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Chapter 14. Patient Zero

by Admin

The sound of the surf against the shore provided some welcome auditory cover as the eight Long Patrol Hares and their companion—to call him a friend would have been a gross exaggeration—pulled their two small rowboats away from the tideline and into some scraggly brush and shrubs near the water. The hares were all lithe and muscular, dressed in dark grey tunics that provided good cover in the littoral hours between day and night, and all of them were heavily armed with a variety of melee and ranged weapons. All of them carried light rucksacks, although in the tradition of fighting hares they planned to live mostly of their environment, and went about the tasks of forming a perimeter and establishing a beachhead with practiced precision. Major Rocrova Regaworth had chosen only the best for her reconnaissance and recovery patrol.

As the rest of the patrol provided security, Major Regaworth and her executive officer Captain Woxley conferred briefly. Normally having one officer above the rank of lieutenant command a unit this size would have been considered excessive, let alone two, but the Long Patrol had a set tradition of higher ranking officers commanding particularly important missions regardless of unit size, especially when they were far away from the command structure. After talking for a moment, Regaworth turned and called softly over her shoulder.

"Greenclaw, front and center. Time to start earning your pay!"

At this summons, the ninth creature on the mission, and the only non-hare, gave a rather surly nod and ambled over to the two hares, pointedly ignoring the dirty looks his presence earned from the other Long Patrol hares.

"Here I am, Your Majorness. I'm guessing you need directions already?"

Captain Woxley cuffed him hard. "None of your cheek now. Show the proper respect when addressing an officer!" The hare drew back his paw again but stopped at a glance from Major Regaworth, who interceded.

"Yes, we do need some help. You got us into this old smuggler hideout just as you said you would. Now we need you to get us to that place in the city we talked about. We're paying you well enough, so please cooperate."

Greenclaw turned to Woxley smugly. "You know that old saying about bugs and honey?" Ducking under Woxley's glare, he gestured to the Long Patrollers. "Follow me, ladies and jerks. I know just the perfect place for you to spy on the whole city…." Greenclaw set off into the city, followed closely by the Long Patrol hares.

Many Long Patrol hares would have been surprised and dismayed to see eight of their own following a ferret to an observation point, but Major Regaworth had no personal issues with using a vermin guide when necessary, which it certainly was at the moment. It was not something anybody liked to talk about back at the Mountain, but this mission was not the first time the Long Patrol had enlisted the aid of a vermin with the right knowledge at the right price, and it would not be the last. Major Regaworth had located Greenclaw with the help of an old friend of hers, a hedgehog tavernkeeper who served both woodlanders and vermin. The ferret was a merchant and smuggler (depending on what he was carrying and for whom) from Evnakt who had been amongst the last to escape from the city after the storm. Regaworth needed a guide and informant and Greenclaw needed some quick pay to help him get reestablished. A deal was struck, and so it was that the ferret had found himself aboard the LPS Hon Rosie, one of three small, shallow-hulled ships that the Long Patrol used to patrol the coasts and insert small forces via rowboats. Work on the Long Patrol Ships was considered a career dead end for an officer of the very land-based Long Patrol, so the crews on all three LPS craft were split between hares and otters from a local holt.

Greenclaw, as annoying as he could be, was apparently the real deal when it came to guiding the hares through the city. He led them on a three dimensional path through the city that took them through windows, over rooftops and through sewers, gutters and abandoned buildings. Corporal Molbro, assigned to provide security to the unarmed ferret, found himself constantly whispering at Greenclaw to slow down. The ferret wasn't carrying a pack of his own, and so had no trouble hoisting himself onto high ledges or through small spaces. Still, true to his word the ferret quickly led them to the tallest building still intact in the city: the tower of Levan Nakat. Greenclaw stopped and waited for the hares to all arrive.

"Okay, everybeast, this 'ere's the old digs of Levan Nakat, the beast who used to run this place. Up at the very top his father, the first mayor, built an observation deck with telescopes and such so he could see anything happening in the city. Levan, though, didn't care for it that much himself, so he sealed off the deck from the rest of the house, installed ladders that led straight up to the top, and opened it to the public. We used to use it to case security patrols and such. You can catch some interesting stuff from up there. 'Specially at night, lots o' creatures don't remember to close their bedroom windows, even when they've got company…"

Captain Woxley scowled at the ferret. "Your degenerate interests notwithstanding, what does this have to do with us?"

Major Regaworth looked thoughtfully at the tower. "You know, I think I actually see where this is going….if we got up to the deck, cleared it and retracted the ladders, we'd be isolated from the ground but could still get out by going roof to roof. And optical aids would be a big help indeed. Well done, Greenclaw."

