The sun was rising as Weiss' airship touched down in Mistral. She looked up from her scroll as the pilot's voice crackled through the intercom. The door to her left edged open as she pushed herself out of the seat.
She grabbed Myrtenaster from a weapon rack on the wall and picked up her suitcase. Myrtenaster slipped into its loop on her belt, and Weiss smiled. She missed the weapon's weight at her hip. Working at the Schnee Dust Company was an important job, but not a very exciting one. Feeling Myrtenaster tugging at her belt was a reminder that, for the moment at least, she was a Huntress again.
Weiss strode down the gangway with a small smile on her face and raised a hand in greeting when she spotted Neptune waiting for her on the landing pad. He looked the same as he always did: hair painstakingly crafted into shape, designer clothes, still wearing those stupid goggles. Weiss glanced down at her own outfit; she hadn't changed much either. Her clothes were pretty much just a resizing of what she wore during her time at Beacon, though she'd cut her hair shorter since then.
Neptune waved back and shot her a grin.
"How was the flight?" he asked as Weiss approached.
She shrugged. "I've had worse. I'm just glad to be out of Atlas for a while," she added with a wry twist to her smile.
The blue-haired Huntsman laughed. "I'll never understand why you stay there if you hate it so much."
"I don't hate it," Weiss insisted. "It's just nice to get away now and again."
Neptune rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure."
Weiss frowned. She didn't like being patronised. But before she could say anything, Neptune turned away.
"Come on," he called over his shoulder. "The car's out the front."
Weiss raised an eyebrow as she watched him walk towards the terminal, then sighed and followed at a brisk walk until she caught up. She handed her ID to the checkpoint guards at the door and glanced out a nearby window as they ran through the system.
The sun was peeking out from in-between the towering buildings in Mistral's city centre and filling the city with light. There was a park nearby and people were already visible, even at this early hour, walking dogs or going for morning jogs. It looked so peaceful.
Looked peaceful.
Weiss couldn't help but wonder what was going on under the surface. They knew something was happening in the city, but they had no starting point for their investigation and no idea how big whatever they were investigating could be. It could involve the entire city for all they knew. Who knew how long that peaceful façade could last?
Weiss felt a chill, and not from the early morning breeze. She found herself holding the silver rose at her throat, squeezing it in her left hand. The chill slowly went away as she took strength from Ruby's pendant.
It doesn't matter how big it is, she thought, we'll get to the bottom of it.
And once we're done, I can go and see Ruby again…
Weiss smiled at the thought, then was snapped out of her thoughts as the checkpoint guard cleared his throat. She blushed slightly as she took her ID back and they waved her through. From Neptune's desperate attempt to hide his smile, she knew they'd been waiting for her for too long. And that made her blush more.
They didn't talk as they strode through the terminal. Weiss walked a few steps ahead to avoid Neptune's amused gaze, but had to let him catch him when she stepped outside and realised she didn't know where he'd parked. He patted her on the shoulder and pointed to the left.
"Over here," he said. "It's not far."
They walked into the large parking lot and weaved through the cars. It wasn't long before Weiss spotted the familiar shape of Neptune's car. She'd only visited him in Mistral a few times, but she recognised the expensive-looking, convertible sports car. Cars had never really been an area of interest to Weiss, but she couldn't help but be impressed by it. It was a nice looking car.
Neptune popped the trunk open and Weiss placed her suitcase inside. She drew Myrtenaster as she opened the passenger door and sat down, placing the rapier point first on the floor. Neptune raised an eyebrow at her.
"You can put that in the trunk too if you want."
Weiss shook her head. "I want to keep it on me, just in case."
"In case what?"
She shrugged. "I'm on a job here; I like to keep it on me when I'm on a job."
Neptune paused for a moment, then shrugged. "Fair enough." He sat in the driver's seat and turned the car on.
"Now," he said with a grin, "for the most important question: Roof up, or roof down?"
"What do you think?"
