“Just so you know, I handled him accordingly,” Haddock said. “I reckoned you’d like to know.”

“I’d rather he learn his lesson, most importantly,” Watson said. “Watching over over hunters like I’m watching over my own daughter, I never thought the day would come.”

“’Twas always the case for you, Watson,” another hunter sitting adjacent to them said. Going by the name of Ulysses. “What beckons you here now?”

“I fear I have bigger problems to worry about now,” Watson said.

“More from patrolling?” Haddock asked.

“Truth be told, I’m getting tired of patrolling,” Watson said. “I’m getting tired of sitting around doing nothing. I’m getting tired of retiring. I’m getting tired of Jane and the city. Quite frankly, Tridention is starting to bore me. Doesn’t quite suprise me honestly. The last time I left the city walls was nearly two years ago, and they had the gall to put me on the bench afterwards. The curse of a sedentary life.”

“Watson, you can’t still be brooding over this until now. Why hold such a grudge?”

“Hunters are supposed to move around from time to time,” Watson said. “It was how we were designed. It was how we were built and created. You’d think Lord Wayne encouraged mankind to move around from one place to the next to do something useful, instead of simply sitting around and doing nothing. It wrecks the conscience, I’m telling you.”

“You’re really that anxious to get on the move again?” Ulysses asked. “I don’t remember you being this stoked while you were even Commandant.”

“And even if you were, how do you plan on doing so?”

“That’s the problem therein,” WAtson noted. “Aren’t you two getting tired of your stations as well?”

“I’d say we all are, quite frankly,” Haddock said. “But I’m the new man in charge now, at least of the other brigades.”

“The Vicegerent, for the very first time in a long while, has deliberately, and intentionally, refused an expedition for the ages,” Watson insisted.

“So I’ve heard,” Haddock said. “What has Jane tried to do this time?”

“Oh believe me, lads, I would hate to get started about that wretched Jane,” Watson said.

“Why do you still even look after her? Doesn’t she have someone else to look after in this instance?”

“If Franklin were still alive, then she would,” Watson said. “But he would be well over a century old. And if you’d asked me beforehand, I would’ve told you that humans are statisically impossible to live beyond a century old. At least, not that I’ve seen. But I’ve just been proven wrong.”

“Really now?” Ulysses asked. “I can’t even believe I’m hearing this from the rational, logical Watson himself.”

“I wanted to disprove it many times,” Watson said. “I really did. But I’m afraid it’s true.”

“Watson,” Haddock asked, paying more attention to him now. “What in the Waters are you talking about?”

Watson approached Haddock and Ulysses at the table, to bring up what he had just witnessed recently prior to their last testament to the Vicegerent. “And now Jane is up and arms even more than before,” Watson said. “Two people showed up claiming to have returned from that one fateful expedition. While the proof is there, nobody has the will to act on it.”

“Really?” Haddock asked. “I never would’ve guessed.”

“But truth be told, I need to get Jane to shut up once and for all. And I don’t plan on killing her to do it,” Watson insisted.

“Then how?”

“You won’t like it but I have an offer,” Watson said. He lightly approached them both, eyeing them one by one. “Come with me on a hunting expedition, but one the Vicegerent hasn’t called or approved upon yet,”

“What?!” Ulysses asked. “Are you mad?!”

“Watson, that has to be the craziest idea I’ve heard from you yet,” Haddock insisted. “You should know this is a huge transgression against the Vicegerent.”

“The Vicegerent is paranoid and delusional, what else am I supposed to do?” Watson argued. “Jane will not stop persisting, and will only put herself in danger, unless I do something about this. I need this expedition to be carried out to the High Arctic, to whatever in the Waters the Northwest Passage happens to be. We need to find out, once and for all, if they’re actually dead or not. Two hunters claim to have come out of the ice and returned to Tridention all by themselves. They say there’s other survivors.”

“Other survivors?” Ulysses asked. “This sounds like mere superstition,”

“Want to go meet them yourself?” Watson asked. “I’d be happy to oblige.”

Haddock studied Watson with the same scrutinizing eyes from before. “You were right,” Haddock insisted. “The lone hunter at the walls was the least of your problems. I can see why you’re acting all weird.”

