Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 130

While Coda continued her tracing of the online marketplaces, Jaune had Blake checking a far more mundane one – property. Namely, flats and apartments in the more rundown areas of Vale and also buildings in villages surrounding it.

They'd need alternative accommodations if ARC Corp really did turn on them, and he knew he'd be the one watched. Jaune had no reason to be looking into property while she might arguably be looking to upgrade from her crappy studio apartment close to the office. As Jaune worked and made sure he looked as busy as possible, Blake discretely arranged for two flats in downtown Vale to make it under her name.

And just as discretely asked Coda to change the details on those after.

The anomalous code-creature might not have liked Jaune, but she – it – liked ARC Corp even less, and would prefer them chasing after Jaune and Blake than looking into all the anomalies the Containments Office had worked with over the years. It wasn't long before Blake owned the properties under a new name, with her records conveniently being lost in the system.

The same occurred with a small two-floor house in a small village two hours walk from Vale. The small country home was, to the locals, purchased by someone in the city who wanted a potential holiday home. It would be a good enough excuse for why it remained empty for such long lengths of time. Hopefully, these retreats wouldn't be necessary.

But they weren't about to leave things up to hope.

A number of plans had been drafted and discussed. Blake's had been to use Anomalous & Sons to try and tie ARC Corp into a contract – even to renegotiate their own contracts while Nicholas yet lived, and force Saphron to hold to that or face punishment. It would mean they couldn't be purged as long as they didn't break said contract.

Jaune had turned the offer down. Not only would that mean relying on an anomaly with unknown aims, but it'd alert Saphron and the others to their suspicions. It'd also tie them into a contract, and ARC Corp would obviously want said contract to be written to comply with their ethos. Since the two of them had already broken the rules of ARC Corp so many times – from Timothy to Alistair's bar to Menagerie – they might be considered in breach of contract the moment they signed it and die seconds later. Even if the contract wasn't retroactive, they'd be stuck in a form of quasi-slavery, forced to hunt down and kill the anomalous friends they'd made out of fear for their own lives.

Another idea had been to build up some support against Saphron. The Arc family was smaller now than it had been and that meant less allies for the Fist Office. Sadly, it also meant less for them, since Coral would have been the only one to side with them. Amber might, given she'd left them on somewhat good terms, but there was no telling how much she'd been turned against them now. Or if the opinion of a member so young would hold any weight.

Naturally, the thought of going independent and leaving ARC Corp early had to be floated, even if Jaune shot it down moments later. The city itself would be ordered to restrain them, and they'd do it. While the two of them had done a lot to protect Vale, it was all under ARC Corp's umbrella. There wasn't anyone in Vale who really knew them. Ozpin might help, if only to make life harder for ARC Corp, but it'd come with terms and conditions. They'd be exchanging one master for another.

Ultimately, the only thing they could come up with was the old classic – fake their deaths.

"It'd have to be convincing," said Jaune. "And that's a concern since I don't have any aura. One good shot will kill me, and Terra won't miss. You'll have to deal with Pyrrha."

"Lose to her, you mean. Should be easy."

"Losing is the easy part; surviving it is where things get difficult. They'll come to you and make an offer first, order you to back down and accept their authority. The purge will come for me, not you."

"Don't ask me to pretend." Blake crossed her arms. "No one would believe it. I've made it clear on too many occasions that I'm loyal to you."

Jaune chuckled. "You have a bad habit when it comes to picking men to hold loyalty to."

"Tell me about it. At least I'm not sleeping with you." That would have normally drawn a blush from him and made things awkward. Neither of them were in the mood for that. "What about Ruby? You know how she feels; she won't betray you."

"It won't be an issue. The Fist Office will choose their moment well. It'll happen when Ruby is in the facility in Patch. They'll initiate a lockdown and trap her there for the duration. By the time she's let out, we'll already be dead."

Whether that was for real or fake would be up to them, but Blake found herself nodding along with his thoughts. Cutting Ruby off was the obvious move, and since ARC Corp had remote control of the facility they could ensure it happened. "I'll have to avoid it," she said. "If I show up there along with her, it'll be too tempting a chance for them to ignore."

"Yes. Luckily, the whole point of hiring Ruby was so that we wouldn't have to waste time there. We've got a good excuse for you and her to never be there at the same time." Jaune pushed his chair away from his desk and stood, walking to the window. He drew the curtains shut. "They'll attack here. We're on an upper floor and they can keep the combat to the building if needs be. You might be able to survive a drop from this floor, but I can't – and I'm their primary target. They know about your past in the White Fang. If you escape alive, they can just blame all this on you as a delayed terrorist attack."