He laughed. "Okay, roof down it is." At the press of a button, the roof of the car folded back and sank into a compartment at the back. The breeze blew into the car, and Weiss looked out her window in an attempt to hide her smile. It would never do for people to know that a Schnee enjoyed speeding down highways with the roof down; she had a reputation to uphold.
They pulled out of the parking lot and turned into the streets of the city. Weiss' whipped back and forth in the wind as they sped down one of the city's major roads. She closed her eyes and smiled as she relished the experience. Neptune laughed, but she ignored it. She was out of Atlas. Myrtenaster was at her side. They were hunting down a strange conspiracy. This was what she was made for.
After a while, she opened her eyes. Neptune was grinning, glancing at her now and then. He laughed when their eyes met, and she grinned back. They tore down the road, speeding past cars and trucks, much faster than they should have. But they didn't care. All Huntsmen and Huntresses had special license plates on their cars, so other drivers and police knew who was behind the wheel. It let them bend the rules now and then and, while it was only meant to be used for emergencies, they liked to take advantage of that power. Life as a Huntress wasn't all training and fighting to save the world, Weiss mused, it had its own advantages in day-to-day life.
They sped through the city until they reached Neptune's apartment. He lived halfway up a twenty-storey apartment complex. Not quite a penthouse suite, but it was certainly an up-market building. Neptune was always prone to over-spending for extra luxury. Not that Weiss was complaining; it gave her a nice place to stay whenever she was in Mistral.
Neptune let Weiss dump her things in his guest room and wandered into the kitchen. She dumped her bag on the bed and flopped down next to it, gazing up at the ceiling as she sank into the soft mattress. She reached into a pouch at her belt and pulled out her scroll. For almost the entire flight to Mistral, Weiss had been staring at the screen, waiting. She'd called Ruby and gotten no answer. Though disappointed, Weiss had shrugged it off. It would've been late afternoon in Vale when she'd called—maybe Ruby had been busy. And so she'd waited.
Ruby still hadn't called back. That worried Weiss. She had to have seen the notification by now. But she still hadn't called back. Not even a message. Did Ruby not want to talk to her? Had something happened to Ruby, and she couldn't call back? Weiss fought back the urge to call again. She didn't want to seem pushy. And she had things to do anyway, she couldn't afford to spend the whole day waiting for a phone call that may or may not come.
No matter how much she tried to tell herself that, Weiss couldn't help but stare at the screen forlornly, while the call log blinked at her: No missed calls. With a sigh of resignation and a mental kick, Weiss closed the scroll and put it away. Don't start this, Weiss, she told herself. You do not have time. There are more important things to do right now. Weiss squared her shoulders and left the bedroom, still thinking of Ruby—despite her mental pep-talk.
"How do you like your eggs?" Neptune was standing at the stove, wearing an apron over his clothes and wielding a frying pan.
Weiss froze at the sight and couldn't help but snigger.
"What!?" Neptune cried, outraged.
"What the hell are you wearing?" Weiss gasped.
Neptune looked offended. "The girl at the cooking store said it made me look sexy…"
Weiss burst into laughter. "It's got kittens on it!"
"Kittens are cute!"
Weiss sat on a stool at the kitchen bench and hunched over, shaking with laughter. After a few seconds, she sat up and she gasped for breath. Neptune was frowning at her with his hands on his hips, still holding the frying pan. Weiss did her best to contain the next bout of laughter, and settled for a quiet splutter.
"Scrambled, please," she said, as calmly as she could manage. Neptune raised an eyebrow at her, then turned to the stove.
They ate a quick, but surprisingly delicious, breakfast—Neptune knew how to make eggs—and then sat at the bench with mugs of coffee.
"So what's the plan?" Neptune asked, all trace of humour gone. It was time they got started.
Weiss glanced at the clock before replying. Ten thirty. As good a time to start as any.
"I've got an idea of where to start," she said. "But first, I have to ask: you're sure you saw twelve tonnes coming into the city?"
Neptune nodded. "Certain. And that's all I saw. There might be more for all I know, where I couldn't get eyes on it."
Weiss nodded slowly as she thought. "Okay, good. That gives us a starting point."
