know what his vehicle looks like now."

"Great," Tails said glumly. He was hoping one of the witnesses would be able to give them a species and such of the kidnapper. It would bring them that much closer to ending this thing.

"Oh come on Tails!" Knuckles said cheerily, slapping him on the shoulder. "At least it's a start to finding Sonic, and it's better than nothing. Don't look so down."

"Yeah, besides, I'm not done talking yet," Relis said.

"What else do you have?" Tails asked.

"All guards around at the time of the attack on the hotel reported in as usual at the start of the shift. However, at the end of that shift, we discovered that one guard was missing."

"Missing?" Tails repeated.

"Yeah, but a little while ago we found him unconscious and locked up inside a storage room on the first floor of the hotel. He'd been stripped down to his underwear."

"So someone must have slipped into the hotel, using that uniform as a disguise," Knuckles said. "He must have been the one who kidnapped Sonic, because Canma or Nack weren't able to do it."

"And he must have been the one driving the truck that those two saw," Tails added. He looked at Relis. "Anyone see what he looked like?"

"Well, we probably did see his face," Relis said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, nobody bothered to check up on any of the guards until after we realized one was missing, and that was long after the hotel attack."

"Great! Just great!" Tails shouted.

"Tails, calm down, will you?" Knuckles muttered, putting a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

"All right Knuckles," Tails said, dropping the glum look. "It's just that I really miss Sonic. All my life, he's been my best friend, my big brother I never had, and he took over for Mom and Dad when Robotnik killed them. I don't want him to die."

"Me neither Tails," Knuckles said, patting Tails on the shoulder again. "Sonic is my friend too...even if we are rivals. I just can't imagine this world without him."

"Same here," a female voice said.

Tails, Knuckles, and Relis turned to face the entrance door of the room. Standing there was Carrie, dressed in the blue robes she'd worn the day the Grakoran Tournament had started. She had a warm smile on her face, which seemed to brighten the dark room just a little. However, her eyes were half closed, and she looked a little woozy. It seemed the sleeping gas hadn't worn off completely yet.

"Sorry about intruding," she said, walking over. "They said I could come in here if I wanted to."

"It's fine," Relis said, gesturing towards a seat at the table. "The hotel you live at is involved in this whole thing, so I'd say you can talk too. You sure you wanna be here though? You look like you're ready to collapse."

"Don't worry about me," she said, forcing a smile. However, she struggled to keep her eyes open. "I'm okay, although I don't think I've got any other info. I was asleep most of the time everything was happening, after all."

She yawned a bit. A small chuckle came from Relis, while Tails and Knuckles smiled a bit.

"So, what's your plan for how to nab those kidnappers anyway?" she asked, leaning towards Knuckles and Tails.

"We don't know yet," Knuckles shrugged. "It's a pretty good bet the bounty hunters have already left the city with Sonic, but we've got no idea what direction they're headed in."

"Yeah," Tails said. "If we just left now, it would be like a wild goose chase."

"You better hurry up then," Carrie said, sounding concerned. "They're probably getting further and further away the longer we're in here."

"I'm having my men search the town for more leads," Relis said, looking at Carrie. He formed his hands into a large fist on the table. "Hopefully someone can give us a clue on where those bounty hunters are headed to now. This isn't going to be easy though. In fact, it'll be harder due to this country's culture."

"Why's that?" Tails asked.

"Well Tails," Relis answered. "As you know, most Tneicnans don't want anything to do with humans, including their technology. It's our tradition to stay this way."

He cleared his throat.

"The thing is though, that makes it a lot harder to catch criminals. We don't have radios, telephones, or anything like that to call for help, so the only way to communicate is face to face more or less. That makes communications slow, which makes it easy for criminals to avoid the law. Furthermore, our fastest mode of transportation is riverboats, and they usually don't get over twenty miles per hour. If someone has a modern vehicle like a truck or a hover bike, they can easily outrun whatever we've got."

Relis glanced around the room, looking from Carrie, to Tails, to Knuckles. All three of them looked rather worried.

"To make a long story short, if someone doesn't want to be found in this country, chances are they won't be."

Carrie frowned a little, and raised a hand to her muzzle and held it there. She appeared to be trying to think of something she could say that would help. Finally, she turned to Knuckles.

"Knuckles, can't you--?"

Before she could finish, Knuckles held up a hand to silence her, and shook his head. Carrie stopped talking, as the echidna opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry Carrie, but my treasure hunting ability does have its limits," Knuckles said, guessing what Carrie was about to say. "Yes, it's possible for me to sense something these mercenaries have in their possession and go by that to find them, but they're too far out of range. I can't sense any of Nack's items from here, and it's the same with that truck that the other mercenary was driving."

Carrie's eyes widened a bit.

"Your power has a limit?" she asked. "I never knew that."

