Wish upon the Stars chapter 60

Once Cark was gone we finished our drinks and headed for the library.  As we walked, Jessie spoke up. "That poor guy. I can't imagine having  someone steal your younger sibling. Do you think we can keep an eye out?  Just in case we run into anyone whose heard anything. I can't believe  someone out there is just grabbing kids." She sounded angrier than I'd  ever heard her, and I couldn't blame her. Aside from the terrible fact  that someone was taking children from their homes, I imagined losing a  sibling struck a chord with Jessie.

I nodded. "Of course  we can. No way we wouldn't at least keep our ear to the ground about  something like that. But I bet you he finds her soon. Cark seems like a  determined guy, and anyone who makes G rank at twenty five with zero  backing or resources is pretty damn impressive. I can try to talking to  some of my sources about the problem though." Once again no one asked  how I HAD sources already, and I was grateful for that, but it made  keeping my origins from them seem kind of pointless the more they had to  willfully ignore how bad I was at hiding it.

Zeke would  probably be able to find something though. I could understand how it  hadn't gotten around. The sheer density of people in the city made any  news that affected less than a million of them pretty small time info.  Zeke's sources might be able to dig something up anyway though, given  their obviously pervasive and incredibly efficient nature. I wondered  how long it would take me to cultivate my own sources here. Hell, maybe  old Abner would be one of them, or maybe the bunny man counted.

We  followed the directions we'd gotten from Riley until we found ourselves  outside a run down looking building with boarded up windows. Like the  Bad Night Moon the building was shrouded in darkness, not only lacking  in any sort of it's own illumination, but bracketed by empty or  abandoned buildings the robbed even the nearby area of light. Unlike the  Moon though, this place had an entrance at street level, and when we  knocked no hatch swung in. At the sound of my knuckled the door opened,  though it was stopped by a chain about two inches into the space. A  man's face appeared in the gap, old and worn and suspicious.

He  glared out at us, his eyes a bright, feverish hazel and his weathered  face covered with a thick bushy beard that did little to hide the scowl  under it. "What do you want?" Unfortunately this particular place didn't  have a lame pass phrase, we just had to tell him what we wanted and  hope he could help.

Jessie stepped up, smiling brightly  and waving, ever the people person of the group. "Hi there! I'm Agria,  this is Solomon, Clockwork, and Nightstrike. Riley over at the Bad Night  Moon told us you might be able to help us find some information?" Her  usual happy demeanor was disarming enough to make even the obviously  grouchy old man pull up short. The librarian just kind of...blanked.

It  took him a second to rearm mentally and by that time Jessie was happily  chattering away about how nice it was to meet him. I was ninety percent  sure she did this on purpose. My friend was one of the most talented  social engineers I'd ever met, and I was always unsure how much of that  was intentional. The old man finally came to his senses and interrupted  her. "Fine! Come in. Can't have you out here yammering. If Riley sent  you I suppose that's good enough. Old gnome makes a shitty cocktail but  he knows his business."

He  slammed the door and we heard some scrabbling before he opened it up,  gesturing us inside. Despite all of us being G rank, I got the  impression Abner wasn't worried about dealing with an attack, which  meant he was probably at the higher end of G rank rather than lower like  Callie and I. Once we were inside he shut the door, relocking it, and  turned to our group. "I don't have any drinks or anything, I don't like  visitors, but we can sit in the reading room. You can ask your questions  and then be on your way. I don't have all day to entertain kids."

He  led us into a surprisingly cozy room lit by a roaring fire, with thick  black carpets and overstuffed red chairs lining the massive book  shelves. He gestured for us to sit down and took a seat in the corner  where he could watch us all. "Now, you said Riley sent you? He's  decently connected around here, so I'm assuming it's something fairly  niche. You're lucky I owe the little man a favor or I wouldn't have  bothered letting you in." His tone was bored and annoyed, but his eyes  were sharp and focused, clearly assessing the situation.

I  shrugged. "Well, not just Riley. Riley seconded the recommendation, but  this bounty hunter named Cark mentioned you first. Riley was the one  who gave us directions to the place though." I was curious to see what  kind of impression Cark left on the old man, so I made sure to mention  the bounty hunter had sent us here as well. It would be an easy way to  gather come intel on both men.

Abner  raised one bushy eyebrow. "Well now, I hadn't expected to hear about  him again so soon. Regardless, ask your questions boy. If they sent you  to me it's probably something historical or based in folklore I'd guess.  I am several centuries old." Jessie gasped and the old man laughed.  "You have to remember that Impact slows aging. At G rank you age a year  for every twelve lived. The inverse of your Impact. Any G ranker you  meet who looks as old as me has been around for quite some time."

