Jim's PoV

As Jim was pacing he started to define the scope of his mission. First of all while threats had been used against Charlotte, no actual attack had happened. So far he was not willing to use lethal force. Also if he remembered right this Mr. Montgomery was a bit on the old side, so if he happened to get bogged down in a couple issues the problem might work itself out naturally.

His rage began to ebb but Jim thought coldly that should Mr. Montgomery ever use real force against his friends the restriction on lethality would be lifted. Anyone who had a hand in harming his people would be held liable. By him. After that final thought Jim looked at himself in the mirror. Was he changing. Did power really corrupt? What would he have done if he had been normal Joe Shmoe and someone tried to take what was his?

That thought made him laugh, he use to be comparatively powerless, however his computer skills meant that he could give someone a really bad time if they pissed him off enough. Jim grinned as he thought back to one of his first bosses. The little crook thought that he could demand everyone to work overtime for free. At the time Jim was out of his reach for his abusive power, but that did not help the rest who had depended on the man for their paychecks.

He remembered those few days working out that little piece of software fondly. His little wonder used the cameras to create a database for car licence plates, and then his software tracked the target till they punched into the time clock. Then it associated that car with that person. Once there were enough entries in the database to remove mistakes his software started punching them in and out based on when they left in their cars.

Of course he added a few other things just for consistency. After all he didn't want someone to figure it out so he made some limits, like if the car stays there overnight the program would search for other pieces of data before it made the call.

Still it was a wonderful piece of software. After that it was the time of plenty for everyone. The whole place cheered when they saw their paychecks actually reflected what they worked instead of what that crook wanted it to say. It was hilarious watching the following weeks while the crook tried to figure out what was going on. He watched the camera for the time clock like a hawk and quickly concluded that the people were not punching out themselves.

So he went over to accounting to try to tell them that, but the whole office caught wind of it. A few people helpfully pointed out to the accountant that if they looked on the other video feeds that they could see that the punch in and outs reflected what they actually worked. Jim left not too long after that but he checked up on the software every now and then and they still haven't gotten rid of it.

It was really fortunate that the camera network for the parking lot was so extensive. Jim heard that people were making progress in facial recognition, but he didn't know where to start looking at the time so he could "borrow," it. The way he rigged it up meant that people long after he left benefited from his little hack.

Looking back in the mirror he finally concluded that he was no saint and had never been one. That was only one of many examples of what happened when Jim got pissed off, but now he had a new toolkit to play with. The pacing began once more and the final pieces of the puzzle took shape.

Scarlet's PoV

The conversation that Forrest and Davis were having about what to do next was on the boring side, so she skulked off to find a good place to read her loot from the former prisoners. As she was walking away she couldn't believe that Jim actually made her embarrassed! Shooing Forrest to her like he was her lost lamb. The nerve! After a couple minutes she navigated to a little nook that was on top of the wall facing outside of the alcove.

Putting it out of her mind she unwrapped the bundle and started looking through its contents. It was dark out so she used the slight glow from one of her new daggers to read the pages. The first couple sheets were boring, just a list of names. She noticed that most of them had little tic marks next to them. After scanning through the whole content she saw that about a dozen names did not have ticks next to them. Looks like the ticked off people were the dead ones. Not interesting, Scarlet tossed those pages out and saw them catch the wind and fly off.

The next page was a little more interesting. It was a letter directly from this Aaron guy that she really wanted to meet. Skimming through the gist of the letter basically said that she was the top priority for the mission. The secondary objective was qwashing King's End. Seriously that was second and not first? They wanted her dead or really dead. Alive was not an option. She rolled her eyes at the last statement, they wanted her head as proof of the kill. Scarlet liked her head just where it was, thank you very much. Looking at the final sheet she saw that it was a map.

She looked sadly at the damning evidence. The roads and marks around the citystate of Xalross were way too detailed. No agent of Shila or Jacksberg would have those kinds of details. No agent of Xalross would give these kinds of details out to a cats paw. There was only one reason why a group from Jacksberg would have such a detailed map. War was coming to Xalross. The war that she was supposed to be constantly on the lookout for. The war that she should have been able to quench the sparks before they could turn into fire. But now she was in the middle of nowhere far away from home.

Would it even make a difference if she moved out this instant? Scarlet would have to trust to her brothers and sisters and hope that they did a better job than she did. But one of those kin had betrayed them all. Scarlet put the map away and looked into the moonlight. Who was it?

Davis' PoV

Davis and Forrest had just finished burying the middle age couple and said a few words over their graves.