"And what's that?"
"We go to the Schnee company headquarters in Mistral, and confront them on it."
Neptune raised an eyebrow. "What? Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Weiss shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe not. But we have nothing else to go on at the moment. We'll go to the warehouse you saw it delivered to first—scope that area out—then we'll head there and confront them. They'll probably have moved it from the warehouse by now, so we not likely to find anything there—"
"But it can't hurt to check."
"Exactly. If we find anything, then we can re-plan. But if we don't, then we go straight to the HQ and tell them we know. Once we see how they react, we can act from there. If they try to hide it, then we'll know something is definitely going on."
Neptune frowned. "If they try to hide it?"
"Well, if they don't, then I'd like to see their explanation for that much Dust coming in."
"Good point," Neptune said with a chuckle.
Weiss downed the last of her coffee and got to her feet. "Shall we go then?"
Neptune promptly followed suit. "Might as well. No sense wasting daylight."
They grabbed their weapons and headed back to the car. Weiss squinted as Neptune pulled the car out of the parking lot in the building's basement; the sun was much brighter than when they'd arrived. Neptune held out a small pair of sunglasses.
"Here," he said. "You left these here the last time to visited."
Weiss smiled and slipped them on, casting the world in a grey sheen. The car pulled out of the driveway and whipped onto the road. She wound the window down and rested her arm on the door, brushing an errant lock of hair behind her ear with the other hand. Neptune shot her a grin and put his foot down.
Half an hour later, on the other side of the city, the car pulled into the empty lot next to the warehouse. Weiss stepped out of the car and stretched out. She slid Myrtenaster out a few inches and let the sword drop back. She probably wouldn't need it, but it never hurt to be careful.
"So how're we going to do this?" Neptune asked.
Weiss looked at the warehouse, visible through a wire fence running around the property. It was a massive building, at least two hundred metres long and one hundred across. She also knew that, if it was like most Schnee warehouses, it had subterranean floors as well. More volatile forms of Dust needed to be kept in special conditions and it was easier to keep them below ground, where it was colder.
She put her hands on her hips and glanced around. It didn't look like it was heavily guarded, which wasn't really surprising. It was a delivery warehouse; the Dust wasn't meant to stay here more than a few days before being distributed around the city. There might be small amounts of it left, but nothing worth a heavy security force.
"How long ago did you see the shipment get here?" she asked.
"About three days ago? Four?"
Weiss nodded. "Most of the Dust should be shipped out by now. Security will be low until the next shipment gets here."
"So we can sneak in?"
"Might be better than running the risk of tipping them off that I'm here. If we tell a guard who I am and he lets us in, I guarantee the people in charge of the Mistral branch will know within five minutes."
Neptune frowned. "We'd be better off taking them by surprise when we pay them a visit."
"Exactly."
"So we sneak in."
"We sneak in."
Weiss glanced around once more, in case any guards were patrolling nearby, and conjured a glyph beneath their feet. Neptune bent at the knees, standing on the balls of his feet—ready for action—and Weiss activated the glyph, launching them up and over the fence. She landed in a crouch and dashed across the empty clearing in between the fence and the warehouse. There was no cover between them and the building; speed was their best friend for now.
When they reached the shade of the warehouse and pressed their backs against the wall, Weiss cast her gaze upwards. All of the windows were closed. Casting another furtive glance around, Weiss led the way to the back of the building.
She peeked around the corner and saw one guard, walking away from them. The guard reached the far end of the warehouse and glanced back towards them. Weiss jerked back around the corner for a few seconds before cautiously peeking back around. The guard was gone. She waved Neptune up and the two of them dashed around the corner and to the door.
Weiss grabbed the doorknob and was unsurprised to find it locked. She reached into a pouch at her belt and pulled out a Burn pick. It was a small, needle-like device that looked almost identical to a lock-pick, but with a small canister of Burn Dust in the handle. She slipped the pick into the lock of the door and pressed a small button on the end of the handle. The Burn Dust was injected into the lock and quickly burnt the mechanism. The door swung silently open and Weiss and Neptune dashed inside.
