The salt breeze whipping over Skjulte Perle's pier was sharp and cutting and cold. Winter's voice was those same things, but more.

"What do you mean, this is your last run for a while?"

Her tone didn't have its intended effect. The skipper of the Prudence shrugged it off. "I meant what I said. Prudence is due for some time in the shipyard for maintenance. There's a clause in our contract that allows us to take time off at our discretion to get that done."

"The contract allows you to invoke that clause once every three years," said Winter, trying to find a mental foothold. "It hasn't even been one year that you've been working for us."

"Yeah, well, it seemed like the right time." The skipper was doing a poor job of affecting casual. Something else was going on, Winter could feel it.

"Unless something has gone catastrophically wrong that you haven't reported to us," said Winter, "it's hard to see what maintenance could be so urgent it has to happen now. I certainly didn't see anything that dire during my inspection."

"Of course you didn't," said the skipper. "Would you even know where to look?"

Winter's eyes narrowed. "Either you were lying to me then or you're trying to bamboozle me now, and neither reflects well on you."

The skipper's demeanor faltered a bit. "Well..." he drawled, "let's just say I was... incentivized to go into the yard a little early."

Winter felt her hands balling up at her sides. "Someone bribed you to go into the shipyard now?"

"Well, now, I wouldn't call it a bribe. I just don't know what other word I'd use for it. But hey, no harm no foul, right? Like I said, the contract allows it."

Winter gnashed her teeth. "Yes, it does. With two weeks of lead time."

The skipper's expression turned to one that was probably supposed to be shrewd. "That said... if you were to make it worth my while to not go in the shipyard..."

He was fishing for a bigger bribe. Even the thought made Winter feel like she'd been dunked in slime. Still, she couldn't pass up an opportunity to get some information. "Out of curiosity, how much would it take to beat this other bribe?"

The skipper gave her a number.

"That is well outside of our price range," said Winter irritably.

"I figured it didn't hurt to ask, so I might as well."

"And who exactly is giving you all this money?" said Winter.

"Come on now, Huntress," said the skipper with an air of affront. "It's bad business to disclose this sort of thing. It discourages people from doing it again in the future."

Winter glared at him.

"Look, I'm not telling you. But you're smart, you can figure it out. It's someone with deep deep deep pockets, and who's willing to turn out those pockets just to spite you."

Winters insides roiled. "That does narrow it down some," she said.

"Well, that's as much as I'm willing to say," said the skipper. "Consider this our two weeks' notice. We'll do this last run, and then we're headed back for the yards at Port Solitas."

"How long will you be in the shipyard?" Winter asked.

"I'll keep in touch," said the skipper. It was an answer almost less useful than a lie.

The skipper made no effort to clarify or reassure her. Instead he walked away to supervise cargo onload and left her alone on the pier.

The cold salt breeze washed over Winter again, but it wasn't nearly as salty as she was.


"Alright, team," said Ruby, a gleam in her eyes. Weiss had stepped out to do a mine inspection, giving RVBY a chance to reconvene in the mining site office. "Everyone check in. What have we found?"

"I contacted my old buddy back in Vale," said Yang. "You know the one, runs a bar, knows someone who knows someone, a little tender below the belt?"

Neptune cringed in sympathy.

"We know who Junior is, Yang," said Ruby.

"Right. He told me that Fall Dust isn't shy about hiring whatever underworld figures are willing to take their lien. He said they'd employed criminals across every Kingdom for one purpose or another, including a few of his guys through intermediaries."

"Did he name the intermediaries?" asked Blake.

"I asked him, but he said telling me would be bad for business," said Yang. "Honestly, I was a little surprised he said as much as he did, but I guess the number we did on Torchwick has him a little spooked, especially after he loaned Torchwick a few of his guys."

"And Torchwick was working with the Vale Branch of the Fang," said Neptune.

"Pretty sure Junior didn't know that when he let that lease," said Yang. "He seemed surlier about that than about his guys getting arrested."

"Anything else?" asked Ruby.

"Yeah," said Yang. "He made a big point about Fall Dust working with 'employment agents'. He said it like it was a special term I was supposed to already know."

