Page 72 of Storms & Sacrifice
I can feel the councilman’s glare on my back as we leave his office, same for his secretary. We don’t say anything until we are far down the hallway and away from any prying ears.
“Well, he obviously does not want us to investigate this any further,” Khazak comments. “Which is exactly why we are going to continue our investigation.”
“Did we learn anything new from that?” I ask, conveniently ignoring the ring of keys in my pocket right now. “Other than that he’s apparentlya saint.”
“I doubt his motives for providing Thog with employment were all that altruistic,” Khazak responds. “You remember how small the house he was living in was. He wasnotpaying that man well. It is likely he barely made a dent inhis debt.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about the family thing either.” Ragnar shakes his head. “If anything, taking care of them just gave Murbank more ammunition for threats or blackmail.”
“Do you think the family is worth talking to?” Maybe they can tell us something about Murbank if he’s still involved with them like he says.
“Possibly, but if theywerebeing used as pawns like that, I doubt they were ever aware of it. Which would have put even more pressure on Thog to hide the truth,” Khazak points out. “I am far more interested in finding out why Mr. Grimrock ran into so many problems when trying to reopen his father’s factory. Something about that seems odd.”
“How do we do that?” I ask, turning toward the building’smain exit.
“We spend some time in the archives.” A hand tugs me away from the doorway, instead leading me down the hallway at the other end ofthe lobby.
“I hate the archives,” Ragnar groans.
After some winding hallways and a few doors, we come to another office seemingly watched over by a much,mucholder woman. Like, there’s something about her that makes me think of one of my old teachers or a librarian. She’s happy to let us in, though Khazak waves off any further assistance. Best not to let too many people know what we’re doing here.
Which is looking at a lot of papers. Seriously, the room is wall to wall shelves, each stuffed to the brim with books and files. Even if I knew what we were looking for, none of it is in Common, so there’s not much I can do to help. Khazak asks Ragnar to search for the permits related to Thog’s attempt at restarting his family’s business while he looks into any changes to the city’s laws that might have happened around that time that could have affected things. That leaves me to act as a lookout... I’m just trying to feel useful, alright?
“Ha! Got ‘em,” Ragnar announces maybe half an hour after we started our search. He crosses the room to Khazak, and I move to join them. “Thog filed permits to open the factorythreetimes, and each time, the council voted to deny it. Really wanted to help his friend, huh?”
“Does it say how they voted?” I don’t even know why I’m looking at the paper tobe honest.
“No, but your guess is as good as mine,” Khazak grumbles. “That same year, the council voted to approve two different measures that restricted where in town certain types of businesses were allowed to operate. This was two years ago. Either the councilman has been planning this for a while now, or he was holding on to Thog for some other reason.”
“That’s good, right? We can use that to show he has a motive.” I feel a little upbeatfor once.
“It is still not enough to actually accuse him of anything.” Khazak shakes his head. “But it is good information to have.” Khazak folds the papers together and hands them to Ragnar. “Take these back to the station to make copies of. I do not want to risk Murbank covering his tracks.”
“Aww, by hand?” Ragnar whines. “But the archivist can use a copier-wand.”
“She can also tell others what she has made copies of.” Khazak fixes him with a look. “It is the only way tobe safe.”
“Are we stealing those?” IsSiractually gonna break the law?
“Borrowing,” he clarifies, and I’m not buying it. “We will return them latertonight.”
“Wait, what are we going to do?” I just realized he only gave that orderto Ragnar.
“Youwill be returning to the station with Deputy Rockfang,” he clarifies.Boooo.“Though I am not sure anything useful will come of it, I am going to go speak with Mr. Grimrock’s family. As they are still grieving his loss, three of us may send the wrong message. I will meet you both back at the station in an hour or two, and we can discuss our next steps.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Yes, Sir.” I nod while Ragnar stuffs the papers intohis shirt.
The archivist is just as friendly on our way out, and I can only hope she doesn’t get a lot of visitors because she definitely seems like the type to talk someone’s ear off. I am glad we got some new info, but I am more than a little antsy for the chance to talk to Ragnar without Khazak’s supervision. I have a feeling he’ll be a lot more understanding.
We split when we exit the tribal hall, Khazak heading north while we go east. I wait until we are far out of earshot of anyone before turningto Ragnar.
“So... I might have done something really reallyreallystupid.” Stupid enough that I’m looking over my shoulderright now.
Ragnar narrows his eyes, but nods at an alley on our right, which we bothduck into.
“What did you do, David?” Ragnar asks after making sure we’re alone.