Knuckles nodded in confirmation, letting out a sigh as he did so.

"Yeah... I can sense anything within an area the size of several city blocks, but beyond that my power doesn't work at all."

"Looks like your work is cut out for you," Carrie said, looking between Tails, Knuckles, and Relis. She let off another yawn.

"It shouldn't be too bad," Knuckles said with a chuckle. "After beating Metal Sonic, tracking down a few mercenaries should be easy. Besides, who knows? Maybe Sonic will be able to escape on his own. He's had worse before."

"Good to know you still have confidence in your friend," Relis said with a smile. "However, we gotta do our job too. We better hit the streets again, while the trail stays hot and the memories stay fresh in the witnesses' heads."

The others nodded, and then they all got up and walked out of the room. Inside the barracks, the place was a mess. All of the bunks for the soldiers had been pushed aside to make room for tables and chairs. Citizens filed into the room through the front door, and they sat down at the tables to give tips they had on the bounty hunters. The room had a very cramped, claustrophobic feel, between all of the people inside it and the room only being lit by torches, candles, and lanterns.

This town sure wasn't taking Sonic's kidnapping lightly. After thinking about it for a moment though, Knuckles figured they had good reason to. After all, him, Tails, and Sonic were for all intents and purposes the only three people preventing Robotnik from taking over the planet. Losing Sonic would be a severe blow in the fight to defeat the mad doctor, and that would put everyone else on the planet in danger.

After much squirming to get through the room, the four of them reached the open street. More people were crowding up around the outside of the stone building, waiting to enter and share what they knew. He even saw a few citizens standing out in the street dressed for sleep. The torches illuminated their faces, but beyond the crowd Knuckles couldn't see much of the city. Meanwhile, off in the distance, Knuckles could see torches flickering across the streets, while the soldiers holding them patrolled around. The entire atmosphere of the place seemed shaky and uncertain, and Knuckles didn't like that.

Still though, they had a job to do, and that was to help in the search for Sonic. Knuckles wormed his way through the crowd, and at long last found himself with some actual breathing room as he stood in the middle of the road.

"Ooh...that's good," Knuckles said, stretching out. "Now I can actually move."

"You okay Knuckles?" Carrie said, putting a hand on his shoulder. She sounded exhausted.

"I'm fine," he said, turning around to look at her. Carrie's eyes fluttered a bit as she tried to keep them open.

Meanwhile, as they stepped away from the light of the barracks, Relis pulled out a torch and touched it to the light of another soldier who was walking by. The oil quickly ignited, illuminating the area around them.

"Maybe you should go home," Captain Relis, looking at Carrie. "It doesn't look like you're over that gas attack yet. I think the best thing for you right now is sleep."

Carrie let out another long yawn, and she covered her mouth with one hand.

"Okay..." she said. "I guess you're right. I'll go onto bed."

"Do you think you can make it back?" Tails asked, folding his arms to keep warm in the chilly night air. "I wouldn't be surprised if you fell asleep right here. I can help you back to the hotel."

"I guess I do need some help," she said with a feeble laugh.

The wolf extended her hand downwards, so the much shorter fox could grab it. Tails took it, and looked back at Knuckles and Captain Relis.

"See you two later."

"Bye," Knuckles said with a wave.

The wolf and fox turned around, headed back towards the hotel. Within a few moments, they were already almost impossible to see in the darkness. Since Tneicna didn't have any streetlights, the town got pitch black during the night. of buildings loomed over him like those of giants, and it was difficult to see any farther than a few feet out of the range of the torch Relis was holding.

"Knuckles," he started. "Want to split up? We can search the town faster that way. I can go with you though, if the dark's bothering you."

Knuckles felt a twinge of anger at Relis' statement. Was he actually considering that he'd be afraid of a little thing like not being able to see properly? The echidna felt the urge to show that he wasn't a softie.

"No way!" Knuckles said, folding his arms. "I haven't been scared of the dark since I was two! I'll be fine."

"Okay, okay...sorry for doubting you," Relis chuckled a bit. "Just be sure you don't get lost, all right? If you do though, I'm sure one of my men can help you find your way."

"Hah…I'm one of the world's greatest treasure hunters, and you think I can get lost? That's funny."

"Good then." Relis nodded. "Well, the best of luck to you tonight."

"You too."

Captain Relis took off down the street. Just like Carrie and Tails, he seemed to melt into the darkness within a few moments, but it took longer with that torch illuminating his position. However, as he walked around a corner, the light from his fire quickly disappeared. The echidna was now totally alone in the dark.

Yeesh...now I kind of wish I hadn't tried to act tough before. I can't see a damn thing out here. Maybe I better go see if I can get hold of a torch somewhere...

After a moment of contemplation, he headed back towards the barracks. Surely they had a spare light there, with how much the place was lit up.