"It's empty," Neptune muttered. It was an accurate description. The room before them was immense, but utterly deserted. Not a single crate of Dust was left; the building looked like it had been scoured clean.
"You sound disappointed."
"I thought that, if they were smuggling extra Dust in, they might keep it stored here. Seemed as good a hiding place as any."
Weiss nodded towards a freight elevator in the corner of the room. "There might be some below ground, but I can't imagine security would be this lax if there was."
They hurried to the elevator and Neptune reached out to the button to send it down. Weiss grabbed his arm and shook her head.
"It'll be too loud," she said.
"So how do we get down?"
Weiss walked to the back of the elevator and lifted up a small panel, revealing a ladder leading down the elevator shaft.
She smirked at Neptune. "In case the power goes out," she explained.
Neptune nodded and dropped through the hole. Weiss glanced around as she waited. It was strange that there was nothing left, she thought. There was normally a crate or two left behind, kept as a back-up supply, but now there was nothing. The official manifests had records of ten tonnes coming into the city—when the usual shipment was eight—so they couldn't have needed it all right away. There should be some left behind.
Where is it? Weiss frowned.
She turned back to the ladder and, after taking a deep breath, stepped into the darkness. There was a light below her, probing back and forth; Neptune had already reached the bottom. Weiss waited until she was a few metres above the bottom of the shaft and conjured a glyph. It slowed her down enough that she could casually step off it and into the hallway leading away from the elevator.
Neptune pointed his flashlight at her for a moment, and Weiss covered her eyes with a hand, wincing.
"Sorry," he muttered, pointing it down the corridor.
Weiss grunted in acknowledgment and headed in the direction the light shone, moving quickly on the balls of her feet. They came to another large door, the only one in the hallway, and stepped through.
The air seemed to instantly grow colder. There were air vents at the top of the room, with burst of mist blowing out of them. This was the cold storage room, for the more unstable Dust. But, like the room above, it was utterly empty.
Neptune swore. "Nothing? At all?"
"Relax," Weiss said. "We'll find it."
"There's got to be something here, surely!"
Weiss shook her head. "Look around. You can see it from here: the place is deserted. It's been cleaned out. Come on, let's get out of here."
"Schnee Company headquarters?"
"Yeah. It's all we can do now."
"I hope this works."
"Me too."
They evaded the guards on the way out as easily as they had on the way in and sped away from the warehouse. Weiss could see the tower in the distance, with the Schnee family crest emblazoned at the top. The building towered over most of the city. It wasn't the tallest skyscraper in Mistral, but it wasn't far off it.
Neptune wove the car through the traffic, and Weiss gazed at all the cars as they sped by. It was another image of normality: people going to and from work, going out for lunch, going shopping. Just living their lives. There were times when Weiss envied these people. They had no idea what dangers lurked outside the walls of their kingdom. They had no idea what was happening inside the kingdom either. Weiss envied them that. They didn't have to worry about it. And it was Weiss' job to keep it that way.
She looked turned back to the front. It was her job to make sure people could live their peaceful lives. Her job to sort out whatever was going on in Mistral.
She glanced upwards as the car came to a stop and couldn't help but feel a little intimidated at the sight of the Schnee office towering over her. It was a daunting prospect though—getting to the bottom of this. If the Schnee company was involved, then this massive tower was what they were up against. They needed to play this smart; there was too much at stake.
The guards at the door eyed them as they stepped inside, but said nothing. Weiss approached the receptionist and put her ID on the counter. The man behind the desk glanced at the ID and up at her face in shock. It wasn't often a member of the Schnee family visited Mistral, and no doubt he was racking his brains for the reason for her visit.
"M-miss Schnee," he stuttered. "W-what a surprise."
"Where's the board?" Weiss asked, her voice firm. Each Schnee company branch was run by a board of six high-level executives, who answered to Weiss' father directly—or, in this case, Weiss.
