[Danny]

This chapter's a bit too first-draft for my liking, but here ya go...

Chapter 6

The wind whistled past Visk’s face. He looked down, trying his best not to think about how far it was, and tried to think about how he would escape through this window if he’d just murdered a fairly high-ranking glukkon. He couldn’t see any obvious hand- or foot-holds below, and the next window straight down was two floors below. Looking forward, he tried to think about whether or not he’d be able to jump the gap to the building next door. That thought made his head spin, and he pulled back, away from the window, and closed his eyes.

“Think of anything?”

Visk shook his head. “You have a look.”

Frack leaned out of the window. Visk watched him, wondering how he could bear to lean so far without the slightest hesitation. After a few seconds, Frack nodded. “Ah…”

“Yer see something?”

“Yeah. Follow me…”

Visk followed Frack, bemused. Frack led the way down the stairs, right down to ground level, and out of the warehouse.

“What did yer see? Did yer see how they got out?”

“No, but I saw someone who might have seen…”

Visk frowned. “What?”

Frack shushed him, and slowed down as they rounded the corner into the alley they’d just been leaning out over. At first, Visk didn’t see anything worth thinking about, but then he saw a small pile of rags in a dark corner besides a skip. As the approached, a head raised tentatively from the pile. “Spare any change?”

Frack signalled for Visk to keep back, and crouched beside the drifter. “We might do. Depends on whether or not you can help us…”

A spark of fear flared in the mudokon’s eyes for a second, before it was replaced by suspicion. “I ain’t done nuffin…”

Frack laughed gently. “Naah, we don’t suspect you of anything, don’t worry. We just want to know if you were here early this morning…”

The mudokon’s eyes narrowed. “Might’ve bin.”

Frack sighed, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a handful of change, which he dropped into the mudokon’s hands. The mudokon grinned briefly, then sobered up. “Now that I fink of it, I was ‘ere this morning. Bin ‘ere the last few days, I ‘av. ’Course, I might’ve bin asleep…”

Frack rolled his eyes and stood up. “We’re wasting our time…”

“No, wait! I mean, I was prob’ly awake… I just don’t quite remember…” He looked at Frack out of the corner of his eye. “’Course, alcohol ’as bin known to improve my memory…”

Frack turned around. “The Scrab’s Head’s just round the corner. I’ll buy yer a drink or two, and see if your memory ‘improves’…”

* * *

“There were two of ‘em…”

“Glukkons?”

The mudokon nodded, his head sunk low over his glass.

“You saw them both?”

“Yeah… The little one climbed out first…”

Frack patiently continued his interrogation. “And where did he go?”

“He jumped across the alley.”

Visk looked up from his own drink. “He jumped? That had to be a good 5 metres! Without a run-up!”

Frack shot him a glance and mouthed for him to stay quiet. “Did the other one jump as well?”

“Yeah…” The mudokon pulled on his pint. “Then they ran off across t’roofs, and I din’t see ‘em after that…”

Frack stood up. “Well, thanks anyway. Drink up, Visk, we’re off.”

Visk downed his pint. “Where?”

“Back to the station.”

* * *

“Six f*cking pints! And all we got was that they were Glukkons, which was something we already knew!”

Frack turned to him. “Don’t shout. At least we can be fairly sure now that we’re dealin’ with assassins.”

Visk nodded, and pressed the buzzer on the station gates again. “We should’ve expected that, really. Olek wouldn’t want to get his hands dirty with something like this…”

Frack pulled Visk away from the gates, angrily. “Keep your f*cking voice down! You wanna get us fired? It’s bad enough that we’re accusing Glukkons…”

Visk lowered his voice. “We both know Olek ordered these killings! We’re gonna have to tell someone eventually…”

“What makes yer so sure? We don’t have any evidence, or even a motive!”

“Frack… Both of the mudokons killed were closely involved with the Anti-Dam protestors. If Olek wanted his Dam to go ahead, he’ll have wanted them out o’ the way so there wasn’t any organised opposition. And there’s somethin’ else…” Visk looked around, then led Frack around the corner into a side street. “Take a look at this!” He pulled out the sheet of paper that held the transcript of Kilk’s last fateful fone conversation. Frack read aloud.

“ ‘A mudokon(?) voice: “Can’t talk for long. Need to meet to discuss future payments. Meet in the warehouse on Sixth Avenue. This might be your lucky day.” Hangs up.’” Frack looked back up at Visk. “What does this prove? Nothing.”

“Listen! Kilk was siphoning off money from the company accounts. He wrote a diary entry saying that he thought Olek was getting suspicious.” Visk paused for breath. “Now, imagine that Olek found out that Kilk was using Olek’s money to finance the mudokon terrorist movement…”

Frack shook his head. “Speculation. There could be any number of explanations! All we know is that a pair of glukkon assassins killed him. That’s all.”

“What about the footprints at the other murders?”

Frack paused, then shook his head and began walking back round towards the gates. “We don’t have any proof that those footprints were there, since you threw away those photos. Even if the murders were connected – and they aren’t – we’ve got no way to prove it, so we’ll just have to carry on investigating Kilk’s death independently. Okay?”

Visk sighed, nodded his head, and pressed the buzzer on the gates again, impatiently.

* * *

“Sorry we kept yer waiting so long, guys.” One of their colleagues had eventually come to open the gates and let them in. “’s just that most of the lads are out on patrol at the moment. There’ve been a lot of small riots recently, so we’ve doubled the number of men on patrol.”

“’s okay.” Visk could see that the station was practically deserted. He hadn’t seen anyone but the three of them since they’d come in. “Did I get a package from the Records Office today?”

“Oh yeah, almost forgot.” The constable pulled a few sheets of official-looking paper from a drawer in his desk and handed them to Visk. “Anyway, I’m meant ter be watchin’ the security cameras now, so I’d better be off. See yer ’round.” The slig turned and wandered away from the desks.

“Yeah, later.” Visk leafed through the paper, thoughtfully.

Frack leaned over his shoulder. “Anything useful?”

“There can’t have been this many people in Kryellos who’ve bought a Scrab .22, some knives, and some Glarmani shoes…” Visk frowned, and read the front sheet a bit more closely. “Oh, that arsehole’s given us a full list of everyone who’s bought a Scrab .22. I only asked for people who’d bought all three…”

“Well, does it at least tell us whether they bought the other stuff as well?”

“Umm… Oh yeah, it does.”

“How many of them are there?”

Visk flicked through the sheets. “Three. No, Four.” Visk grabbed a pen and underlined the relevant details. “This guy’s in prison right now, so he’s out o’ the reckoning.” He crossed one name from the list. “And this one’s a mudokon, so it couldn’t have been him. He could have been buying for someone else, but these other two names seem more likely.” He read them out. “Smick and Crax, both Glukkons, both have been investigated on murder charges before, but both were acquitted.”

Frack grinned. “Do we have their addresses?”

“Right here.”

“Right. You check out Crax, and I’ll check Smick.”

Visk hesitated. “Couldn’t that be dangerous?”

Frack thought, then nodded. “You’re right. Take a pistol with yer, and keep your radio on at all times. First sign of trouble, call for backup. I’ll make sure there’re quite a few patrols nearby to provide backup.”

“Ok. Good luck.”

“Yeah, you too.”