Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

Cooper circled back toward the boardwalk. He thought, “Now to force them to move.” It was simple to recognize the Lukasi drug peddlers and their methods, once you knew what you were looking for. They would hover together in groups of three or four, one would take the coin and count it, then nod to one of the others who would then hand a packet of the drug to the customer. The remaining one or two would watch the surrounding area for any threats. If any City Watch or Army soldiers approached, only one man needed to step away. The man with the drugs. Cooper kept an eye on one of the groups of men and within twenty minutes a Watch patrol walked by. One of the men stepped to the nearest building and walked into the narrow passage beside it and waited. As soon as the patrol had passed, the man emerged and rejoined his colleagues. Cooper moved behind that same building to await the next patrol.

It was nearly forty minutes before the man walked toward him. A soon as the man paused and turned, Cooper knew he had less than a minute to strike and be gone or risk being spotted by the patrol. He silently crept forward and stabbed the man in the back just above the beltline, in a slightly upward motion, then withdrew the blade and slashed the strap holding the satchel that held the drugs. The man groaned as his knees buckled and he attempted to turn, raising his arms slightly as if he planned to grab whoever had stabbed him. Cooper pushed the point of his blade into the man’s armpit and pressed until most of the blade had disappeared into the side of the man’s chest. He had some difficulty withdrawing the blade and ended up pulling the man toward him slightly as he retrieved it. As the man crumpled he uttered something between a whine and a whimper and Cooper could see the man’s partners, frozen in place on the boardwalk, wanting to react but not certain what they could do with the Watch patrol so near. One of the men, apparently a little quicker of thought, cried out, “Murder! Murder! Right there!” as he pointed right at him. Cooper gripped the satchel strap firmly and darted away. He sprinted down alleys and sidestreets for a few minutes before slowing to a walk. It was unlikely that the Watch patrol had even discovered the body before he was already well out of sight.

He went through the sequence of events in his mind. The Lukasi peddlers wouldn’t want to get embroiled in lengthy questioning as witnesses, so they’d have likely run off immediately; and the closest place for them to hide and re-stock their drug supply was the warehouse that Cooper had led the first two Watchmen to stake out. Word of this would surely reach the ears of the Spymaster. If not today, he could do this again tomorrow, and the next day, until the peddlers changed their methods. It was only a matter of time.

He quickly walked back toward the warehouse so he could observe the guards while they watched the building. He might be too late already but it would be doubtful that the peddlers would take the most direct route back here. It was almost ten minutes later when Cooper saw the two-man Watch patrol perk up. The three men from Lukasi had arrived and gone inside. Cooper watched the patrolmen converse for a minute before they reached an agreement and departed. He wished he could’ve heard the conversation and wondered how soon he should return. He didn’t want to carry around the satchel for any longer than necessary but neither could he simply discard it. He walked northwest to the Ruins.

Birt was surprised to see him, “Nice clothes. Surely you weren’t robbed… did you lose a bet?” Cooper chuckled, “I am in disguise, and dropping off a satchel of Apex.” He extended the bag towards Birt. Birt’s eyes went wide as he accepted the bundle, almost by reflex, “What are you doing with a bag of Apex?! We’re certainly not selling it. We should just burn it or something.” Cooper shrugged, “We’ll safeguard it for now. It might prove handy if we need to plant it somewhere incriminating or turn it over at some point as a gesture of good intentions.” He gave Birt a brief wave and turned to walk back to the Waterfront. Birt let the bundle hang by the ruined strap while shaking his head, muttering, “Good intentions towards whom?”

He divided his time over the next several hours between watching the warehouse directly and watching the surrounding streets and lanes from a series of uncomfortable chairs positioned in front of various taverns along the Waterfront. Several nearby shops were just closing up when he noticed a few extra patrols coming in more frequently and no patrols going back out. The sun hadn’t set when several other Waterfront citizens noticed and had begun to follow the patrols. Cooper selected a vantage point and observed the onlookers. It looked like they were simply curious, but one never knew. The soldiers of the Watch had encircled the warehouse he’d pointed out earlier. Off to one side, a thin, hawkish man appeared to give an order to a Watch Captain who, in turn gave a sweeping arm signal. In that moment, soldiers of the Watch surged forward and three of the onlookers scattered. Whether they ran only to put distance between themselves and the coming violence, or whether they had other motives was unclear but Cooper decided to follow at least one of them. Besides, he’d seen all he needed. The light was fading but it hadn’t been enough to conceal the hawkish man’s badge of office. The man was the Royal Spymaster, Yoren Aporigh.

As he followed one of the