Ah, if it wasn't the consequences of her own actions coming back to haunt her. Blake grunted, more annoyed at the thought of being on the run and having everyone believe she would kill Jaune, than being framed as a terrorist. Ruby wouldn't believe it. Everyone else? They'd believe whatever they were told to. She might survive to reach Menagerie and hide there. ARC Corp might even let her since no one would believe a word she'd say.

"I'll be damned if I let them win like that," she said. Spite had always a good motivator for her. "So, we fight them and make sure our deaths are convincing, then retire outside of Vale. That's our only real choice right now."

"This is if it happens," Jaune reminded her. "There's a chance the Chief Director will put down orders that Saphron can't overturn, or that she'll decide it's better the devil you know. The family still doesn't have a lot of members and we're stretched thin, so there's still a chance she'll let us be – at least until we've recovered enough that removing our office won't make things worse."

"And how likely is that?"

"Noninterference is the least likely option," he admitted, "but there're levels to it. Saphron doesn't have to start with a purge. She could open up by placing extra rules on us, stricter requirements, or even dispatching someone here to take operational control."

"Give us some rope to hang ourselves with, you mean."

"She doesn't need to do that. This would be to buy time, but also to see if we can't be intimidated into bending our knee. We'll have to play along if that happens, you realise."

Blake clicked her tongue and looked up at the ceiling. It'd be a pain, especially since they'd have to hide Timothy. It'd be Pyrrha who was sent. Saphron wouldn't dare risk Terra this far into her pregnancy. Pyrrha was strong but the two of them could probably best her if they worked together. Killing her wasn't the issue – surviving after was. Since they didn't really want to have to kill anyone, they'd need to play along and wait for Pyrrha to try and turn on them, all while balancing their many, many lies.

"Pyrrha is just one person," she said, slowly. Jaune hummed his agreement. He must have come to the same conclusion as she on who they would send. "And she'll be keeping an eye on you more than she will me. As long as you play along, I can run around in the background keeping Alistair and the others out her way."

"It'd still mean a shift in our tactics. They'd want us to eradicate all anomalies. No more containment. If we were unlucky enough to come across Alistair or someone we know while Pyrrha is there..."

The obvious answer was they'd have to kill said anomaly to hide the rest. That wasn't the problem. The problem was whether that anomaly might call them out before they did. And the bigger one was that Pyrrha wasn't some busybody desk jockey who would sit back and shout commands from the back. She'd be doing her own investigations and might stumble upon Alistair's bar on her own.

There was so much that could go wrong.

"I'm going to speak to my father before this," Jaune said.

"Is that wise? You're basically forewarning Saphron."

"It has to be done. I doubt it'll come as a surprise to anyone as it is. Saphron's feelings are obvious, and we'd be idiots to not be worried. Besides, the answers I get in that meeting will help give us an idea on how soon they'd move against us, if at all."

"And me?"

"Get in touch with Coda and see if she has anything on these twisted sickos. We still have a case to look into."

/-/

"I've got you one potential target," Coda told her.

"And they are?"

"I think they might be a proxy. Think of them as a dealer. They don't make the videos but they distribute them and make a little commission off each sale."

"Isn't that weirdly risky for the studio? More links in the chain means more weakness."

"Yes, but you're thinking of them as having all the skills they need. The ones making the videos are people who know how to abduct someone and film disgusting content, but they might not know the first thing about internet security or how to sell and transfer files without risk of being tracked."

They'd need an expert for that. Some basement dwelling hacker or even just someone who knew how to run some basic code. The White Fang had needed to do the same once or twice, so it wasn't so unreasonable. While another link in the chain did bring in risk, it might also act as an early warning signal. If the dealer was arrested, they knew to up shop and run. Given they were already on the run, this wasn't likely to alert them.

"How culpable are they? Do I have to be gentle with them?"

"I've no idea how involved they are in the videos but let's just say their hard drive has more than enough evidence of another kind on it. Not only illegal content, but they've run some ransomware and attacks on public services in the past. I'm in his system now and there's enough here to justify however hard you want to go in."

"Good."

"I've copied and secured it all, too. Don't worry if he tries to destroy his hardware. I'm forwarding you the address. You're after a man in this late twenties. There are others at the property who may or may not be ignorant."

"I'll go easy on them. Thanks for this, Coda."

"You pay well. I've noticed you and your boss having issues with your company. Do you want me to look into their systems?"