A short while later, the hares were set up inside the observation deck, having killed some squatting vermin and removed some rubbish. Major Regaworth and Captain Woxley laid out the map Greenclaw had prepared and called the ferret over. Together, the three of them began planning how to find Lord Garrilan's parcel. Greenclaw didn't mind actively participating. The faster they got their loot, whatever it was, the faster he got his gold and got the hell away from these dour hares. With this in mind, he pointed out Sarkleyet's mansion on the map and began to lay out the relevant information about the rich pine marten who most likely was at the center of this whole situation.

"Ahoy, Sarky, we're 'ome! Break out the gold and the grog, mate, and give us a good ol' rich beastie welcome!" Captain Serpentcharmer was grinning widely as the Red Dusk and the escapees finally reached their destination. In better times it would have been a truly magnificent place, a massive, elaborately constructed mansion right at the very edge of the city, protected by a specially constructed annex to the outer walls and yet isolated from the hustle, bustle and noise of the rest of the city. The mansion was located in an area of town far away from Marcion's strictly controlled harbor district stronghold. Small bands of fighters stayed well-hidden in buildings and alleys along the route to the mansion. However, they were still detected by the Rekkua and Rea's keen senses of smell and hearing. Even the practiced eyes of Ikaras, Sybil, and Antonio were able to pin-point their locations. To someone less astute, however, the fighters were well enough camouflaged to ambush any intruders. There was little danger of an incursion from Felldoh's Heirs, however. Scouting parties had established the squirrel appeared to have notably underestimated the size of the force required to effectively control a city, and the area between the harbor and the mansion was largely controlled by gangs and brigands. Only generous payments to the leaders of these roving bands allowed the Red Dusk troops to move safely through them. Furthermore, the woodlanders, so renowned for their fieldcraft in the wilderness, had proven themselves poorly suited to navigating or tracking in a city, an environment most of them had never seen before. They were superbly trained and armed for a straight-up fight, but Marcion's soldiers had been ambushed or captured several times attempting to pursue fleeing enemies until Marcion implemented strict procedures regarding pursuit that mandated that nobody allowed themselves to become separated into groups of less than three, and nobody pursued past the point where they could be reinforced. That had curbed the losses, but also decreased mobility and emboldened the vermin.

"Hello, Captain Serpencharmer. I trust your mission was a success?" The speaker was a slim weasel with pleasant features who wore an expensive green tunic.

"Aye, you could def'nly say that." Kione indicated the ten beasts that had been brought back with the Red Dusk fighters, and the handsome weasel turned to survey them.

"Hmm. An interesting mix of species you have here, Captain Serpentcharmer." The weasel started down the row, eyes showing recognition at Pearl. "Ah. Miss Pearl. These are not the usual circumstances of your presence here, but I suppose we shall let bygone be bygones, given the situation."

"Why thank you, Thalliv. How gracious of you to forget old business rivalries in the wake of disaster, plague and invasion." Pearl's voice had a note of sarcasm in it, but the weasel ignored it.

"Antonio Calceterre, Chief of Revenue Collection for His Excellency. Very pleased to make your acquaintance, and thank you for your hospitality."

Thalliv shrugged. "Never heard of His Excellency, but title inflation's all the rage these days." The weasel went down the line, meeting Zula, Brull, Dirano and Sybil. Then he got to Rea. "And here we have a…a…oh my. I certainly would not want to fight against you." The weasel seemed a little taken aback in spite of himself. He then looked to Aras. "Well, I do know what you are. Surprised to see a wolverine, I must say. Surprised but pleased. Welcome to Evnakt."

The weasel's demeanor got colder as his eyes turned to Rekkua. "Well. This is an interesting turn of events. I suppose with sufficient measures to keep you from pillaging the house or attacking other guests you might be useful." Rekkua leaned forward a bit, eyes narrowing, but Thalliv had already moved on, approaching Captain Serpentcharmer. "Master Sarkleyet is in his study. Please go up promptly. He'll very much want to hear about the results of your search."

"O' course. Wouldna want to keep the purser waitin'." Captain Serpentcharmer said dryly and headed into the house.

"The rest of you, follow me inside. I'll show you into one of the sitting rooms until Master Sarkleyet deems fit, whereupon you'll be shown to more enduring accomodations." The ten started to walk into the house, but suddenly Thalliv clapped a paw onto Zula's arm.