Davis looked to his friend and said "Things happen, don't let it eat you up."

Forrest shook his head and said "This was my plan."

Davis smiled and said "Plans only work so well, but once you meet the enemy they go in the gutter. You got unlucky, or lucky. I don't know."

Forrest said gloomily "I think I understand now. The common factor in there being no attacks seems to be Jim. What did you say about Maria with the spider queen?"

Davis thought about it for a second and said "The spider queen stood in a corner away from Jim. Didn't attack. Think she said something about the creature shaking."

Forrest nodded and said "Fear."

"Fear?"

Forrest said "Jim gives off a vibe, I think creatures can tell he is coming from a long way away."

Thinking about it it did support the information they had so far. In three separate instances he was left alone when normal people would have been attacked. One through the caves, once during the first leg of the journey and once with Forrest's trip to the temple. Does that change anything for them now? Not really, they still had a mission even if they had lost their token of goodwill.

Finally Davis said "Well, at least we know now, but that does not change what we need to do. We still need to get to Jacksberg and figure out if they plan on attacking King's End."

Forrest nodded and then said "Best to get some sleep then. See you in the morning Davis."

"See you in the morning."

Officer Brady's PoV

Brady was just walking in to the police station. He was still a bit drowsy, he hadn't had his morning dose of coffee yet. Not long after he found his partner who said "Hey rookie, you heard about the smoke bomb someone tossed at the station?"

Brady shook his head and asked "Seriously? Someone tossed a smoke bomb at the station? Did we catch the guy?"

His partner responded "Nope. We have some shots of the man but he was dressed in all black with something covering his face. So we have a height and build but that's it."

"How's the chief taking it?"

Laughing his partner said "Pissed as hell. Glad I wasn't on duty that night. From the rumor mill last night he came in himself while off duty to give everyone a tongue lashing. So steer clear, he hasn't left since then."

"Gotcha. What should we do now?"

"Do what we normally do. We shall protect the house of donuts and coffee from all criminal elements! Bring the car around would ya?"

"Sure thing!"

Coffee sounded great about now and with the boss on the warpath it was a good idea to not be there. Stepping outside he scanned for their marked car, but couldn't find it where he parked it last night. Confused he started searching around the whole parking lot and still couldn't find the damn thing. Another minute later his partner walked out and saw him looking around and walked up to him.

"Trouble rook?"

Confused Brady said "The car is not where I parked it last night, and I can't find it anywhere in the parking lot."

His partner gave him a questioning eyebrow and they started to search for the car as a pair. And once again they came up short. As one of the other cars was pulling out of a parking space his partner yelled over to the vehicle and it stopped. Then his partner asked "Hey buddy can you do a quick search for other unit vehicles on the GPS tracker?"

"Sure thing, whats the ID number for it?"

Rattling off a number the man said a few seconds later "Weird. It's all the way across town."

Sighing his partner said "You mind taking us there?"

The officer driving laughed and pointed to the back seat.

So Officer Brady was now driving in the back seat of a police car. He covered his face. This was embarrassing as hell.

Mr. Montgomery's PoV

Mr. Montgomery's car pulled up to his private elevator and smiled. It was good being rich. The thing only had one floor connected to it, and it was his office. Hell, it was big enough to drive a car in there. On a few days when the pain was really bad he instructed his driver to do just that. Still the one dose that he had taken still seemed to be suppressing his pain. He was almost fearing when it would come back. Did he really want to go back to the drowsy mess that he was before?

Mr. Montgomery got out of the back seat of his car while his driver held the door open. After the man drove off he pulled out the key for his elevator. Not long later he was making his way up to his office while enjoying the view. For some reason many of the people were pointing up towards him. That wasn't normal but maybe they were just glad to see their boss? Shrugging it off he heard the ding and he exited on autopilot while thinking what needed to be done today. And then he bumped into something. Blinking he looked at the thing that was obstructing his way. A police car. Why was a police car in his office?

There was a note sticking on the car. He took out his reading glasses and looked at the note. "Don't mess with kids. Don't mess with my people. Only warning."

Taking off his reading glasses he looked down to see the people who were pointing again and then it clicked. How had someone gotten in past security, and put a car in no less? Mr. Montgomery was confounded. How could someone do this to him?

Taking another look down he saw four police officers had just entered the building. He sighed. It was going to be a long day. As he saw the police officers use the normal elevator up he wondered if he overplayed his hand. Did Charlotte or Jim find a new backer? Should he be the first to blink and accept their offer as is, or should he double down?