"No. Too great a risk. But if you ever notice Saphron Arc, Terra Arc or Pyrrha Nikos coming to Vale all of a sudden, I'd definitely appreciate a heads up."

"I'll slip some code into the airports to alert me. How likely is your squabble to involve the others?"

"We'll take information on Alistair's bar and the rest of you to our graves if we must, but if we're replaced then you'll have to look out for yourselves against whomever takes our place. Unless it's Ruby. If she manages to play nice and convince the Fist Office she's loyal, then she will probably feign ignorance about you all."

"I'll see what I can do to support her bid, then. You'll have your early warning if they come for you – unless it's via anomalous means."

"From Saphron? I somehow doubt she'd bother."

The call ended and Blake checked the details Coda had sent through. She had a name, an address, and a screenshot of a social media page for the man in question. He was what one would uncharitably call the stereotype for every basement dwelling gamer. Not the ones who played games for fun but otherwise had normal lives, but the type who lived in the basement. Perhaps it was less that the stereotype fit and more than such a life forced the human body to conform to the stereotype, since a lack of exercise, poor diet and too much time in a gaming chair would do what it had to him to anyone.

Blake called the precinct and scheduled a police car and van to pick her up.

/-/

The woman who opened the door was pushing seventy and looked incredibly sweet and kind, which didn't help Blake's feelings any. Blake held up one of the many badges she had in her possession, this one marking as a private investigator of the VPD. They were only technically fake since she qualified as anything and everything she needed. The police departments would corroborate her story if asked.

"Ma'am, I'm with the VPD with some questions for your son. Is he in?"

"My son? Yes. Yes, he's in, but... what is it he could have done to warrant this? My son is a good man."

Despite her words, there was a hesitance to her tone that suggested she had her suspicions. A weariness that spoke of many long conversations with said man, and a sense of despair at it having come to this. The woman offered no resistance as Blake stepped into the nice home. It was a decent-sized family house, and they must have had some money to afford it in the quieter parts of the city.

"Your son is under investigation for dealing in illegal online material, ma'am." Blake's answer had the woman paling. "But, as of yet, we've no reason to believe he's involved in making it. He's merely the one helping to bring it to a wider market. If he cooperates with our investigation, he will be charged with a far lesser crime."

"Oh no. No, no." The woman clutched at her cheeks. Tears appeared in her eyes. "Oh, Mark. What have you done?"

It said a lot that she didn't accuse Blake of getting it wrong and jump to her son's defence. Some would have said that made her a bad mother, but it was more likely she was an observant one. The man – Mark – was making money off something and was probably intentionally vague with his family about what that was. His parents must have mulled it might be less than legal, but they couldn't have expected this.

"He's downstairs," the woman said, her shoulders hanging limp and defeated. "I'll show you to the basement. He's claimed it as his own, says the colder air down there helps with cooling his computers. He's always been into them, you see. Ever since school. Our Mark was never athletic and the other boys bullied him mercilessly for it."

A story as old as time. Adam had the same excuse in a way – and even more deserved. It was undeniable that a tragic past could prompt terrible decisions later, but they rarely ever excused them. Breaking the law was breaking the law. And for something his heinous, a past of being bullies would only explain the man's decision, not justify it.

When the woman opened the door to the basement, a thick wad of acrid smoke came pouring out of it. Blake sniffed, then pinched her nose shut and urged the woman aside. A large man came heaving and panting up the steps, streaked with sweat and soot and smelling of chemicals. Acid and bleach, most likely.

"There's been a fire!" he claimed.

"I'm sure there has been," Blake replied. "Luckily, we made copies of everything on your systems before I came here." The man's face paled as all blood fled. His tiny eyes stretched wide, filled with fear. "Cooperate and you'll possibly be looking at a lesser sentence, which may not even include time in prison."

"But..." His eyes flicked to his mother. "I haven't done anything."

"Then you'll have nothing to worry about." Blake turned him around. The man was too unfit and too afraid to resist, allowing her to slip a pair of cuffs onto his wrists. It was hard to tell if he was really holding to that story or just trying not to have anything revealed in front of his mother. They'd find out soon enough. "You're under arrest. Your rights will be delivered to you at the station."

Mark whimpered.

/-/

Jaune met with her in time to watch Mira Ash conduct a ruthless interview through a fake mirror. The man had to be seated on two chairs brought together and he'd broken down twice already during the interview. He wasn't some tough criminal but an opportunistic slimeball who saw the chance to make some easy money, and who possibly had an addiction to online content that had been exacerbated over years of lonely internet surfing.