"Hold on a moment, Miss Higgins." Thalliv gestured at Silisk, still curled around her shoulders. "I'm sorry, but we do not allow pets in the house. You'll have to leave your pet snake out here, Don't worry, I'm sure—"

He stopped abruptly as Silisk gave a loud hiss of annoyance and uncurled herself partly until she towered over Zula's head and was at eye level with Thalliv. "Pet? Yon valet dares to title me a PET?!? I am Silisk, the Mighty and Terrible Wyrm of Evnara, weasel, and I am not a PET!" This last sentence was punctuated by an even louder, more sibilant hiss.

Thalliv looked at her rather meekly, looking chastened. "Oh. My mistake. Carry on."

Zula giggled. "Aye, she's a funny liddle critter, ain't she?"

The sitting room was large, and relatively well appointed, with large numbers of comfortable chairs and small, sturdy tables. Still, it obviously had seen better days. There were many pieces of furniture from other rooms scattered about, with weapons and supplies in piles at the corners. Empty nails indicated where there had once been paintings, and there was obvious damage to the carpet and some of the wall hangings. There was a drinks cabinet, but its original contents had been either consumed or moved away, and had been replaced with rum and grog and other low grade liquor.

"Well, ain't that a change…what's a rich beast with no good drinks?" Brull grumbled to himself as he shut the liquor cabinet, a disappointed look on his face.

Behind him, Zula flopped down onto one of the chairs. "This is a nice room. Looks kinda like the sittin' room back home. Doesn't smell like it, though." Silis slithered off of Zula's shoulders, slid off the seat and curled up on the table next to it.

"This is a lair befitting a great power." The adder flicked her tongue out and basked contentedly in a patch of sunlight coming through the window into the otherwise fairly dim room. "Even if the retainers are of limited wits."

Antonio sniffed. "It's nice enough, certainly, but poorly maintained. I think we've all learned a valuable lesson on what happens when the master is too lax with the underlings." He paused awkwardly as he suddenly glanced around at some of his more plebian companions. "Or something along those lines"

Rea, battered, cut, and in obvious discomfort, flopped down on a chair only to leap up again when it gave an ominous creak of pain when she sat down on it. The wolf sighed and resigned herself to sitting on the floor. "I don't like it. There's a bad feel about this whole place. I think a lot of beasts have been in this house, and most of them were very unhappy, even miserable. There isn't any…warmth in here, any joy. It's just a big dark hole."

Dirano smirked. "Speak for yourself. Whoever decorated this place had money. And class. And probably females hanging all over him, just waiting to do whatever he wanted..."

"Yes, of course that's the first thing that YOU would think o,." Pearl said acidly. The vixen madam was reclining back in a particularly comfortable chair, but that didn't take the scowl off her face when she looked at Dirano. "He probably also paid for things instead of just stealing them. That was money out of my pocket when you climbed in through Emmy's window, and then you go and--"

"Hey,will you get off my case you w—" Dirano suddenly stopped mid-syllable, glancing quickly at Aras where the wolverine was leaning against the wall. The mysterious beast had uncrossed his arms and begun to lean forward. "You fox of questionable moral fiber who it is beneath me to try to rile further!" The cat said quickly, sitting back and shutting up.

"Good," Aras said as he reclined back again. "We have much better things to talk about right now than insulting one another. We all went right along with the group that rescued us, but we really don't know anything at all about the group who—" The wolverine broke off as the door opened and Thalliv reentered the room. The weasel had left them alone in the sitting room when they first arrived.

"Allow me to introduce myself." The trim mustelid said. "I am Thalliv, personal assistant to Master Sarkleyet." He paused, then continued. "I am also..ah, the most feared sniper in all of the Red Dusk. Dozens of woodlanders have fallen to my bow. When they whisper of me in the night, they call me….the Green Death."

There was a pause, and then Sybil broke in. "That's the lamest brag I've heard in seasons. If you're the "Green Death" then I'm the Queen of Sampetra. You're a skinny little butler with a fancy title who is trying to impress a bunch of beasts who don't know him. Now siddown and shuddup."

Thalliv sighed. "You know, once, just once I wish somebody would believe the whole "green death" thing. I actually wasn't bad at archery, you know." A brief pause and then he went back to business. "Anyways, Master Sarkleyet will be in here shortly to deliver a business proposition to you. Please conduct yourselves well. For those of you who are not from Evnakt, which I understand is many of you, remember that Master Sarkleyet is the richest and most successful beast in the city. He's an innovative doctor and apothecary as well as an extremely astute businessbeast, as you know already." He nodded to Pearl at this last statement. "Unfortunately, the other principle beast of the house, Master Nevyeer, appears to have succumbed to the illness that has been going about."

"What do you mean 'appear'? I should think that would be rather unambiguously obvious," Antonio broke in.