“I could use some help, and you two are the best hunters I’ve had under my command,” Watson said. “Otherwise Haddock wouldn’t be a Commandant.”

“What is with the High Arctic and this Northwest Passage anyway?” Haddock asked. “Why are they so special?”

“They were, at one point,” Watson explained. “A long time ago, Tridention wanted interest in the Arctic Ocean as a hunting ground. It was isolated from the rest of the Seven Oceans. The only Ocean to choose seclusion over connection, from the rest of us at least. At that point, Franklin went on an expedition, that the previous Vicegerent approved of, to claim the Northwest Passage to the Arctic for himself. He wanted to repair his broken image, and got too carried away doing it.”

“Sounds like hubris to me,” Ulysses said. “I’m just about setting up my own life around here in the city. And this happens.”

“Might be a good chance to reiterate it,” Watson explained. “What are you, Ulysses? Betrothed?”

“Actually I am,” Ulysses said. “Soon to marry and settle.”

“Hope she learns to be patient with you,” Watson said. “You know how we hutners fare with things like this.”

“Certainly isn’t easy, I’ll give you that,” Ulysses said.

“I know, I can help,” Watson said. “But trust me, lads. I know this sounds weird, but those two… I have a feeling they’re not bluffing. I’ve checked their irons, they look like skeletons already as is. I don’t know how many years they’ve still got left in them, that they can use properly. I want to make sure they can point us to the right direction, recover the Striders and bring them back, even bring back a Commandant from the grave, theoretically. Then settle the matter once and for all. Jane will find peace like she never had in over a century.”

“I always thought that century thing was a myth,” Haddock explained.

Watson laughed out the matter. “Haddock, you still have much to learn! Trust me,” Watson insisted. “They don’t call me a weird curmudgeon for nothing.”

“What happens if the Vicegerent finds out we left the city on an expedition that he is not aware of?” Ulysses asked. “Won’t he try to chase us across the Oceans?”

“Not if we’re at the abyssal Arctic, for Lord Wayne’s sake,” Watson said. “Worst will happen is we won’t come back. And if we do, we will likely get punished for it. But I’m an old man already. Maybe not as old as Jane is now, but old enough to start considering what I have left in my life anyway. All I have is a young daughter I want to do well by. And if this goes well, then I’ll only be able to focus all my attention on my Pisces. Perhaps the only thing that’s worth giving much devotion too now.”

“You’ll just leave Pisces here at the city on her own then,” Haddock said.

“I’ll have to,” Watson noted. “Alphestes has looked after her while I was gone many a time. He’ll do by her fine.”

“But Alphestes has always had to look after Pisces, even when-” Haddock said, but suddenly halted himself. “Sorry, I know you don’t like to talk about that.”

“My former wife was impatient and couldn’t handle the long waits, nothing else need be said,” Watson explained. “Unfortunately, that’s just the way things are. It’s now me and my daughter. As for my wife, I wouldn’t be surprised if she already returned to Nature, choosing to abandon the entire city and be on her own. What a fool’s errand in these vast waters!”

“Watson, I understand your rationale behind embarking on the expedition unnoticed,” Ulysses said. “I also understand your reasoning. But you still need hunters to join you. How will you persuade an entire brigade of hunters to help you on an expedition like this?”

“I’ve considered some options,” Watson said. “We could pretend the expedition was actually approved. But that would cause its own problems. Or we could simply go on our own, without a hunting brigade on our sides. We would just need striders to take us across the waters in one piece. Or alternatively, we could just go on our own two feet. But that would take way too much time than needed. It would actually nearly take us a lifetime just to cross the Oceans like that.”

“I would rather not do that,” Haddock said. “I’m not so sure these hunters would be willing to partake in an expedition like this if they knew the Vicegerent did not call upon it.”

“I’m not the Commandant anymore, you are,” Watson said. “So that will fall upon you to lure the brigade to help us out. But we might need hunters to help us cross the ice, find ways to survive the cold, tend to the striders if they get broken. So on and so forth. I often wonder if this will actually work.”

“If the Vicegerent finds out the brigade has gone missing, and I’m the one who motivated them to leave the city without their knowledge, that mistake will fall on our hands.”

“I would rather not do this without a brigade, but I feel we will need one,” Watson noted. “And badly. I’m assuming some of the hunters have families.”