I  blinked at that. Stricture had said during our intake that they didn't  know how Impact effected aging. Was that just because there were so few G  rankers and higher in the city that it never became common knowledge?  Or was the standard of information in lower level cities really just  that poor? Regardless that was good info to have. It made me wonder how  old my parents actually were. My father looked to be in his early  thirties. That must make him pretty old, even if he had only hit a  higher rank when he was already older.

Still,  I was getting sidetracked, as useful as that intel was, it wasn't the  information we came here for. I reached into my pocket and once again  pulled out the card, passing it over to the old man. He took it from me  and his eyes narrowed, lip curling up in a snarl. I raised an eyebrow.  "Seems like you recognize the symbol, anything you can tell us about it  would be appreciated, the people it belongs to and I have had  some...disagreements." I was beginning to get excited about this, it  seemed like he might actually know something.

He  passed it back, shaking his head. "Nothing specific. No name or  anything, but I know the mark. I've seen it before. It shows up  sometimes on buildings, usually ones where terrible things happen. I've  made something of a...habit, of tracking where they appear, and you can  directly link them to all sorts of murders and things of that nature.  Where that symbol goes, death follows. It's not consistent or anything,  sometimes they show up clustered together, sometimes you won't see one  for years, but I've seen that mark before, and not just on Callus."

That...I  blinked. Could it actually be that easy? They'd proven that they liked  to leave their calling card, literally in my case, and if he was telling  the truth I would be able to find these bastards just by searching for  the mark. I felt myself start to relax. "Do you know where any of the  marks might be at the moment? Any showed up lately?" This could be a  real viable lead, something that could take us exactly where we needed  to go. Of course from what he said the marks were on places they  targeted, not just bases or whatever, so we would need to scope the  place out, but still it was more than we had five minutes ago.

He  shrugged. "Some. Like I said, new ones are inconsistent. There are a  few that are always around though. Older ones or places I think they use  more than once." He gave me a piercing stare. "You going after them?" I  nodded and he chuckled. "Not sure how smart that is, boy, but it's  gutsy. Fine. I'll hand over a few spots I know. But in return I want the  info you have and the stuff you've yet to gather. I show you mine you  show me yours as it were. I can tell you know something about them I  don't. Spill."

I  blinked behind my mask in surprise. That was impressive. He might have  been fishing, or maybe just had much higher Perception than I did, but  regardless of reasoning he had me pegged. I sighed and nodded. "Yeah,  fine." It wasn't like I risked much by sharing anyway. I doubted someone  this old and well known around here was a sleeper, and even if he was I  was literally in his house asking about the symbol, so that blew any  anonymity out of the water. Not much to lose and plenty to gain. "My  sources say they're called the Heartripper Society. They're a sleeper  cell of the Black Sorrow Cult."

The  old man sneered. "Might have known. Damn cultists can't do anything  without making it sound all dark and spooky. That symbol is just their  style. I'd ask where you stumbled on that information but I know when  not to push." He stood up, walking to a nearby shelf and skimming his  fingers across the bindings of the books until he found a specific  volume, and then he pulled it out. It was a huge leather bound tome, and  when he opened it I saw it was hollowed out and had a wooden box about  the size of a brick in it.

He  pulled the boy out, popping it open and withdrawing a few sheaves of  paper. Then he walked over to a table, pulled out a blank page and a  bottle of ink, and started drawing a map, referring back to the papers  as he went. The map was beautifully done and extremely detailed, and it  flowed from the pen like cracks spiderwebbing the page, his hands moving  with the surety and speed only a Skill could have conveyed. Some kind  of cartography Skill probably, which was interesting.

He  took about two minutes to finish the map, filling in spots with marks  and labeling them neatly based on order and how long since he'd noticed  them, along with a little note about what he'd seen at each place to  prepare us. He blew on the map a bit to let it dry and then passed it  over to me with a nod. "A deal is a deal. Remember to come back and  update me on anything you learn from this." I nodded seriously and  thanked the old man, with the others doing the same, and then we left.

Instead  of following the map though, I folded it carefully and slipped it into  my pocket. "Alright guys, I think that's enough adventure for one day.  This will be a dangerous search and I want to get some more points under  my belt before we undertake it. We should head back topside for now and  come down refreshed another day." Everyone voiced their agreement and  we all headed for the canister to take us back up to the station. This  had been a big day, and I had a few questions for Zeke. After  that...well it wouldn't hurt to get in a bit more training before we met  the enemy on their turf.