"I know what it means," said Blake. Once she'd realized that the Faunus in Skjulte Perle weren't hiding, she'd ditched her bow with gratitude and relief. That meant her ears were free to follow her emotions, and now they were turned away. "'Employment agent' is underworld code for trafficker. Junior was telling us that Fall Dust is actively trafficking in Faunus labor."

"Well," said Yang, "most of the Dust companies do that, right? Other than this weird SDR thing."

"Maybe," said Ruby, "but if it was business as usual, Junior wouldn't have made a fuss about it, right?"

"Unless he didn't know what counts as 'business as usual'," said Yang. "I don't know, I think Ilia had a point. She said the White Fang wouldn't work with an organization this big into Faunus trafficking."

"Adam would," said Blake, with a little bit of the subconscious, reflexive curling-up she always made when Adam came up. "He was starting to make a big deal about 'acceptable losses' near the end. I don't imagine he got more stable after I left."

"Yeesh," said Yang. "Everyone who's glad that jerkface is dead, say 'aye'."

There was a chorus of ayes.

"But we should be sure about Adam, if we can be," said Ruby.

"I agree," said Blake. "Which is why I… contacted my parents."

It took a moment for this to register with the others. Then it did. "Your parents were White Fang?" shouted Ruby.

"Her father was the old High Leader, before Sienna Khan took over," said Neptune knowingly.

Six eyes stared at him.

"What?" he said, losing his cool beneath their gazes.

"How did you know that?" said Blake.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me I'm the only one who did the extra readings for Oobleck!"

"Nerd," said Yang.

"Your last name is Belladonna," said Neptune. "Once I knew you were a Faunus, I'm like, no Faunus would change her name to Belladonna, so that had to be your real last name, and once you said you were ex-White Fang, there was only one guy your dad could have been."

"The one time you were able to keep a secret," said Blake sharply.

"I didn't figure it was a secret."

"That explains it."

"Listen, it's cool finding out about Blake's family and stuff, but could we get back to the point, please?" said Ruby.

Blake took a breath and visibly recentered. "Right. Well, I know dad is still in touch with Sienna Khan. Whatever Sienna found that made her kill Adam, she might be willing to share with dad."

"Wow," said Ruby. "I guess he is kind of a big deal, huh?"

"He and Sienna disagreed on methods, but never on goals," said Blake. "They both wanted a world where Faunus were treated with dignity. They respected each other for that."

"And they have to keep up their working relationship," pitched in Neptune, "seeing as he's Chieftain of Menagerie and all."

Blake double facepalmed. "Gods damn you, Neptune."

Yang's expression was equal parts ecstatic and devilish. "You're the Princess of Menagerie?"

"No! The office is not hereditary, it doesn't work like that!" Blake protested through her hands.

"Oh, gosh," said Ruby, wringing her hands without apparent irony, "all this time I wasn't treating you with the right respect, I hope it's all okay! Uh, your highness."

"Never, ever call me that again."

"Sure thing, your… uh… princess? Ness? Princessness."

"Gods damn you, Neptune."

"Much as I'd enjoy sitting here and roasting Blake all day," said Yang, "I think we're getting a little distracted by the shiny object. So, you had a chat with your dad?"

Blake sighed and lowered her hands. "Yeah. I asked him what Sienna found about Adam. He said he'd ask her, and send whatever he found out to me."

"You were able to ask for that over a scroll call?" said Yang. "Doesn't Atlas monitor for stuff like that?"

"My dad was a White Fang activist longer than I've been alive. We used code-talk. He was a little rusty, but he got back into it."

"Cool."

"That should answer the question of who Adam was working for," said Blake. "If it was Fall Dust, we'll know."

"Nice," said Ruby. "What about you, Neptune?"

"I don't have the contacts you all have," said Neptune, "but I do have a scroll and access to public data on the Dust industry. Fall Dust is weird. Dust is really capital-intensive, so, to raise money, almost every other Dust company issues a lot of stock. Publicly traded companies have to report their financials under Atlas trading laws. Fall Dust doesn't. Oh, they've sold a little bit of stock, but not much, enough for the company to have a presence in the market without meeting public disclosure laws thresholds."

Ruby blinked owlishly. "Uh… you lost me. What does that mean?"

