Chapter 9 #3
We split up to take care of our respective assignments.
Ragnar and Nylan live in the northwest from the station, kind of between our place and the park.
A bleary-eyed Ragnar answers the door after a few knocks, and I apologize for waking him early before his shift tonight, explaining as much as I can in hushed tones.
That wakes him up, and he throws on his uniform and comes back to the station with me.
Khazak, Nikka, and Deputy Keenguard are all gathered and waiting for us when we arrive, but there’s no sign of Chief Grandtooth.
“The chief is unfortunately busy and unable to join us.” Khazak sighs, answering my question before I can ask.
“Bureaucrat,” Ragnar mumbles under his breath.
“I will be meeting with him later to discuss what we talk about here.” Khazak pretends like he didn’t hear that. “This is too important to wait.”
“What is going on, Captain?” Keenguard crosses her arms, looking concerned.
“David said you found something important related to the robberies?” Ragnar repeats the words I used to get him down here.
“If we are to believe that all three are connected, then as David and Officer Silentfang have discovered, it is possible our assailants have been gathering the ingredients to manufacture black powder.” Ragnar and Keenguard’s eyes both go wide.
“Obviously, we need to take care of this immediately, but given our lack of information, I do not wish to cause an unnecessary panic. As it is, we will need to double patrols inside and outside of the city. Everyone is working overtime for the foreseeable future.”
“Yes, sir,” Keenguard responds. Neither deputy looks happy about the news, but there aren’t many other options. “I will ask the officers to keep their ears to the ground for any rumors.”
“Thank you.” Khazak looks at Ragnar. “Deputy Rockfang, were you able to speak with the gate guards and find out if they had seen the black carriage?”
“I talked to them, but no one had seen anything. They didn’t even have anything in the visitor’s logs for the hours around when the farmer was attacked.
They will report to us first thing if they see the carriage or learn something.
Same goes for the rest of the squad.” Ragnar sits up straight, looking serious.
“Sir, I know it’s not exactly protocol, but I think we should speak with Thog Grimrock again. ”
“Given the seriousness of the situation, I was considering that myself, Deputy.” Khazak sighs. “Please contact the prison and arrange for Mr. Grimrock to be brought in for additional questioning.”
“Yes, sir.” He nods.
The rest of the day is spent running around the city, passing along information or gathering people for meetings.
Even Ragnar, who I figured would go back home to finish sleeping before his shift sticks around to help.
By the time Khazak and I finally leave that night, he’s still hard at work. I’m actually impressed.
“So, is it just me or does it seem like Ragnar’s been working harder than usual?” I ask after starting the walk home.
“No, I have noticed it as well. It is a nice change of pace.” Khazak grimaces at his own words.
“That sounded bad. Ragnar is a wonderful deputy—he would not hold the position otherwise—but he has not always taken the job very seriously. I am happy to see him growing into the ranger I know he can be.”
“He just needed a kick in the ass to get him moving. Probably helps that we figured out our enemy might be cooking up something explosive.” Nothing like a little danger to get people acting serious.
“There is something I was curious about,” Khazak starts. “I hope this does not offend you but... how did you figure that out?”
“Why? Doesn’t seem like something a dummy like me would know?” I look over to my right to catch the wince Khazak makes when I ask.
“I apologize. I should know by now not to underestimate you,” he admits. “Was it something your brother taught you?”
“Actually, you can thank the academy for that one.” I remember the lesson well. “Lutheria is on a really big island, but it’s still an island. Using canons is something they actually still teach.”
“I had not considered that.” Khazak tilts his head.
“It wasn’t like we were making the black powder ourselves, but the instructors still wanted us to know how it worked.” Just one of many things they drilled into our heads. “CSS: charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter.”
“Thankfully, given our location, I do not think we will have to worry about canons much.” He’s got a point.
“No, but they could still make some nasty bombs.” That’s not what I’m really thinking about though. “But what I’m more worried about is rifles. Guns. Do you guys use those around here for hunting?” I haven’t noticed any, at least.
“Not generally, no.” Khazak frowns. “Aside from the fact that they are loud and scare off everything you aren’t aiming at, bullets have a tendency to fragment, which can leave meat inedible or damage something else. We try not to waste any part of our kills here.”
