Six #2
"Gentlemen!" I said with a big smile and walked up to them. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?"
"Are you that ef…effish-ant guy?" the big one I was headed towards said.
"William Taylor, efficiency expert, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated," I said, stopping right in front of him. "Now, what can I do you for?"
"It's not what you can do for me, it's what I'm gonna do to you for messing up Fritz!" He growled and took a swing at me.
"Oh, look! A penny!" I said as everything sped up, and I bent down to make like I was picking something up off the ground, dodging his swing. He hadn't telegraphed it as badly as his friend had, but it was still pretty obvious.
"Fritz? Who said I hit Fritz?" I asked, looking at him innocently as he blinked, wondering how he'd missed.
"You kidney-punched him!"
"That wasn't me, that was his horse stepping on him as he fell out of the saddle and got dragged. You'd think he'd know better than to drink and ride!" I said with a smirk.
"Fritz don't drink when he's workin'!" said one of the other three—the only one with a visible weapon, a pistol in a holster—while the man in front of me got ready to try again.
"No, more like he guzzles!" I said, then putting my hand on the chest of the guy in front of me, I pushed him back, and suddenly he was windmilling to keep from falling over backwards.
"Which one of you is this Sorez guy?" I asked, looking around.
"What do you want with the boss?" the guy with the pistol asked.
"Well, isn't that why you're here? To take me to see him? I mean, I don't know what he wants with an efficiency expert, but work's work, so I might as well go see, right?"
They looked a little confused.
"Right?" I said again, this time using my champion voice.
"Oh! Right, right!" the pistol guy replied, nodding, and the others nodded along. "What about those two?"
I almost said these are not the droids you're looking for. Instead, I said, "They're not important." I turned partway back toward Sam and Jacob. "You two head back to the factory with those parts, and I'll be along soon enough, I'm sure."
They both nodded, and with that, I turned back to the one who'd been talking, while the big guy scowled at me.
"Now, lead on!" I said, leaning on the voice again.
The pistol guy, who I guess was the actual leader of the group, turned and walked off with the other three, including the big guy, and I followed.
For my part, I just smiled and walked along.
I should have thought to ask someone how common pistols were out here.
I knew they were expensive in most places in the Seven Worlds, which meant when you got out into the hinterlands, they weren't common.
None of these guys, other than pistol guy, had any visible weapons beyond a simple belt knife, which looked more utilitarian than a fighting knife, which both of mine were.
That made me wonder just how big or powerful this Sorez guy was. I didn't think he was stupid; moving in on the canning operation would eventually pay off well, but the quality of his men left a lot to be desired.
Or maybe I was just overthinking it?
It was about a ten-minute walk to one of the houses situated among the warehouses. It wasn't very fancy, and honestly, it needed painting, and the grounds cleaned up.
There wasn't a guard on the door we came in, though there was a guy sitting around when we walked into the front room.
"Who's dat?" the guy asked, not even getting up.
"It's that e-fish-ant guy," the big one said, giving me the eye.
"Why'd you bring him here? Weren't you supposed to give him a beating?"
"He wants to meet the boss," pistol guy said with a shrug.
"Eh, his funeral. Go on in."
Pistol guy opened the door. "Hey, Boss, we got that guy. I think he wants to talk to you."
I followed pistol guy in. Surprisingly, the other three of the group crowded in behind me.
The room wasn't really all that big—probably a converted bedroom?
Why Sorez hadn't used the master bedroom was beyond me.
Then again, maybe this was it? The room was maybe ten feet wide and about fourteen feet deep.
The desk in the room was big enough that there was only a two-foot gap on one side to go around it.
I had to wonder how they'd even gotten the monstrosity in here.
Sitting behind the desk was what I could only describe as a disappointment.
Yeah, he was almost as big as the guy who'd tried to hit me earlier.
His clothes were nice, obviously new, and probably expensive, but they weren't neat; they were a mess.
It's like he knew he had to dress up, but he didn't know how to wear it.
His hair was a mess, he had a two-day stubble, and he was obviously angry.
"I thought I told you to beat him!" Boss Sorez yelled, jumping to his feet and pointing his finger at me. "Instead, you bring him here?"
