Timestamp: 6.050.997.M41

Location: Coscarla Division, Tiergon Spire sub-levels, Northern Quadrant, Metropolitan Area, Hive Sibellus, Scintilla, Golgenna Reach

Situation: Continuing investigations into the death of Saul Arbest

Body: We took turns at sitting guard. Nothing fancy, just staying away. We'd stuck closely to our cover, but we were not feeling too certain. And even if the 'Enforcers' believed our story they might decide to do something, just to be sure. So it would be a short night for the both of us, but nothing a stimm couldn't fix.

Almost too bad we did. Stay away that is. If we'd just slept through the night we might have avoided some of the rather unpleasant events that would follow. In the dark of night there was some commotion in the corridor. Ben roused Lil' Richard and they waited for the 'inevitable attack'. None came. Odd. Haxtes went into the corridor to have a look. Found some underhive scum robbing and gangraping another guest. Most unpleasant.

Shortly thereafter the three scum were all dead or dying. Not because Haxtes felt any particular need to save the poor fellow (who turned out to be dead anyway), but the scum had drawn on him. And you don't  draw on the Hand and live. It didn't take long to realize the gig; the intruders were conveniently in possession of the master key-pass. Clearly they had also been briefed on what room to go to - and what room to avoid. A lone Combine official is good. Two armed Assay operatives is not.

So Haxtes quickly descended to the lobby area to have a chat with the goodman Drayclok. The gunfire had probably alerted him to the fact something had gone terribly wrong. So he'd done the sensible thing and done a runner. Haxtes could feel his fear and his urgency; it was like a track of blood that he could easily follow - not consciously, it was just something that happened. Something else happened too. Haxtes found Draylock, only something had found him already. Something darkly robed, something of inhuman strength and speed, something with glowing red eyes.

There was no time to think - monstrosity versus shotgun. Not too bad odds, had not the cursed gun's spirit decided that this was a good place to fail. Now it was monstrosity versus puny stub pistol - long odds indeed. A series of point blank shots divided by sidesteps and dodges. Until finally a bullet through the head proved that the old axiom holds true for monstrosities as well - a bullet in the head WILL make you very dead.

Draylock confessed his sins. How he would sometimes have his underhive contacts murder and rob promising guests. How he had warned them to stay away from Ben and Richard. How me meant no harm. Honestly. The Emperor's Mercy was too good for him, but he received it anyway. Let Him on the Throne sort out his soul. The monster was something of a disappointment; under the cloak was a naked human body, visibly augmented in various ways. So this was behind the disappearances? But where had the thing intended to bring Draylock? For surely he'd not been kept alive if the thing had intended his death...

---

Back at the hotel Maxi got into a bit of trouble. The Magistratum had turned up in force, presumably in response to reports of gunfire. Not wanting to get implicated in anything Maxi moved to an abandoned floor. It might have worked had they been real Magistratum enforcers. But they were not. They were professionals. And professional bring autocarbines to a firefight - and sensor drones to any search and detain mission. Ben/Maxi opted to go peacefully rather than provoke a gunfight. Perhaps he through he'd learn more that way. Or maybe he throught his cover would hold. He'd regret that choice later.

---

Richard/Haxtes would manage to hear some of what happened through one of his vox-bugs. Moving back to the hotel he found it amply guarded. Mercs is Magistratum coats, guns at the ready, overlapping fields of fire, sensory enhancement visors. The works - probably had sensor/gun drones on standby as well. A frontal assault was completely out of the question. Once again, no fear, only cold statistics - the chance of failure simply too high. Better to consider an alternate approach. Head towards the Magistratum office, perhaps an opportunity would present itself.After a goodly while it became clear that the mercs were not coming. They had taken Maxi somewhere else. And nothing from the vox-bugs. By the Powers! What to do now?

---

Maxi would find himself taken through dark streets and moved into some great building. Restrained and surrounded by armed men; this was not a good time to act. The chance would come later.  Hopefully. Put in a cell then injected with something. Maxi supposed it was meant to put him out, but it had only made him dizzy and nauseous. Already he was feeling better. The guards had left him in the care of servitors. They stripped him and moved him to an operating theater. Antiseptics. A servitor making ready to administer more drugs. Maxi moved then, making short work of the medical model.

Stark naked Maxi started looking for a way out. There was none, save a heavily armored - and locked - door. So he moved into a small adjacent storage room and waited...

---

'Chord' Lunz probably thought himself quite safe. Sleeping in his big bed in the Union Hall. With a couple of whores for company and his own muscle standing guard without. And downstairs at aleast a dozen more of his men; not all muscle, but deadly enough every one. And who would dare make a move against the narc syndicate's top man i Coscarla anyway? So suddenly being shaken from his sleep by a man with a gun and coldly flat eyes...it must have come as something of a surprise. he probably considered making a move, calling for his guards maybe. But those eyes...there was no mercy to be found there, no weakness. Those eyes had killed before, and would no hesitate to do so again. Chord would know. His eyes had used to be like. But now, lying in his bed, he realized he'd lost his edge.

As it was he would not die just then. He'd die not long after in a much more painful and demeaning fashion. But at the time he considered himself quite fortunate. He'd told the stranger what he wanted to know. That whatever was going down - Chord honestly didn't want to know too much about that - was taking place in the Alms House. The Director, one Sybas Moran, was definitely in the know. Otherwise he would never have gone from spineless coward to prancing big-shot. That was where the bodies were going. Maxi would be there.

Ryker, the mercenary leader, and his men had come in around that time. They had kept Warden Locan around, made sure Chord kept him well-supplied with hi-grade obscura. That kept him out of the way, while stopping short of killing him. So whenever someone higher up made a call they'd hear a familiar voice, see a familiar face. Neat. Locan's deputies had gone away however. It was said that the stew over at the Alms House was very thick and meaty that week...

He didn't really want to know, but he'd heard mention of a name 'the Churgeon' or the 'Chirurgeon'. Something like that. Whomever it was he was calling the shots. The real source of whatever had befallen Coscarla. Haxtes left him - alive - in his bed. Went out the window and made for the Alms House at a run.

---

From his hiding place Ben/Maxi saw the door swing open on thick well-oiled hinges. Someone in voluminous machanicus robes came striding in. Maxi kept his cool. Waited for the door to start closing. A door that heavy would not open quickly again. Then he dashed forward. Bawling past the tech-priest and out the door. It smacked closed behind  him with a loud clang. He was out, but far from safe. He was naked. They were armed. He had to keep moving. To get away before his escape was noticed. After that it got a little blurry. There was running. There was shouting. There were doors. Gunfire. A weapon in his had. Blood flowing. Dead enemies before him…until suddenly it was Haxtes pointing a pillaged carbine into his pace. How much time had passed?

---

Haxtes became involved in a running firefight. Waiting until the last couple of Magistratum men headed into the darkness, presumably heading for the office, he moved in through the main ground floor entrance. A couple of civilians were there, and some more enforcers. Gunfire everywhere. In the main hall. through the kitchen. Some corridors. A stairwell. Then suddenly coming face to face with Maxi, almost blowing him to bits in fact.

Then came the monsters. A small horde of the red-eyed things. Strong and fast they may have been, but they held no terror now. They were blown apart in a hail of autogun fire. But they had served their purpose. Haxtes and Maxi found the operating theater door open. The Churgeon was gone. And from a nearby lab was missing some vials from a bio-toxin cabinet. There was a secret door in an office, leading to the back of the building. Something had jumped down and disappeared into the dark. There would be no catching the real villain this time.

But there still had to be a reckoning with Ryker and his men. Oh yes, there would be a reckoning.