Before I did anything else, I went to any and every customer that is loyal or new to the Benbow, asking countless questions as to seeing anything abnormal to a girl with red hair that didn't look familiar around these places.

With B.E.N helping out, it covered more ground quicker and got through half the lodgers in twenty minutes. B.E.N was upstairs, knocking on bedroom doors while I settled for asking diners, which is where she must've been last.

A lot of people and foreign folk said they kept to themselves or didn't see anything apart from me getting stabbed earlier, which they asked of my condition. Then I got to an alien from south. His wrinkled skin and haggard hairy appearance resembled a lot to Delbert's kind. His voice smelled of rum and smoke that made my lip curl and nose shrivel, but I waited on every word.

"So, you're saying you saw something?" I asked, perched on the chair opposite him, a glass of foggy rum in his hands. His eyes were slightly glazed and snout a bit droopy, but his build and size of his skull made him intimidating.

"That's what I said-"Takes a swig. "That bloated overgrown Dr just came through that door," He pointed with overly grown nails that were black in colour. "He chatted to one of the regulars and I heard something. You know what mutts like us are like, ears like bloodhounds, noses, too. And I smelled her, smelt like the sea itself. Then the door opened and all I saw was flesh and flickers of red before the slug bent down and did something. There was a soft thud and he raised his arms and just carried a bigger package.
Onlookers believed it to have been your clothes or even your body," He menacingly chuckled, but it didn't seem to aggravate me purposefully, he was just naturally roguish. "Then he was out the door. I discussed and cocked a few brows to some of the guys, and they thought the same as me, but I would've smelled ya. All I could sniff in the air was salt and copper blood."

"You think you know where Dr Lionel went?"

"Beats me, boy." He took another hearty swig and finished his glass and glided it across the table at me, along with a few pieces of gold. "Do me a favour lad, and fetch me another, will ya?" His left canine was overlapping his bottom jowl and was ruddy with age, but for his information, I was obliged to do this for him.

When B.E.N came back down, he had a few reports of what similarly matched what the mutt said, and I knew we were headed somewhere, just not in any direct path.

"B.E.N, can you help me find her?" I asked as I headed to a back part of the Benbow. Ever since the old Inn got burnt down, mother had taken every risk of not letting it happen again. For instance, learning how to use a laser pistol for the first time. She now housed a few pistols, laser guns and smoke bombs with a few bits of armour and gas masks.

I kept some of my weapons there, from the RLS Legacy weapons cabinet, I had to sign a licence and I was able to keep it.

"I don't know, Jim, your mother wants me here to help and it's the holidays soon-"

"She can hire for the season, but now-"I took a weapons holster belt and looped it around my pants, strapping a pistol and smoke bomb in my pouches. "I need you." I gave B.E.N a long stare and his intense blue digital screen eyes stared back, his robotic bottom lip quivering in contemplation.

"Jimmy, I can't track her if her blood runs out." B.E.N confessed, his metallic hands fumbling.

He was right, I had already followed her slight trail to the edge of the hover parking lot and it was gone, and as far as I was aware, Dr Lionel had something to do with this.

"If I overheard correctly," The mutt from earlier towered behind me and B.E.N, wiping his snout with his dirty sleeve. "You seem to be in a spot of bother. I can aid ye, lads." He smiled crookedly, his upper canines showing.

"But for a price, I'm guessing?" I spoke out, and saw a spark in his dark eyes. I was right.

"Only for 20 gold, lad."

"I don't have that kind of money!" I didn't, I helped out mother with the Inn when she needed me, and was all free work, and only just started my new job.

"Then how about a spot of advice?" He leaned close, his smell looming around my nose. "I'd check in with that Dr, and find some leads, and if he seems slippery, you know he is the slug he looks like."