Thalliv ignored the query. "Master Sarkleyet has, as I mentioned, a business proposal for you. Specifically, he wishes you to go out, locate and obtain for him an extremely valuable piece of property that he believes could be instrumental in expelling the woodlanders."

Rekkua's eyes narrowed. "We not Saklet 's zuzzorm...his zervantz."

"If it comforts you to loudly reaffirm that fact, then by all means continue to do so. Otherwise, however, it may serve you well to let me explain what you ought to do instead." The speaker was a new entrant to the room, a well-dressed pine marten in his middle seasons. He had a slight swagger about him,a nd the air of a creature used to the respect, and even fear of others.

The pine marten glanced at them each in turn, then addressed them again, giving just the tiniest little smirk. "Good day, all of you. If you were all from Evnakt, I doubt it would be necessary, but as many of you are from abroad, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sarkleyet, and I am the owner of this mansion, as well as much of the city's commercial activity. As you can see, however, all of this has been rather seriously disrupted. Given all of the lost productivity, not to mention the lives, I've taken an active interest in removing the inflated peasants who have invaded our island. However, I have thus far been working without the assistance of an important tool of mine that has unfortunately been lost. That, my dear escaped fugitives, is what I wished to speak to you about."

"As most Evnakt natives know, my primary background is actually that of a physician and scholar, although since arriving on Evnakt I have become better known as an investor and a creature of business. Still, my heart still belonged to science, and along with my lab partner, the renowned apothecary Nevyeer, I set up an active research center in this very house. One of our main projects is one that you no doubt have heard fragmentary information about in its guise as "Red Brandy." You see, before coming to Evnakt I was the court doctor to an island king rich in gold but poor in good sense. This king launched a foolish campaign to conquer Salamandastron, and in the natural order of things died for his stupidity. However, the exact cause of the mishap intrigued me. The battle had gone surprisingly well in its early stages, until the arrival of the lord of the mountain, a full grown boar who charged into battle in an absolute and complete frenzy. Pain, injury and peril were meaningless to him, all he wanted was to crush his enemies. Of course, this in itself would have been useless without an army of more rational beasts to use more sophisticated tactics and hold captured ground, but it was nevertheless the factor that changed the outcome of the battle most decisively."

Amongst the ten sitting there, Silisk and Antonio seemed to be quite interested in this little bit of history. Aras looked curious and Zula looked bored. Rea, on the other paw, looked rather uncomfortable. The rest seemed short of riveted, but interested enough to continue paying attention.

"All of this caused me to wonder: what if you could induce such a state artificially? After all, if plants and chemicals can induce sleep or euphoria, why can they not induce a warrior's fury, a bloodwrath? So Nevyeer and I began experiments with both vermin and woodlander volunteers to test for such a formula." The weasel, Thalliv, showed a twinge of discomfort at the word 'volunteers' but Sarkleyet ignored him. Pearl just raised an eyebrow. Antonio's expression was almost knowing.

"And lo and behold, we were successful. For security purposes, we simply referred to it as 'Red Brandy' given its appearance, but what it really was was a major breakthrough. With this compound, we could artificially introduce a state of bloodwrath for a temporary duration. Imagine the possibilities! This compound could be used to create a force of shock troopers who would smash into the enemy lines, softening them up for lighter forces and inflicting great damage to morale, for whose heart will not tremor a bit at the site of ferocious warriors devoid of any feeling but the urge of the kill?"

At this point Rea could not hold back her dismay. "That's your master plan? Just whip up a bunch of crazy warriors who can't stop themselves from killing and turn them loose on your enemies? Your stroke of genius is just to kill everybody you don't like? It seems no wonder to me that the other beasts do not like you 'vermin' if that's what you do!"

Sarkleyet's expression was just barely short of a sneer. "I am not familiar with the norms of your culture, Miss Lightbringer, but in my culture, when woodlanders attack you the primary recourse is to kill the little nuisances."

Pearl also looked concerned. "Wait a second. I don't like the woodlanders one bit, but that doesn't mean I think you should just kill everybody in sight! Surely some of them aren't as bad as the others, do we have to--"

Zula's paw shot into the air so suddenly that Pearl lost her train of thought momentarily watching the juvenile vixen eagerly wave her paw in the air like a student with a question for the teacher.

Sarkleyet raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem, Miss Higgins?" In contrast to his derisive attitudes towards Rea, the pine marten was polite, almost deferential towards Zula.

"Yer really, really, really, really rich, right Mister Sarkleyet?" When the marten nodded, the vixen smiled and said brightly, "Well why don't you just buy the island back from them?"

