Chapter 2 - The Bargain

A newcomer to the infamous den of criminals has a rough night.

The air was sticky and smelled faintly of opium in the heart of the Flogged Gogue, and Matias swept his eyes around the room for the tenth time since ordering a beer. He was hunkered down at the counter, and every eye in every head in the place could tell that his presence was out-of-place. The only other person sitting at the bar and not playing cards at a table, chasing w****s or in some dark corner discussing clandestine dealings was a pus-eyed old cabbie with grey, mottled skin who couldn't get a w***e of his own. Awkwardly, each time that Matias surveyed the room, the cabbie looked up and met his gaze, holding his stare for several seconds after Matias looked away.

Matias looked around behind him at the pocked and mutilated faces yelling or leering at one another and a voice from in front of him gave him a tremor, "Ey!" and he spun around with cat-like reflexes to face the bartender, "You wan' another one, fella?"

Matias looked at the empty bottle in his hand and pushed it across the bar, "Yeah, sure" He said.

He slid the coin across the counter and took a small sip, not intending to be drunk when the moment came. A fist hammered the bar to his right and he spun around, dropping the bottle to the floor.

"What are you lookin' at?" shouted the diseased cabbie, who stood solidly and was shaped like a large barrel, "I don't like your kind around here."

The sound of at least twenty chairs sliding back and men standing filled the room momentarily, followed by the silence anticipating a challenge made. Matias jumped to his feet as the hunched, barrel of a man drew a knife and began pacing over. He staggered backward while reaching into his coat, but something came whipping into his field of view and smacked with a woody thump into the side of the cabbie's head. The man flew sideways and the side of his head crashed against the bar, leaving a spattering of blood, and he slumped onto the floor over a cratered bar stool.

Matias whirled around to see everyone staring at a doorway with opium smoke rolling out, a frightened prostitute peering out from either side and a tall, lanky man in his white underwear with cloudy red eyes holding his hand out in the "release" position for throwing a knife. Matias looked back down at the cabbie and saw that a hunting knife with a long, curved kukri blade was sticking out of the side of his head. Teeth were scattered everywhere on the floor, and there was a pool of blood originating from the mouth of the downed assailant.

The bartender pointed at the kid who guarded the door and sung out, "Wendy-Loo, have I ever got a job for yoo!" and the patrons laughed and went back about their business. Wendelo mingled his way across the room of toughs gingerly and grabbed the corpse by the arms, and looked over at Matias expectantly.

Matias blinked and Wendelo calmly asked, "Wanna give Archi back his knife?"

He hesitated, but mumbled, "Yeah okay..." and grabbed the knife by the handle. he pulled, but the head just lifted and thumped back onto the floor, scattering blood from the gaping, freshly toothless mouth. He tried holding the neck with his hand, but couldn't get leverage.

"S**t. Come on, man", muttered Wendelo growing impatient, still holding up the arms.

Matias thought fast and stepped on the side of the head, getting a good grip on the knife and pulling upward. Blood came slashing out of the man's grey, flaky temple and spattered up his arm as the knife came out more easily than expected. He walked it across the room to the tall, naked man very robotically and in a sort of shocked haze. Archi took the knife and reached out with the blade, wiping the blood on Matias' already bloodied shirt.

Archi was hardly able to hold eye contact, as stoned as he was, but managed to mumble out "Go in the kitchen and clean yourself up. Unless you want the f****r's diseases, that is. I'll come talk to you in a little".

Matias walked in the back, and the pot-bellied and shirtless cook thepped aside while he used some of the dishwater to clean himself as best he could. The fear of having grey, greasy skin and blood-borne illness nearly scared the life out of him. After he walked out, the cook looked at the dishwater, considering throwing it out the back door, but sunk a few more dishes in it and shrugged unceremoniously.

Almost half an hour later, willowy old Archi who owned the place came shuffling groggily from his back room. Matias was much relieved, as several other characters had begun eyeing him up and down as though he were their next meal. Perhaps it was the blood spatter or maybe the teeth still imbedded in the edge of the bar counter, but they had all decided to keep their distance from the boy.

Archi sat at the bar beside him and waved Tarvus, the barkeep, over to bring him a cold beer. He popped the cap off on the edge of the counter and sipped it absently.

Matias began, "I was sent by my commanding officer to-" Archi reached over and waved a hand for him to stop with a look of great pain and distress on his face. He pointed at Tarvus and then at the boy and Tarvus brought the kid another beer.

He began again, "Oh, no I shouldn't-" pushing the beer away, but Archi shoved the drink back at him, almost spilling it in his lap.

"Just drink it and try again in a minute. I can't handle that pig-jabber right now." Archi groaned, massaging his temple.