"Unnnn. But he wanted to see you? Said something about working for you?"
"Why the hell would I want to hire an efficiency expert? What the hell do I need with that?"
"Well, you hire low-grade thugs, the outside of your property looks like shit, your waiting room is just an old living room with a couple of chairs, and you've got your office crammed into this tiny room with that ridiculous desk," I said, smiling and looking around.
"You need somebody, because you're so out of your depth here, it isn't funny!
"What I can't figure out is how you hit on coming here and trying to leech off the cannery in the first place."
"What did you just say?" Sorez growled, looking at me.
"That I can't figure out how you learned about the cannery. Doesn't fit. Who told you?" I said while striking a pose and grabbing the lapels of my jacket.
"What makes you think anybody told me anything?" Sorez yelled.
"Touched a nerve, did I? But honestly? Looking around at all of this slop and mess? What's easier to believe? That you came up with this all by your lonesome, or that somebody clued you in?"
"Kill him!"
I ducked as everything kicked into high gear, sliding my hands from where they had been the few inches necessary to grab the hilts of my two daggers.
Everyone was crowded around me, getting in each other's way, because there really wasn't a lot of room.
I buried one dagger in pistol guy's crotch and left it there as a distraction, then I jumped up and buried the other one all the way to the hilt in the big guy's left eye.
The other two started hitting me with their fists, and if I hadn't just taken two of them out of the picture, it might have had more of an effect.
Pistol guy was screaming and clawing at the dagger buried in his crotch while the big guy had turned boneless and collapsed, which made the floor space even more crowded and harder to deal with.
There was a loud Boom! in the room, and my side lit up with pain as I got shot. Sorez apparently had a gun and was using it.
Dropping to the floor, I popped a heal on myself and shifted into my champion form.
"That'll teach him!" Sorez yelled.
"Boss! Boss! Shoot him again! Shoot him!
" one of the two left standing yelled, then screamed quite loudly as I eviscerated him with the claws of my right hand.
The other guy was also screaming while trying to open the door, but there was a body in the way.
Turning towards the desk, I put my hands under the edge, got my knees under me, and picked it up off the floor, flipping it with a loud grunt as I pushed it back, pinning Sorez to the back wall.
The gun went off again, but it didn't hit me, so I wasn't worried about it.
The guy trying to get out was gibbering in fear, and I think the guy out in the living room was trying to push his way in.
The guy I'd eviscerated was screaming like a little girl, while pistol guy was still trying to pull the dagger out.
I guess I'd hit the pelvic bone. His whimpers were adding to the confusion.
Getting a better grip on the desk, I pulled it back, then slammed it forward again.
This time, I thought I felt a crunch, and Sorez swore loudly.
I let go of the desk, and stood up, and as it fell, I reached across it, grabbed him by the throat with my left hand, seized his gun hand with the right, and dragged him over the desk to me.
"I could say I'm going to kill you for shooting me, but that'd be a lie," I snarled in his face.
"You're not—"
"I was always going to kill you," I said and squeezed his neck, crushing it. I took the gun out of his hand, shifted back, and shot the three others who were still alive. At that point, I heard pounding on the door, so I fired the remaining rounds in his pistol through it.
That was followed by a screech, then silence.
Shaking my head, I looked around at the mess and realized I was covered in blood, as well as a few other things.
Setting the pistol on the desk, I went through their pockets, took all the money I found, as well as anything else of interest, then stacked the bodies to the side so I could open the door.
I went through the pockets of the guy I'd shot through the door, then as an afterthought, I went back inside and searched the desk.
There was a surprising amount of correspondence, an actual ledger book, more ammo for the pistol—which I reloaded—and a cashbox with a fair bit of money.
I thought about opening a portal and tossing all the letters and the book through to Fel, but honestly, this didn't involve him. I was doing it for Vikoria's people.
Searching the rest of the house, I found a small sack and put everything in it as I thought about what to do.
I didn't really want to have to hunt them all down and kill them, and I suspected the rest of the gang wasn't all that smart.
Sorez might have been reasonably bright, but it was obvious he wouldn't hire anyone as smart as him, let alone smarter.