Blake didn't feel too sorry for him given what she'd seen.

"He doesn't seem to have noticed any of the anomalous thankfully," Jaune said. "He's obviously watched the videos but just sees them as what they're supposed to be. That's good. If we're lucky, that'll be an opinion held by all their sicko fans."

"You said it looked... unusual..."

His face twisted into an unhappy grimace. "Yes. But it'd be easy to write that off as extreme terror or psychoactive drugs. The kind that would have someone hallucinating. There's ways we can write this off once it's all said and done. We could even call it a Semblance."

"Once it's said and done. We still don't know what the athame actually does."

"No. We don't. I'm hoping it's just making them see their own worst fears. I'm hoping it's not sentient. Sentient objects are still less dangerous than sentient and moving anomalies, but only a little. People are so easily influenced by them."

"Controlled?"

"No. Convinced. Be it for power or money or just clout." He nodded to the man falling to pieces in the questioning room. "It's easy to act tough when you have a screen between you and anyone who might come for you. And when you feel invincible, it's easy to make stupid decisions you regret later."

He was certainly regretting his. The man was a crying, blubbering mess. "Ash is good at what she does."

Jaune nodded. "You don't get to the top of the VPD on connections alone. You need a proven record to be trusted by the politicians. Because any fuckups you make will reflect on the government before they do you. She's survived two governments already, and both have kept her on. That says a lot."

It did. Every new government liked to staff services with those loyal to them – or at least not loyal to the old party. For her to have stayed on so long meant she knew how to navigate the political as well as handle herself in terms of crime reduction. The fact that their quarry was falling apart under her interrogation didn't mean much since he'd been a blubbering mess the moment Blake pushed him out his mother's home.

Ten minutes later, Mira Ash left the crying man with thoughts of what his fate would be if he didn't give them everything they wanted and came into the room to talk to them. "You saw all that, I assume," she said.

"Yes." Jaune inclined his head. "It sounds like he's been in it for the money."

"And the clout. Bragging rights on his silly online forums. He's as guilty as they are but he'll likely get off with a suspended sentence. For that, anyway. I'm sure we'll find more in his hard drive. He might be facing jail for that. The council are in an example-making mood right now. Being even tangentially related to these people might be enough to have the judge come down on him like a Nevermore."

"His life," Blake said. "His mistakes to make – and live with."

"Yes." Mira shot her an odd look, perhaps knowing, and finding irony, in Blake's statement given her past. "Either way, he's given us details of the one he buys from. We're going to have one of our agents act as him and try to arrange a deal. Only problem is they might be too skittish from the loss of their people to make any videos."

"Then it's a dead end until they kill again?" asked Jaune.

"Not necessarily. They're on the run already. There's always opportunity for mistakes when that happens. A lot of nervous amateur crooks tend to overreact and mess up, especially when it comes to trying to destroy evidence. Sometimes, catching someone is less about reading the evidence and more noticing someone acting shifty. I have my people tracking hardware stores for suspicious purchases of cleaning materials, industrial bleaches, and the usual suspects that might be used to dissolve or destroy evidence."

Blake grimaced. "Bodies?"

"Not just those. Motherboards and hard drives as well."

"Then you think these people are giving up? That they've been spooked into stopping?"

"Possibly. Organised crime never stops but this smacks less of a syndicate and more of some creeps with aligned goals. Having ten or more people die on them is going to be a shock. Only question is this knife of theirs. Of yours," she added meaningfully. "Will it let them stop? Will they have a choice?"

"Maybe it'll get impatient and make them slit their own throats," Blake said caustically. She regretted it a moment later, realising how bad that sounded. "Sorry. I'm just in a bad mood over it all."

The captain let it go. "We all are. Still, best this knife not fall free if it can influence or control people like that. Last thing any of us want is some child picking it up and going serial killer in a school."

Jaune's scroll buzzed, prompting him to draw it out and check the message. His face drew tight, lips thinning into a line as he put it away and looked to her. "My father is calling a meeting," he said, "Every direct member of the family is to attend."

"In person?"

"Remotely. Thankfully..." His joking smile didn't reach his eyes and barely limped beyond his lips. "I'll have to leave you to look into this, Blake. Keep me updated but do what you must. Call on Ruby or even Yang if you need muscle."

It probably wouldn't come to that. Blake could have taken on the people her possessed self had, and they were presumably the most combat-capable of these criminals in the first place.

"Leave it to me. Keep me updated?"

"Of course. This involves you as much as it does me."

Next Chapter: 27th January

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