"They're in a meeting on the top floor at the moment," the man said. "Shall I let them kno—"
"No," Weiss interrupted. "I'll see myself up."
The man opened his mouth to speak again, but Weiss breezed past him before he could get a word out. Neptune followed her with an amused grin. She held her ID card over the sensor in front of the elevator and the doors opened.
"Welcome, Miss Schnee," a computerised, female voice said as they stepped inside.
Weiss pressed the button for the top floor and leant against the wall, folding her arms. They didn't talk as the elevator shot up. They'd discussed their plan of action on the drive and didn't want to risk any cameras overhearing them.
They reached the top floor in less than a minute and stepped casually out of the elevator. Employees shot them confused looks as they stalked towards the large double door that led to the board room.
Weiss burst into the room like a winter storm, and all eyes were on them in a flash. There was a long table in the middle of the room, with the six executives and a secretary sitting around it. The walls to the right and left were made entirely of glass and the right one provided a view of the city, while the wall on the left looked back into the offices. The man sitting at the head of the table, directly across the room from them, was the first to regain his composure.
"Miss Schnee," he said in a voice like ice. "What an unexpected surprise. What're you doing in Mistral?"
Weiss rounded the table and stood to the right of it, in front of the glass wall. Half of the executives were forced to spin around in their chairs to meet her gaze, and most of them still looked confused and shocked at her sudden appearance. Weiss' gaze flickered back towards the door and she saw Neptune slip into the chair at the end of the table nearest the door, leaning back casually. They'd agreed to let her do the talking.
"Tell me about the Dust, gentlemen." If the first man's voice was like ice, then Weiss' was at absolute zero. There was no emotion, no sympathy, no care. She saw at least three of the executives lose all colour in their faces, and the rest shifted in their seats.
Damn, she thought. Some part of her had held on to the hope that these men weren't behind whatever was going on, or at least that it was nothing nefarious. But, by the looks on their faces, she knew Neptune had been right: these men were up to something
"What Dust would that be, Miss Schnee?" The man at the head of the table was the first to recover again.
"The official shipping manifests at Schnee Dust Company headquarters in Atlas say that the most recent delivery to Mistral was carrying ten tonnes of Dust. I have it on good authority that the train was carrying twelve. Where did the extra Dust come from? Why was it not reported on official paperwork? Where is it now?"
The man glanced at Neptune for a moment, narrowing his eyes slightly, then turned back to Weiss. She raised an eyebrow at him and waited for his answer. One of the other executives opened his mouth to speak, but the first man shot him a glare that stopped him in his tracks.
"That Dust," the apparent leader of the board began, "was an off-the-books resupply. A portion of the last shipment that came in wasn't usable—the Dust hadn't been kept properly for the journey here—and rather than have evidence of such an error, an extra two tonnes were added to this month's shipment."
Weiss didn't react to his words, but inside she was thrown. She'd been prepared for them to deny it, or give her some petty excuse. The last thing she'd been prepared for was a plausible explanation.
"With no record of it?" she insisted, trying to stay on the attack.
"Your father said he would find a way to balance the books. He didn't want anyone to find out that a Schnee Company delivery had been mishandled. Didn't want the company's reputation tarnished."
My father did… Weiss frowned. He couldn't be involved too, could he? Or is this man telling the truth…?
"If you came all this way just to investigate such a trifling matter, no matter how reliable your information," the man shot another glare at Neptune, who grinned back. "Then I'm afraid you've wasted your time, Miss Schnee. Everything is accounted for and being dealt with."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. She'd just been dealt one of the least subtle dismissals she'd ever received, and from an employee no less. The urge to snap back, to assert herself over him, nearly overcame her, but she held back. It wouldn't do to embarrass herself before these men further.
She snorted in derision. "Very well. Thank you for your time, gentlemen. I'll be staying in Mistral for the next week or so, so feel free to keep me informed on the situation. I'm sure my father would like to know that everything is going smoothly."
"Of course, Miss Schnee," the man said, all politeness now. "We live to serve."