Matias thought about refusing the drink and curtly passing on the message he had been sent with, but he thought better of it and drank his beer patiently. He set the bottle down and pushed it quietly toward the bartender. He thought carefully about how to breach the subject at hand without sounding  like a member of the City Watch.

"I have a message for you from the Lieutenant" he began, gauging Archi's reaction. Archi opened one eye and looked sidelong at him, still grimacing. "To ensure that no one can accuse you of not being a contributing member of society, the City Watch requests that you send three of your fellows to aid an Imperial Watch investigation."

Archi thought a moment and asked, "Will the good Lieutenant be sending any of his own men along?"

"Yes. One."

"Perfect, wait just one moment for me to prepare my own message for the Imperial Watch."

Matias blinked in surprise, "I was expecting to just relay the message myself."

"Oh nonsense. Just a moment."

Archi disappeared off into his bedroom, moving with surprising speed. He came back several minutes later with a cordial looking manilla envelope with a large, red waxen stamp over the flap. The stamp had a large jug in the middle with a caricature of an eye on the label. Matias took it from him and bid him good evening.

He returned at haste to the barracks where most of the men who were off-duty were playing cards to determine who got stuck with the next shift. Matias made his way to the Lieutenant's office. The man was hunched over at his desk as usual, with enough paperwork surrounding him to make a lawyer queasy. Essentially, this man was responsible for about half of the back-end administration for the entire city.

"Well?" asked the Lieutenant, a grayed figure aging in a papery nest. He lit a cigarette and pulled an ashtray out from under a clipped stack of papers labeled "subpoenas".

"He responded with this, sir" replied Matias, holding out the envelope.

The lieutenant looked nervously at the envelope. Who knew what that sick b*****d down in his nasty little bar would send to him in a sealed envelope. Would it be anthrax? Someone's finger? Simply empty and devised to waste his time?

He took it from the boy and tore carefully along the wax stamp. Inside, to his surprise, he found an actual letter written with surprisingly good grammar and penmanship.

"Dear Lieutenant Ranthorpe,

You can have your three men as long as this boy is the one to accompany them. His voice is awful and he is of the worst sort of people. Fair is fair.

-Always with Love,

Luca Archi"

The Lieutenant didn't waste a lot of time thinking about the decision. He was glad to spare Matias in order to get some of those heathens from the outskirts of town to risk their lives instead of a whole troop of his guards.

"I believe you've come a long way in your two and a half months working for the Imperial Watch, Matias", he began, "I feel like you're ready for your first real assignment. Whaddaya say?" he beamed his best smile.

The boy's mouth fell open and he immediately straightened himself and saulted, "Yessir! Of Course, sir!"

The Lieutenant walked around to the front of his desk, seating himself on the front edge casually and informally. He snubbed his cigarette out and made eye contact from beneath his bushy grey brows.

"I want you to accompany Luca Archi's men to search for the Magister's nephew who never came back from his census work at that old town North of here. The nephew always was a bit of a flake, so we figure he's probably just drunk and holed up, though it may be even worse than that. Be wary, he might have been kidnapped by the savages. This is why you're being sent with an armed escort."

"That's amazing. I mean, I accept!" Matias shouted, "We will leave first thing tomorrow."

"I knew I could count on you: investigation leader."

"A promotion? With increased pay?" he almost screeched.

Lieutenant Ranthorpe laughed softly, "The promotion now, of course. The increased pay upon your return."

Matias left and shut the door behind him. The Lieutenant sat back in his chair and lit another cigarette, staring through the bars of his little window up at the stars. Hopefully the guys Archi was sending would be tough enough to resolve the situation, because that kid was a goner. He was shocked he had even made it this long. 

Author's Note

First installment featuring this character. I want to structure the collection where I jump between points of view with short chapters that take no longer than 20 minutes to read apiece. Wendelo is another recurring character.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

This is a very good piece of writing. Without much description, the scene revealed itself as gritty, dirty, lawless and somewhere that most of us wouldn't want to go. You missed several important commas. Also, here's a couple more things I thought worth mentioning:
1) ..."drew a knife and began pacing over" You might choose a better word than "pace". It sounds so casual and not in keeping with the action going on.
2) "cook thepped aside" did you really want to say "thepped"?

[Steve the Unwashed]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it/ were grossed out by my awful little den of thieves :p The worst of the worst places to get a drink seems like a fun place for my characters to get into trouble.

[Veronica Chandler]

Okay, I just finished reading the first installment and while I am a poet and not well versed in story telling, I thought I would at least like to give it my best shot to review your work. Dude! You painted the picture so well that I am still trying to get the stink illustrated in your story out of my livingroom. My god it was so clearly written that I feel like I need to wash up after going into that bar in my mind. Geeezzzz!
I guess upon reflection my review says it all; it was a picture well painted albeit a discusting picture, I am forced to say well done.