nagpurpolice Chapter 1677 … of Many Problems
Chapter 1677 … of Many Problems
--- Kat ---
"You guys wait out here. I just need to chat with the sheriff to work out the details," said Meg as she stepped inside.
They’d decide to try and limit the number of people they needed to babysit. They were all fast, exceptionally so, but twenty people was just too many to manage. The goal was to get it down to five but ten was an annoying but acceptable number. Hopefully the conversation would go well.
As Kat glanced around though... she noticed a piece of paper that quickly burnt up in Hunter’s hands. Kat raised an eyebrow as Hunter gestured for them to follow her. They didn’t go too far, just a bit up the street to rest on the steps of someone’s house. "We have a problem. Focus on me, don’t try to broadcast your words to everyone else. Try and make it so that only I can hear you when you respond. It might not work due to lack of training but please make the attempt," whispered Hunter.
"Does this work?" whispered Kat back.
"Oh... umm... like this?" tried Kamiko.
Lily simply remained in her Memphis form without replying. If this was a concern it was better to be safe then sorry. No reason to risk one extra person talking. Kat could ask any questions she had.
"It is hard for me to be sure, while I took the course myself I did not spend sufficient time developing the skill to teach it and ensure that the instructions were being followed. Keep focusing on it and you should be fine... but we have a problem. Meg left behind a note when she stepped in. The sheriff is almost certainly on the take," explained Hunter.
"Wait... but wasn’t the sheriff fine before?" asked Kamiko.
Hunter shook her head, "No that was the deputy. The note Meg left me contained a few more details I can go over. The deputy is properly loyal and the sheriff exploits that as a front. It’s not his job to do anything overt, just to send regular reports. They work with the town guard, but are technically a separate organisation and he hates that apparently, and has been hoping to find a way to take over both...
"Our issue is that Meg is going to have a hard to convincing him to make taking out the bandits easier on us. Meg wasn’t able to tell just how connected they are from a quick glance in the short time we had so he might be willing to let it go, play the act of someone that’s above board... or he could decide to try and take us out, or warn the bandits in some way."
"Well what do we do? Should we knock the guy out before we leave or something?" asked Kat.
*True enough...* "So we’re taking the sheriff along and knocking everyone out then?" asked Kat.
"That does seem to be the best plan we currently have access to," agreed Hunter. "However we are still going to need to be quick, and there is a risk that the bandits will still know that we’re coming. Hopefully they will not also know what it is we’re after. Really it will depend on how efficient Meg is. It’s a good thing we detoured to the crystal caves before heading here,"
Kat winced. She’d advocated for going to the caves after they’d talked with the sheriff so that said sheriff would have time to organise everything and they wouldn’t have to just wait around while people were mustered up for the effort. "It’s not your fault," said Kamiko. "You couldn’t have known. Plus it didn’t end up being an issue anyway,"
Kat sighed. The visit was nice. The crystals had been stunning and even Meg and Hunter had been entranced on their first viewing. It was almost as good the second time, though for Kat and Lily it was easier to tear themselves away once it came time to leave. Though... sneaking back in for another look before the mission ended might be a good idea once the bandits were dealt with.
"So it’s decided then?" Hunter stated bringing them out of their musings.
"I feel like there should be a better way to do this," mumbled Kat.
"I am not against hearing alternatives but for the moment we have one working plan and nothing else. Personally I find it acceptable in it’s current form. The damage will be limited, the bandits will hopefully be dealt with and the crystal should be easy to destroy once we have it. I see no reason to complicate matters. Even if the bandits get some forewarning we can likely still take them," stated Hunter.
"I just feel like we’re missing something. I dunno if I feel off about the plan or there’s some detail we’re overlooking but I can’t shake the feeling that if we just go for knocking everyone out once we’re in the tunnels we’ll end up with problems..." mumbled Kat.
"While I can agree that it’s good to trust your instincts, in this case I cannot think of anything we’ve obviously missed. Perhaps there is some concern over the travel time? It is not likely that we’ll be finished with this job today," said Hunter.
"Wait... why not? If the hideout is close enough to go back and forth why would it take us extra time?" asked Kat.
Hunter shrugged, "I personally suspect that the bandits would not want to be so close to town. Perhaps they have ways of riding along an underground river to speed up travel in one direction? Though I am unsure which direction that would be. I would personally suspect ’towards’ town,"
Enjoy new tales from empire
Kat thought it over and that seemed reasonable. It also didn’t seem like the detail she’d been missing. Was there even anything? Kat didn’t know. Lily didn’t either but she seemed to only find worry in the fact Kat was worried, rather then feeling like there was something missing herself.