"It means they threw up a smokescreen to look respectable without letting anyone know if they are respectable," said Neptune.

"Well, why didn't you just say that the first time?"

"Yeah," said Yang, "I figured someone who spends so much time trying to be all cool wouldn't talk like that."

"You know what's cool?" said Neptune. "Money. Money is cool. This is about money, so it's cool."

"I promise you it's not."

Neptune rolled his eyes. "The point is, no one knows what Fall Dust's finances actually look like. They act like they've got infinite money. No one understands it. There are half as many Dust companies out there today as there were when the SDC went bankrupt, and Fall Dust bought out most of the losers. Even the biggest of the other companies have been on the ropes lately, but Fall Dust keeps trucking along."

Blake folded her arms. "I know we're inclined to think that's bad, but… is it any worse than normal big company behavior? The SDC tried to become a monopoly, too. If Jacques had lived another few years, it might have succeeded. Is Fall Dust that different?"

"Uncle Qrow thinks so," said Ruby. "I was talking to him about it. He let slip that Professor Ozpin's got a finance group that's checking out Fall Dust stuff in Vale. I think the Atlas Council is doing something like that here, too."

Yang frowned. "Uncle Qrow doesn't 'let stuff slip'."

"Nope," Ruby agreed, "which means he told me on purpose, which means Fall Dust's money stuff is super shady."

"I feel like it should scare me that all that made sense," said Neptune.

"You get used to it. So," said Yang, "to sum up, Fall Dust is trying really hard to stomp everyone else, is in bed with all the world's criminals, maybe was bossing around Adam Taurus, and is trafficking Faunus while it's at it. That sound right?"

"And Cinder also really hates SDR's guts," said Ruby.

"And that."

"I heard Weiss talking to her sister earlier, too," said Blake. "Apparently, the Faunus that was used as grimm bait was trafficked, just like we thought."

"Looks like all the pieces fit," said Ruby confidently. "Fall Dust hired some goons to use one of Fall Dust's victims to try and hurt one of Fall Dust's rivals."

"It all fits," agreed Neptune. "Too bad we don't have any evidence."

Ruby sputtered. "Well, what do you call all of that?!"

"Circumstantial," said Neptune. He raised fingers to count off. "We've got motive, means, and opportunity, but we still can't show Fall Dust actually did it. That's not enough for Winter, never mind an Atlesian court."

"And the grimm bait's no help," Blake said, disappointed but unable to help it. "He said the bad guys had a sack over his head the whole time, and they didn't say anything that might identify them or why they were doing it. I believe him. It's scarier when nothing makes sense, and these guys were going for maximum scary."

It was a sobering thought that left all of them quiet for a moment. "So… what now?" Yang said when the silence had curdled.

Ruby took a deep breath. "We'll get more news from Blake's dad and Uncle Qrow eventually. In the meantime, we hold the mine against the grimm, we keep asking questions, and we keep our eyes open."

Neptune nodded. "We'll have this place on lockdown!"

Yang grinned. "By which you mean Skjulte Perle was too close to the ocean for you."

"You can't prove that."

"Keep me appraised of your progress, won't you?"

Team RVBY started in surprise. As one, they looked to the doorway, where Weiss Schnee had poked her head in.

"Uh…" said Ruby, collecting herself brilliantly.

"I look forward to hearing more," Weiss said with a smile.

Yang crossed her arms. "Didn't your sister tell us not to get involved? And here we are, getting super-duper involved?"

"I am not my sister," Weiss said, her smile widening. "I won't tell her if you don't."

"Ooh," said Yang, turning to her team with mischief on her face, "I think Ice Princess is starting to… warm up to us."

Ruby expected Weiss to groan at Yang's horrible joke; that's what she did. Instead, Weiss' face flushed, and she pinched her nose shut as she retreated.

Atlesians were weird.


Cinder glowered at the man who had appeared so casually in her domain.