“They all do, Watson,”

“Ah,” Watson noted. “They will tell their parents, and they will become informants. Word will spread out through them, and then we’ll be exposed.”

“Do you want to risk that?” Haddock asked.

“I don’t think it’s worth it for the three of us to go on our own,” Watson said. “If there is fallout, then there is fallout. Nothing I can do about it. We’ll bring a brigade into this, and hope for the best.”

“Watson, know this,” Haddock insisted. “If anything goes wrong, it’s on you.”

“Done,” Watson said. “Will you call the brigade now?”

Haddock stared down at the table, and the tilapia he had just flayed with his boarding knives. Then on that same plate and table he contemplated the course of this expedition. And the consequences to come. “When do we leave?”

“Not for a while,” Watson said. “I need to figure out how we’re going to get the Striders out of the city undetected.”

“Is this even called a hunting expedition, since there is no query?” Ulysses asked.

“Might as well call it a rescue mission,” Watson said. “If it even can be called one.”

“We leave through the harbor with the Striders, and then head up north to the Atlantic then?”

“Yes,” Watson said. “I will need to prime up at least two Striders from the southern harbor without the Stridewrights even noticing. The brigades will then have to mount the Striders, again without anyone noticing. When we leave the city and head for open waters, Bergmann and Allen will guide us to the High Arctic. We try to find the Striders, the hunting brigade, their Commandant. If it turns out they’re still alive, we’ll just bring them back. Jane will finally stay quiet, and everything will be resolved. Whatever happens afterwards, happens. I don’t really care. I just want a peaceful home at my city with my daughter.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ulysses said. “Quite frankly, you figured all of this out.”

“The forward thinking of the mighty Watson,” Haddock praised.

“I’ve spent enough time watching over old Jane,” Watson said. “Enough to know what happens when you truly grow old. I’d rather make sure it’s a comfortable old life afterwards, or I will likely regret it.”

“Are you sure this is what you want to do though?” Ulysses asked. “How certain are you that this will work?”

“I’m not certain,” Watson said. “But at the very least, it’s another adventure. And I’ll gladly take that over patrolling complacent curmudgeons.”

“Watson, you know what this means if we embark on this expedition alone,” Haddock explained. “If we go, we will not be able to seek help from anyone. And I literally mean anyone. If the Striders get broken, we either fix it ourselves or keep going. We can’t take any food, because the people at the Slaughterhouses will notice. We will thusly have to forage for our own. If the hunters find out they’ve been tricked, all sorts of mutinous behavior will happen in the brigade. And it will all be in your hands. If we even return, can you imagine what would happen?”

“I know, Haddock,” Watson said. “I know the risks involved. But I believe it’s necessary.”

“Fine then,” Haddock said. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to do this, but there might be no better way to put this matter to rest than to try.”

“I need to check on the Striders and see if they’re ready,” Watson said. “When can I know if the brigade will be embarking or not?”

“Not at this hour, but certainly soon,” Haddock said. “I’ll rally the brigade during my runs across the Tridention walls. Those in patrol, those at the barracks, and those in their homes, will be notified. I will try my best to keep it a secret, but I can’t make any promises. I’ll come to your home personally and give you confirmation.”

“Good,” Watson said. “We’ll start with Ulysses then, he’s the first recruit,”

“Wait, what?” Ulysses asked.

“You already know our plans,” Watson said. “I told you because I trust you. Will you join us?”

Ulysses dropped his knives on the coral tables and stared at them both. “To the Abyss with that, of course I will. I love me some adventure.”

“Best answer yet,” Watson said. “Haddock you’ve got yourself a new successor here.”

“He has the biolights to help; might make a Rank Commander out of him,” Haddock said. “We have some scouring and searching to do then.”

Watson, Haddock, and Ulysses all arose from the tables and parted their ways. Each in their own directions. Watson left and hid behind the darkness of the city, in the dead of the night, when everyone slumbered and fell asleep. He needed to make sure that the loose ends on the harbors were good to go. And that almost everything would go according to plan.

But even if it didn’t, Watson simply wanted the expedition to work. Because it would make not only his life, and not only Jane’s life, but the lives of countless others in Tridention much easier. Including the Vicegerent.