"An interesting suggestion, Miss Higgins. You seem to have inherited your mother's flair for things financial, wouldn't you say, Pearl?" Sarkleyet said smoothly. When the vixen madam merely looked puzzled, Sarkleyet smiled. "Oh, didn't you know? Her mother is Nelda Higgins. I'm surprised at you Pearl, I hope you're not falling behind on the business due to any...distractions in your life."

Pearl scowled, but before she could say anything Brull held up a paw. "If it's all the same to everybeast, could we just 'ear the rest o' the story first?"

Sarkleyet nodded. "In any case, we were in the stage of looking for a buyer when the storm struck. The Red Brandy survived intact, but my laboratory did not. I lost most of my equipment and supplies, as well as several key lab assistants. To make matters worse, Nevyeer contracted Martin's madness. One night, he overpowered an assistant attempting to care for him, broke into the lab, stole the Red Brandy and ran off into the night with it. Nevyeer moved to Evnakt with his family when he was but a kit, and he lived or did business in many locations across the city, which he knew very well. I could not hope to search all of the places he could have hidden it, especially when gangs, brigands and later Felldoh's Heirs restricted my ability to move around safely and effectively. I resigned myself to the loss of the Red Brandy, and concentrated on other things in the interim, namely building an effective counter to the Felldoh's Heirs."

"However, I believe the situation has stabilized enough that I can resume paying attention to the matter of the Red Brandy. Kione Serpentcharmer has informed me that there are several among you with skills that may be useful in such a search, not to mention that your little group includes a number of unusual and formidable species, including two that I believe almost none of the woodlanders have any knowledge of or experience with. My proposition for you is simple: Find the Red Brandy, and you will have not only the satisfaction of helping to blunt the woodlander offensive, but also the guarantee of a large material reward once Evnakt is back in the proper paws. You could use Red Dusk strongholds as safe havens, but I would prefer you not talk to normal Red Dusk soldiers about this task, for reasons of security."

Brull raised a paw. "This--"

"It's a thick, almost syrupy liquid of a dark red color that is stored in a tightly capped cyindrical bottle made of very thick, heavy glass, and thank you for reminding me of that detail, Sheriff Brull." Sarkleyet said. Brull looked confused a moment, then shrugged and lowered his paw.

Antonio looked pensive. "Hmm...I can certainly understand the tactical value of such a substance. I suppose that searching for it would tend to be a constructive use of our time here."

Rea's face was hard to read for a moment. Finally, she looked up, an odd expression on her face, but determination in her eyes. "I--I apologize for blurting out earlier. I guess--the--the plan makes sense...but still, there's got to be a better way...I need to think about this a lot more.

Silisk uncurled herself and raised her head. "Has this treasure found a new lord, or is it yet unclaimed?"

Sarkleyet glanced at the snake, raising an eyebrow. "More than likely Nevyeer either stashed it somewhere and forgot about it, or died with it clutched in his paw. I doubt anyone would have made off with it, as it does not look valuable or appealing to someone who doesn't know what it actually does."

Sybil scowled at the other marten. "Jes' wait a minute, ye fancy talkin' rich beast. Why do we even want to join up with yer "Red Dusk" anyways, let 'lone go on this stupid scavenger hunt o' yers?"

Aras shifted, and leaned forward. "I would like an answer to that too. We appreciate you rescuing us, but we never agreed ahead of time to be part of anything further, especially searching for something that may or may not ever be found."

"Besides the satisfaction of driving away the woodlanders? Well, for one thing, you would be guaranteed a very handsome material reward once Evnakt and its resources were back in my--back in the proper paws. Furthermore, consider this: Those woodlanders mean to create a long-term armed presence on Evnara. Based on their conduct so far, do you really think they will just let you remain here, or even leave in peace? Of course not. If you won't assist the Red Dusk for any other reason, do it to save your own life." Sarkleyet's eyes lingered on Sybil a moment before suddenly flashing across the whole room.

"Oh, and one more thing..." Sarkleyet added. "Just in case any of you were thinking of taking the Red Brandy for yourselves, know this: I stored it in a heavily concentrated form. In order for it to be usable it must be diluted and measured according to very precise formulas known only to myself. If consumed in its raw form, or in an overdose, the Red Brandy will cause seizures, convulsions, heart failure and death. Now, with that said…" The marten looked around the room again. "I'll give you a little bit to mull it over. If you don't feel that finding the Red Brandy is worth your while, I suppose I can always use a few extra sets of paws, claws, or hollow fangs to help free the city." Thalliv opened the door for Sarkleyet, who paused as he exited the room. "Class dismissed."