Burning Night: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 16, Part 1: Natalina

It took Natalina nearly an hour and a half to admit what she knew already.

She had opened nearly a decade worth of notes and reports from her office, had even scoured her coworker's papers for any useful information, and was no closer to accomplishing her mission than she was two hours ago.

She knew next to nothing about the Undercity.

She had the estimates from the Bureau of Statistical Analysis, reports suggesting nearly two million people live in those mines. She had the estimates from the Orderlies about the gang sizes. But the missing key, the information that would get her to where she needed to go, was where the Bureau of Acquisition and Distribution met the 'Porters' gang for their quotas.

And without that information, she would end up wandering the Undercity blind, depending on the kindness of persecuted strangers.

Giving up, she stood up from her desk and walked away in disgust, to find Valen Redgrave leaning on the wall beside her.

"Okay, that was creepy enough that Oversight would approve," Natalina told the old soldier.

"Sneaking is easy," Valen said, as he shifted from the wall and stepped towards her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was acutely aware of how comically easy he would find murdering her. "Nine-tenths of it is just restraining the instinct to be noticed."

"Somehow, your skill with a sword lends you a disturbing amount of credibility on pretty much any subject," Natalina remarked, turning her eyes back to her desk.

"Like if I told you that you overuse commas in your writing?" Valen asked.

"Really? I, oh. Wow, it really does," Natalina laughed. "So what brings you here, Colonel?"

"I had a chat with a few people. Particularly a recruit that escaped the Undercity. Apparently, he knew the boss of this Porters gang," Valen said. "He suggested this gang boss you're looking for might be amenable to less obvious forms of wealth. He suggested running water might be as valuable as Coldstone."

"I could see that," Natalina said.

"The recruit mentioned that this gang boss had been bribing a hospice with medical grade alcohol. This boss sponsored the recruit's sister's bed in Riverward with it," Valen reported.

"Medical grade alcohol? Interesting," Natalina reflected. "You don't make that just anywhere."

"I'm afraid that's all I have so far. I'll keep looking," Valen promised, as he turned to the door.

"Thank you, Colonel," Natalina said, as Valen marched away.

Natalina leaned back, shook her head, and returned to her notes.

*****

"Go home, Casper."

Vance's irritated drawl shook her from her thoughts and threw her back into the moment. She nearly jumped, as if the words had pulled her from a deep sleep.

"We're not pegging-down the location of these Porters tonight. In the morning, I'll call-in some favours, and see if we can't get someone with some real clout to lean on Resources," Natalina's editor, Vance, said as he slid his arm through the sleeve of his coat.

Vance looked exhausted. More so than the usual fatigue he wore like a medal. The deep bags under his eyes, the pained posture, and the spastic twitching in his fingers spoke to a weariness a straw's width from breaking him.

"I'm definitely not going to the ceremony tomorrow," Vance said, rubbing his eyes. "I think I'll send Trevor. Let him rub elbows with some of the big-hats in attendance. I heard Colonel Tammerlane and Colonel Redgrave will be there. Honour guard is a recruit squad that the disgraced Sergeant Varnell is training."

Natalina shook her head. "You have to go to that one, Vance. The contacts are too good to send anyone else. You could learn more there in a day than Trevor will in the next three years."

Natalina stared down at her notes one more time, then threw one of the sheets away in disgust.

"Do you have anyone that can lean on a Bureau? Particularly Resources?" Natalina asked.

"Not really, no. Truth be told, I was hoping to ask Redgrave."

Natalina shook her head. "No, Vance. Redgrave's already stretched thin, stalling the vote for Lord Captain. If he puts himself out further, it might weaken his position. The worst part is, Redgrave wouldn't realize the danger until someone explained it to him, and even if we did, he'd try to do it anyway. If Redgrave had a head for politics, I wouldn't have had to explain the situation to him."

"Fair point. How about the Crafter you met? a'Loria? Or the Crafter in research you interviewed, Ratterson? Could either of them help?" Vance asked.

Natalina shuddered. "Ratterson's not a bad idea, he's fairly important in Research. But I'm not convinced that he's not involved in this conspiracy. As for Tabitha, well, let's only involve her if we're okay seeing Resource's headquarters turned into magma. She has a reputation for solving her problems by applying heat."

"I'm not seeing the problem here."

"It's a problem when you're capable of turning Resources' headquarters into a lake of magma," Natalina said.

"I'd give her every lottery token in our reserves if she did that," Vance said.

"I'd also rather not give her any more trouble than she already has," Natalina said, the levity in her voice fading as she recalled Tabitha's recent news. "She's been assigned her final evaluator."

"Poor woman," Vance said. "Ash-bitten poor way to repay her for pulling Oversight out of that mess."

"What about Coraline? The crafter you gush over twice a day?" Natalina asked.

Vance smiled, with seemed to wipe the fatigue from his face. "Resources won't let her in the building anymore. But there might be another avenue..."

"Well, our only other plan is to go into the Undercity ourselves, which will probably get us all killed," Natalina reminded him.

"Yeah, I might have an angle on that," Vance replied, somewhat cryptically, as he finished tying-up his coat and started for the door. "Go home, remind your kids and that adoring husband of yours that you still exist."