Her office in Fall Manor had been heavily remodeled at her direction. Once, this room had been full of unread books and narcissistic art. Now, it had a much more practical affect. A bank of monitors was spread across one wall, each one receiving a feed from a camera either in the Manor or at Fall Dust's headquarters. They let her look in on the efforts mostly of her senior staff, but of others as well. She contacted the subjects of those cameras just often enough to leave them with the impression that they were always being watched, that Cinder might catch whatever they were up to at a given moment. It kept them on their toes. Cinder would not fall victim to the same curse as the SDC. It was much harder to commit graft or fraud when you were looking over your shoulder at all times.

The other wall had a jumbo-sized screen which displayed the price of all categories of Dust, along with real time updates and price history. At present, the values for Plant, Water, and Wind were higher than she desired, but they were coming down with no end in sight. She would see to it.

Looking at this monitor, doubtlessly pretending he had some understanding of what it all meant, was Arthur Watts.

He was smartly dressed. Perhaps the only compliment Cinder would be willing to pay the man was that he had style. But he exuded at all times an aura of smug, insufferable superiority. A bushy mustache hid most of his upper lip, so it was hard to tell when he was actually smirking, smiling, or otherwise mocking those around him... except that Cinder knew "mocking" to be his default state. He was always, always convinced he was smarter than everyone else, and this amused him to no end.

Cinder wanted nothing more than to throw him bodily from the roof of her Manor.

It would have been a futile gesture. Arthur was not a fighter by nature, but his Aura was strong, no doubt enhanced by the gifts of his and Cinder's mutual mistress. He could survive a little defenestration. Even if he didn't, the Witch valued him too much to simply accept his loss without question. He was protected by her matronage.

He was completely aware of this fact, and it meant he didn't even try to restrain himself.

He deigned to notice her with a fraction of his attention. "Ah, Cinder," he said. "Starting work late this morning?"

"Arthur," she said through gritted teeth. "I was under the impression you were supposed to have been here sooner."

"Oh, I've been here," he said. "Not in Schnee Manor, specifically, but here in the Kingdom."

He was misnaming the place on purpose just to needle her, Cinder knew. She kept herself from correcting him, but her reaction must have been visible, because he gave a pleased noise in her general direction.

"I do have other tasks to perform for Her Grace," he continued, "tasks far more important than babysitting you."

"Like what?" she asked.

"If Her Grace hasn't seen fit to tell you, I don't see why I should," he said, somehow becoming more unbearable. "Let's just say I'm doing 'market research' and leave it at that."

"Then why are you here now?" said Cinder.

"Well," said Watts, "I am aware that Fall Dust is working on certain weapons programs for the Atlesian Military. Automated weapons programs. It would be absolutely dreadful if those automated weapons had errors in their targeting software that caused them to suddenly pick different targets, wouldn't it?"

"Dreadful," deadpanned Cinder.

"I can slip into Mantle's computer network trivially," said Watts. "I designed much of that system, and Atlas never did find all the back doors I left myself. The Atlas network, on the other hand, is somewhat more formidable. I could force my way in, but my priority is to keep quiet. The longer Atlas keeps believing that I'm dead, the more leeway I have."

For the first time, he bothered to turn towards her. "It'll be quicker and quieter if I have an insider's starting point. Get me decent credentials into the Fall Dust network, and I'll find my way into the weapons programs that have the data I really want. Then I'll be gone like I was never here."

"And if I do that for you," replied Cinder, "what will you do for me?"

"Do for you?" repeated Watts mockingly. "What could I possibly need to do for you? You assured Her Grace that you had the Dust industry well under control, that you had a clear trajectory to completing your mission. Was that not true? Her Grace will be sorely disappointed if you've been misleading her."

Once more, the temptation to wring the gangly man's neck was overwhelming. "I'm doing my job," said Cinder, "and I am succeeding. I will complete my mission. But if you were truly loyal to our mistress' cause, you would make more of an effort to advance that cause."

"Oh, please," drawled Watts, "don't try to lecture me about 'the cause'. You're not Tyrian. The only cause you believe in is yourself."

He paused to let the impact of his words register with Cinder; she could do nothing but stew and wait for him to get bored. At length he sighed. "Well, since I'm already here, I might as well see if there's anything I might get up to. If I have the spare time, that is."

"Of course," said Cinder. "We wouldn't want to trouble you."

"Trouble me?" asked Watts, appearing to badly fail at containing laughter. "Trouble me? Cinder, you have already troubled me in ways you don't even know."

