Venom

22: The Great Mayor (P1)

Sometimes when you do bad, you expect to feel bad about it. When no emotion other than elation arises, you might find that you have a knack for being the worst. I blame not those with those emotions, but the ones who can not control them. 

"This a complete disappointment." I made no comment as I rummaged through the paper files, looking for any familiar names. "A few defensive spells and five guards? This can't be it. Where are the enraged rhino-looking people?"

"The police here and the police in the human world mean two different things," I muttered lowly. In this case, it was in our favor that this was true or else this would have been a lot trickier to deal with.

She snorted, crossing her arms over her chest, crossing a leg over the other as she sat on the table, fuming. She scanned the blue room with its files and computer-like monitors lined up against the sides with disgust. I understood where her letdown came from. In the human world, the local authorities were heavily armed forces of able-bodied men and women that filled the streets on the lookout for those who wanted to cause mischief and break the laws of their world. Here, there were too many species with their own rules and traditions, instincts, and rules of life to all fall under agreement, even if for a semblance of public peace. The police here were not forces of brute strength that broke up violence, or responders to emergencies. A better term for them would be Recorders. Every brawl, attack, dispute, and scream for aid within their designated area, they kept track of so that when those involved were brought forth to their own rulers for the troubles they caused the public, evidence could be shown. They were like a library for crimes and suspects, but they did not interfere or stop the crime even if it were to happen before their very eyes. In a kill-or-be-killed world, if you couldn't protect yourself, it was expected of you to have someone do it for you and if you couldn't manage that...finding protection that did not come at a price was rare. As recorders of violence and crime, we would need the files they had stored. 

Unlike the undoubted expectations of the two siblings for a blood fight, after a six-hour stakeout, I knew all I needed to know about the building. As the three patrol guards took it more as a pleasant stroll, the building security measure coming from the fifth, seventh, and basement floor, protective rune magic, defensive spells, and one other thing that I would guess to be a warping hall. If I was right then that was the biggest threat within the building. Those could tear anything into adam-sized sections, regardless of what species or protection spells one wore. Discretion and covering our trails here were the top priority, which is why Venom was in charge of finding the proper distraction for Viper and me to get into the building unnoticed. She had pouted at that, but I needed a large enough distraction that would not be linked to a third party and by the spark that turned her black eyes a blinding shade of white I was sure she would give me much more than what I had asked for. I would have to ask her to do something big soon before she got twitchy. Venom was just as destructive as his sister but he understood what I meant without having to say much because no later than ten minutes had passed when a loud alarm began to blare throughout the building as the sounds coming westside began to sound like an enraged mob.

 Multiple people came forth from the building, confusion, and panic on those who ran out at blurring speeds, casting spells as they went that made them lift and fly mid-step. As they left, we took the opportunity to jump onto the closest building and break open a window. Something that would be noticed later, but not traced to us. So long as the glass was intact, it would take some time to know when the latch had been broken. The room we had entered had been full of pinned writings and large whiteboards. It didn't take much to know this must have been a case room. Nearing the door I put my ear to the door and listened around for the ongoing commotion. Viper's excellent hearing had come in handy when we moved about the halls, but roaming was a dangerous thing to do when scents were easy to grasp and worked nearly as well as name tag if once seen. During our stakeout, I had moved various times, peeking in through multiple windows to try and graph the building layout, on the lookout for the room where all of the files and important information would be stored. Luckily, or rather by fault of the diversion, the room was empty when I knocked on the door and then peeked in. Once Viper was in I locked the door. No need to get caught mid-snoop, let anyone who wanted to enter think the door had been locked or was jammed, so long as we managed to escape through the side window and had enough time for our scents to get lost. Thankfully not everything here was magic based or else it would have been easier to simply destroy part of the building. Viper took one look around the plane room with its file cabinets, bookcases, and multiple stacks of files and open folders and looked at the ceiling with a groan.