***

Tridention was known to traditionally have striders positioned in one of four locations. And all of them were almost close to the walls of the city. But in Watson’s case, he followed the Striders that, coincidentally, were near some of his least favorite places of the city. Right near Whitehall.

In the dead of the night, when the biolights turned dim and everyone was at home, Watson treaded very lightly through the streets, making sure he didn’t emanate a sound as he went to the harbor far up north. And even then, he wanted to make sure it was all empty. Watson had given the hunters much criticism for their complacency on their patrols, but even in this hour when dim lights were still vigilant, Watson had to navigate right through them to get to the northwern harbor, right behind Whitehall, the Slaughterhouses, the Barracks, and so on.

I’m going to regret not smacking anyone for not being on watch now, Watson thought to himself. Ironic indeed. The Striders were always positioned near the harbors of the city, anchored right to them so that they wouldn’t swim right away from them. Watson hovered over the planks, and the wooden piers. Examined the area lightly, checking for anyone else. If the harbors were currently active, there would be at least one harbormaster, responsible for the striders near the port to make sure they were ready to go prior to any hunting expedition. As well as the stridewrights, those in charge of fixing them. Watson checked for the harbor. Much to his releif, he found nobody there. Thusly, he kept going and checked that he would still be able to continue the hunt with them.

Remember, I only need two or three, Watson thought to himself. Only two or three. Truth be told, I don’t even know how many of them are there left, Watson thought to himself. He had to only just remind himself that the last time he was on an expedition with the Tridention brigade, past the Indian Ocean and into the far western seas, was only two years ago. The Vicegerent had decided to dismiss him for commendable services, and replace him with the newer blood. Haddock, especially, being among them. In that time frame, much of anything could have changed. And Watson did not want to take any chances in past assumptions.

He hovered over the harbor and checked it. Shacks to his left were stations where the harbormaster and stridewrights were meant to keep watch. The harbor had been cleaned, no scattered tools for repairing the striders were in sight. But he could not see much in the blackening darkness of the water, save for a light or two that glowed at a faint radius. He relied on their beacons to infer what little he could see in the area.

To his far left, many metal planks were plunged into the seafloor. And wrapped around them were chains of metal that rattled in the light water. Any light pertrubations of the current would turn them sending them around, and whatever was dragged with them was latched there too. Watson grabbed one of the chains, and followed them beyond the metal pole to the end. And on that end, he felt many a rough surface.

The chassis was that of a Strider. Large, metallic, rectangular, polished, and nearly refined, Watson smothered his hands across the chassis to feel for their condition. Many sockets on the left connected to other surfaces hinged on the strider. He felt the fin, a large triangular-shaped fin with many fingers stretching out of them. Designed to resemble the wings of a bat. He checked one, then the other. And then two on the other side of the chassis. He examined the chassis more carefully, checking for the components of the Strider. And then he found its name.

The Strider was called the Victory.

He nodded confidently to himself, and went back to the chains on the anchor. He lightly yanked on them for a bit, to test their durability. Then he pulled out an iron, and tried inserting it against the links of a chain, to see if he would be able to cut them off. He lightly scratched the iron against the chain links, rubbing them from the links. Then he sheathed back his harpoon, and went to find another Strider.

One right next to it, Watson scanned the fins and chassis with the same due diligence. He found two of the fins broken, so he dismissed it. Then he looked at another, and another. He kept looking until he could find three Striders suitable for his expedition.

Three out of nine.

Knowing there were more than enough Striders to keep the harbor occupied assured him. But knowing he would be taking three of them would leave obvious hints at the harbor. The harbormaster would likely know that three of the nine striders were taken, casting doubt on the plight. But Watson pushed for it anyways.

Between all the nine Striders, Watson decided to take only three of them, the Victory, the Redemption, and the Titan. The Victory was in the middle of all nine Striders, while the Redemption and Titan were to the far ends of the left and right. Watson hoped that by taking those three Striders it would not appear as though they went missing. But Watson had little hope for that plan coming to fruition.

He checked the chain links to the anchors, pulled on some of them, then checked the actual anchors themselves. He found openings in the hooks between the chains and the anchors, and he practiced unfastening and re-hooking the chains right back to them. He tried it on the Victory, but the Strider floated for a bit and actually slapped against the port hardground.