"What are you talking about?" said Cinder.

Watts didn't even pretend to conceal his laughter this time. "Things have been arranged for you, Cinder. Do you think it was an accident that Jacques Schnee's airship suffered two simultaneous engine failures and none of the safeties engaged? Mere happenstance, perhaps? Or maybe you believe the story we leaked to the press, that Willow Schnee was 'indulging' before she stepped behind the wheel of a car with no functioning brakes?"

The words were reaching Cinder only very distantly, as if they had to traverse a different, thick medium to get to her. "What are you implying?"

Watts slapped his own forehead as if unbelieving how dense Cinder could be. "Your ascendancy was gift-wrapped for you," he said with a voice full of contempt. "You have received a grandiose amount of assistance already. We took the effective Schnee out of the picture early, and then removed the other too soon for her offspring to take the company, but after she had done the maximum amount of damage. And let's not forget the stupefying sums of money that Her Grace put at your disposal for this operation."

He shook his head at her as if in disbelief. "If you seriously believe that you got this far by talent and hard work, you are more delusional than I could have believed."

"Delusions?" repeated Cinder, her temper almost volcanic in its fury. "Is it a delusion that I have made this company more efficient than the SDC ever was? Or that more than half of all Dust companies have fallen at my feet in under two years? Or that, by this time tomorrow, a scandal I uncovered and promoted will have taken out the leadership of Dust United? Or that an insider in Dust of Sanus is sabotaging her company on my orders to set up a hostile takeover? All of that is my doing, and no one else's!"

"Yes, yes," said Watts with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You have achieved some minimum level of success. Yet here you are, asking me for yet more help. Why, you haven't even been able to stamp out the Schnee family's whelps!"

The clouds parted. Fury lost its grip on her, if only just for a moment. The mention of the Schnees had brought Cinder clarity.

As unbearable as Watts was, he was still loosely on her side, whereas the Schnees... They needed to burn. Burn, both for Salem's mission and for Cinder's hatred. If putting up with Watts was the price for that, it was a bargain.

Cinder could wait. Cinder could endure. She could suffer anything, for as long as it took. Madame had trained her well.

She took a calming breath and spoke deliberately. "I know you're working on viruses to disable machinery." At the surprised look he gave her, she gave a tight smile. "I'm not as uninformed as you seem to think."

He rolled his eyes at her, but didn't contradict her.

"What better opportunity to do a test run than to wreck machinery that is all adjacent to each other, leaving no evidence, against a firm with no cyber security protections or forensics?" she said, pressing her advantage, injecting her full seductive powers into her voice.

He arched an eyebrow at her, as if daring her to imply that his viruses were not up to the task.

She saw the trap and sidestepped it. "I know you're here to prove your superiority. Wouldn't the best way to prove it be for them to never even know you were there? To leave them pointing fingers at each other, confused and clueless as to the true mastermind? Think how stupid they'll look, tearing each other to pieces while you laugh at them from the sidelines."

Watts couldn't help himself. Appeals to his pride would always succeed. Cinder knew that about him, and that knowledge let her claw back some control. She may not be able to touch him as long as he retained Her Grace's favor, but she could still use him.

He exuded irritation, but made a showy hand gesture which displayed the oversized rings on his fingers. "Well," he drawled, "I suppose I could spare a few moments… if you've gathered information on the target."

"You'll have everything you need within the week," promised Cinder.

He waited to answer long enough for her to feel his skepticism, then nodded. "If you hold up your end, I suppose I could whip something together to help with your little... Schnee issue."

Cinder smiled. "The messier and more spectacular, the better."

He rolled not just his eyes but his whole face at her as he left the room. "That's always been your problem," he said over his shoulder as he let himself out. "No subtlety."

Cinder squeezed her hands together, but said and did nothing more. She remembered Madame. Be patient. Endure. Bank your hatred, then pay it back in full.

She'd show him subtlety.


Weiss knew it was never a good sign when someone opened a conversation with the words "I'm sorry".

It was especially unwelcome when the words were coming from a person of authority, in this case, Mayor Leif. "What are you sorry for?" she asked.