Weiss turned in a huff and left the room, Neptune hot on her heels. They didn't say a word as they rode the elevator down and left the building. It wasn't until the stepped outside the building that Neptune laid a hand on her shoulder.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, giving him a quick smile. "Just… wasn't expecting that."
"They're very good liars," he said with a wry grin. "Even I was struggling to stay suspicious."
"Did you plant the bug?" Weiss asked, ignoring Neptune's attempt at a joke.
"Did I plant the bug, she asks?" Neptune threw up his hands in mock exasperation. "With how distracted you made them, a blind Ursa could have planted the bug undetected."
"So you planted the bug?" Weiss said, keeping an utterly straight face.
Neptune gaped at her. "I… Yes. I planted the bug."
Weiss nodded. "Good. Let's go and grab some lunch and hear what they have to say."
They got in the car and drove around the corner to a nearby café. Neptune ordered them food and coffee while Weiss tuned her scroll to pick up the bug's frequency. There was a small crackling noise, with rough voices mixed in. Another small adjustment cleaned it up, and they could hear everything going on in the board room they'd just left.
"But how the hell did she find out!" a voice cried. "This was meant to be utterly secret!"
"It doesn't matter." The man who'd talked to Weiss during their visit spoke in a calm voice. "We just need to make sure she doesn't find out anything else. We can't risk this coming to light before we're ready to make our move."
Weiss looked up at Neptune with a horrified expression. They'd been right, and by the sounds of it, it could be bigger than they'd thought.
Another voice piped up. "Should someone go and tell—"
"I'll be going presently," the ringleader interrupted. "For now let's be careful, gentlemen. We shouldn't risk any more meeting on this here, in case she shows up unannounced again. Any and all meetings or discussion of this matter should take place in the warehouse."
There was chorus of agreement, a shuffling of chairs and then silence. The board members had left the room.
"Well, damn." Neptune muttered. "That didn't help."
"We know they're up to something now," Weiss disagreed. "And if we're lucky, we might be able to follow him to whoever they're working with."
They dashed out of the café, leaving behind a confused looking waiter holding two cups of coffee.
Weiss noticed the ringleader getting into a car as they drove around the corner. Neptune had put the roof up on his car, and the windows were tinted, but Weiss couldn't help but slink down in her seat. They slowed down, waiting for him to pull out of the parking space at the front of the building. The man sped out and drove past them, heading the way they'd come. Neptune hissed in frustration and swung the car around, earning him a few outraged honks from other drivers.
They made it around just in time to see their quarry turn the corner and Neptune sped after him, slowing down as he reached the turn. Once the man was far enough away, he rounded the corner and set off after him, staying at least fifty metres behind him.
They stayed behind the man for what felt like an hour, but was more like five minutes. Weiss glanced around as Neptune drove, taking note of where they were heading. The man was driving towards the city's docks, almost the directly away from the warehouse they'd searched earlier.
Weiss jolted forward with a yelp as Neptune slammed the brake on. A large delivery truck had pulled out in front of them. Neptune swore and tried to swerve around the truck, but it was taking up too much space on the road, and he couldn't make it around. He slammed his hands on the steering wheel. Weiss watched the truck pull out agonizingly slowly. Every second the truck was in the way was another second he had to get away.
After far too long, the truck moved enough for Neptune to snake around. He sped down the road, ignoring the angry honks of the truck driver. They reached the end of the road and glanced down each way. There was no sign of their quarry.
"Shit," Neptune cursed. "What do we do now?"
A/N: So I realise that these chapters might seem a little slow, but just hang in there, it's all going to be important. I'm hoping the mystery and the relationships between the characters is keeping everything interesting while I set everything up, but we're getting close. This story is going to explode at some point, and you'll be in for a ride when it does. But what's an explosion without a build up? And I realise I'm throwing a lot of information at you in each chapter, so if any wants me to clarify anything, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer, as long as it doesn't spoil anything that's going to happen in the story, or if the answer is important to the story.
Anyway, as ever, thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated, good or bad, so don't be shy about laying them on me.
I'll see you guys in another week!