“Then hopefully our thieves haven’t taken a sudden interest in firearms.” I have no idea how difficult it would be to get your hands on one around here.
“Yes, hopefully.” I can tell I just gave Khazak a whole new set of worries. “Do you have any experience with them yourselves?”
“Not really.” Nothing more than what I’ve seen at least. “About halfway through last year the academy started to train a rifle contingent but... I don’t really know how well it was going. It was dangerous. One guy died when his own gun backfired on him. I avoided the whole thing.”
“Not the wrong idea, I think.” Glad that makes two of us.
We go in bright and early the next morning to find Ragnar waiting for us. He looks tired, probably on his fifth or sixth cup of coffee, but he seems oddly collected. He stands when we enter.
“Captain.” Ragnar salutes, his turn to be in full business mode. “Mr. Grimrock is in the interrogation room. We are ready to start when you are, sir.”
“Lead the way, Deputy.” Khazak returns the salute, sharing a small look of surprise with me at Ragnar’s continued hard work.
The two of us follow him to the interrogation room where a guard has been posted outside.
He’s wearing a uniform that is different from the others I’ve seen.
Must be from the prison. Entering the room reveals Thog seated and cuffed to the table, another guard in a similar uniform standing next to him.
“Are we finally getting started?” Thog grouses from his side of the table.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Grimrock.” Ragnar sits at the table while Khazak and I stand in the back.
“Let me guess: I am here because of something I could not have possibly had anything to do with?” Thog asks from his seat.
“Not a bad guess.” Yeah, a ‘guess.’ “There has indeed been another robbery.”
“Well, I have been locked in a cell since I last saw you, so I am not sure what you need from me.” The imprisoned orc rolls his eyes.
“What’s interesting about this robbery is that, just like the last one, only a single thing was stolen.
Want to take a guess at what?” Thog only cocks an eyebrow and shakes his head no.
“Flauk. Saltpeter. Fertilizer. And the time before that, the only thing taken was brimstone. Something about that just seems really odd to me. For the last two nights, all I could think about was why would someone steal saltpeter and brimstone?”
“Now, when we include the robbery you claim to have committed, some of my colleagues were able to make a pretty troubling connection,” Ragnar continues, sounding incredibly put together for someone who’s been up all night.
“One of the things in the militia shipment you said you ‘destroyed’ was charcoal. Do you know what you get when you combine charcoal, saltpeter, and brimstone?” Thog shakes his head no again.
“Black powder. Do you know what that is?” Another headshake.
“It’s a powder that explodes when it’s ignited.
People use it to fire cannons, or rifles, or to build bombs. ”
Thog’s posture goes still, but he remains silent.
“I’m going to be honest with you, Thog. If that’s what this person or these people are doing, then I’m worried. I believe you when you say that you don’t know anything about these robberies. Really. But I know you know something, and I need you to tell me what that is.”
Thog looks at Ragnar, then down at the tabletop.
“Please,” Ragnar pleads. “Thog, people are going to get hurt.”
For a split second, I see a look of hesitation on Thog’s face, like he wants to say something, but it’s gone in an instant, and he’s stonily staring down again. “I told you. I do not have any idea what you are talking about.”
Ragnar watches Thog’s face closely for a moment, looking for any sign that he might change his mind, but no. He’s done. “Alright, take him back to his cell,” Ragnar says with a sigh as he stands. The three of us exit the room, moving to Khazak’s office where Ragnar takes a seat on the couch.
“I really thought he was going to tell me something.” He sounds dejected, and so much more tired than he did fifteen minutes ago.
“I did too,” I speak up. I don’t want Ragnar thinking he did a bad job. That was almost inspiring. “There was a second there, right at the end, where it looked like he wanted to say something, but then it was gone.”
“You did some good today, Deputy. I am honestly impressed with how you ran that interrogation, and all of your hard work from the last two days.” Khazak puts his hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“If Mr. Grimrock does not want to talk, there is not much we can do to make him. Which means I need you to go home and get some rest because unfortunately for the rest of us, this is going to mean a lot of extra work.”
I groan inwardly. Yaaaaay. More work.