"So," he said, shaking his shoulders back and forth in place like he couldn't sit still but didn't know what to do with himself, "first it was supposed to be Atlas police, because you know we don't have any police of our own here. Too small a town. Or was, before you all showed up."

"Who was supposed to be what?" asked Weiss.

"But I told them they didn't have jurisdiction," rambled on Leif, as if he hadn't heard her at all. "And I was right, Atlas police can't come out here, not with any authority. So then she had to change her request, and what crime she was reporting..."

"Who reporting what?" said Weiss, more befuddled than ever.

Leif was still in too much of a panic to realize she was speaking. "But she finally found a crime, or at least what she can say was a crime, that she could report to the Military Police, and they can go wherever they want if they can get the orders for it, and so apparently some of them got orders to come here. I tried to tell them off, but, well, they'll be here any minute now."

At last Weiss had one fact she could stand on. "The Military Police are coming here?"

Leif blinked, as if realizing for the first time that she was there and hadn't understood him. "Yeah, the MPs. Any minute now."

Weiss stood. "And you couldn't have given me even a little more warning?"

"Well, they didn't tell me until an hour ago, and I've been on the scroll with them ever since trying to figure out how I could wave them off. No dice."

It was about then that Weiss heard the telltale swooping sound of approaching Mantas. She went to say something sharp to Mayor Leif, but the way that he was squirming disarmed her. She believed that he'd done all he could to shield her, and that counted for something. "Well," she said, "I suppose we should go see what they want."

"I didn't already explain that?" said Leif with a frown and more distress than ever.

It would have been amusing under less dire circumstances. "I'm sure they'll let us know," said Weiss drily. It was a show of mercy. She stepped past Leif to head down the stairs and out of the hostel, and heard him tromping after her.

She could immediately see, upon exiting the hostel, two Mantas, each bearing the single broad blue stripe designating the military police. One of the Mantas was descending onto the pier, the only space broad enough to accommodate it. A few people were gathering to gawk, but more were rushing away and making themselves scarce.

Weiss couldn't help but notice that all of the gawkers were human, while all of the Faunus were fleeing.

Setting herself with her most regal body language, Weiss took measured steps down towards the pier until she was standing at a respectful distance from the lead Manta. It had shut down and begun to debark personnel; the other regained altitude and headed back in the direction of Atlas.

There were four MPs in all. Their leader, a brunette woman who would have been anonymous except for the unpleasant sneer on her face, approached Weiss and Leif with the attitude of one used to being feared and obeyed. She ignored Weiss at first, instead looking solely at Mayor Leif.

"Are you in charge of this… settlement?" she asked in a voice quite as unpleasant as her expression. The word 'settlement' had come out dripping with disdain, as if she didn't really believe Skjulte Perle merited the word.

Once, Weiss might have agreed with her, but coming from her, here, and now, that sounded like an assault. Weiss bristled.

"I am," said Leif, regaining a small measure of his nerve.

"Excellent," said the MP. "I'm Investigator Scarlet McCarthy, and my men and I are here to conduct an investigation in your town. We will require lodgings and access to the people here."

"Well," said Leif with a wringing of his hands, "I can see about getting you lodgings, but I can't compel anyone to meet with you who doesn't wanna. It's one of the rules of our charter. I can't make people go anywhere."

"I feel for you," McCarthy said without any sympathy whatsoever, "but happily, the Military Police have subpoena power that you do not. I asked only out of courtesy. I will be interviewing your citizens, as well as the workers of the so-called Schnee Dust Reborn company."

"And what crime are my workers accused of?" demanded Weiss. "Why are they under investigation?"

McCarthy looked down at Weiss as if noticing her for the first time. "They're not under investigation," she said with a maximum of contempt. "You are."

"Me?" said Weiss, completely flat footed.

"Yes," said McCarthy, clearly enjoying herself immensely. "A good citizen of this town, one Holly Hemlock, contacted the Military Police. She warned us that Schnee Dust Reborn was engaging in some truly heinous crimes."

"Like what?" Weiss said defiantly.

McCarthy's leer grew even worse than before, and she spoke the last words Weiss would have expected.

"Trafficking in persons."


Next time: Putting the Squeeze on the Schnees