The return voyage to Blaurosen was spent on a few photographs and a map. Rinvar sat on his desk most of the time staring at the pictures of the escape tunnel and the seaward cavern mouth and then to the map of Kriemreich. How the Gray Fox escaped the Schweiglands assault mocked him with a child's persistence; the question kept playing in his mind with every picture his eyes focused on. Strands of brown dissolved with an orange yellowness as the investigator raked his hair in the sunlight.

Tinny tolling of the harbor bells marked Rinvar's arrival at the capital. The captain was picked up by a military escort and was brought to the office of the Special Investigative Bureau. Farin was inside his office, sitting by the desk table in her usual fashion.

"Welcome back Captain. How's the trip?"

"I was given a very 'personal' view of the site. The whole trip gave me new headaches to think about." Rinvar approached his superior and threw his envelope on the desk.

Its contents were scattered all over the tabletop; new documents were mixed together with the original information pieces Rinvar took along when he embarked for the Schweiglands fortress. Only six of the pictures and the nautical chart of Kriemreich's southern holdings were brought to Farin's attention.

"The Fox is living up to his name indeed. We've found this route hidden below the ruins of Building Four."

"An underground harbor I see..." Farin took notice of the wooden docks found on the photograph of the cavern mouth.

"We also found ropes that belonged to a boat or ship. What is weird about it is that the current would have taken any boat right at where Admiral Feuerstein's flotilla was."

"Making an escape by boat or ship impossible without being seen by the Albertans..."

"Exactly Farin."

"Could they have swum to another island?"

"That's mostly out of the question," Rinvar answered. "They wouldn't last long from one end of the Arentz to the other. Besides, there is a possibility of Lord Cecil being their prisoner. We got all the bodies out of the scene; none of them wearing the general's armor."

"They used a boat, or some other vessel to flee from the attack after all." Farin made a spinning motion of her index finger on the nautical chart's surface. "Do you think that the Fox has a boat that can go underwater?"

"And how will they steer such a ship without being seen by the navy bobbing about? The Scientific Ministry discarded that idea a long time ago."

"Just speaking my mind about it, Captain." Farin shrugged her shoulders and looked at the map again. "If he managed to keep a fortress hidden for months, I guess boats made to sink won't be too far from the truth."

"Rather than rack my brains out on thinking how the guy got the best of the Albertans, the next question to that would be where the Fox could have fled to...?"

"That I can offer you a bit of a lead." The director pointed to the towns of Altrecht, Wulfstadt and Echscholz that stretched along the Kön River tributary facing the Arentz Sea.

"The Syndicate Towns again?"

"Looks like the gangs are at their usual. We've arrived late at a warehouse massacre in Echscholz. Our informers identified the dead as members of the Ebon Hand."

"Never heard of them. Probably small-timers that got in a tangle with the bigger fish." Rinvar hung his chin on his left knuckles. "Any survivors?"

"None. All of them died on the spot. There was this weird story of a warrior with an unbelievably long sword, but that's something else."

Rinvar looked away from Farin when she was telling him the last parts of what she said. There was no connection found with those events; the Gray Fox has retreated and was probably recovering from his losses at the Schweiglands. His forces could not be in any fighting shape to battle other gangs – and the Fox was not known to waste time dealing with smaller armed groups. The Ebon Hand could have been a potential customer, if its members were not offered any of the Fox's merchandise before.

But there could be a lead in any of the towns. There might be someone who could at least give Rinvar a clue to where he should start his search for the crime lord.

He dreaded the idea of having to visit those places again. Most constables considered the towns the last place they'd wanted to be deployed. Although relatively peaceful during the day, the nighttime violence of the towns kept the police force at full alert. They would often run into skirmishes with the armed groups; battles usually ended with the loss of a few lives.

"Farin, I think I would be going there to see if we can get something on our man. Any suggestions where to start?"

"The Town Guards caught a few stragglers from the Ebon Hand incident. They're kept at the prison in Connsbruick."

"Not so nearby..." Rinvar straightened his back and pushed his seat away from the table. "That will do, but this is going to be a long trip around the empire."

The investigator stretched his arms and looked at the ceiling. He felt less tired now, for there could be something that would set him to the right path to locate his elusive target.

Erik De Melvich's face was drawn in his mind; an angled head sporting a pair of almond eyes in a fierce stare focused on him. His grin was seemingly set aflame by the stands of a trimmed, reddish beard. The captain has not heard from him since the start of his appointment as investigator of the Schweiglands Incident. The old general was at his usual self, as Rinvar had come to know. Rarely the man who would walk up to him and offer his opinion on things, Erik was the type who would speak up only if one would make time to pay him a visit at his offices.

Rinvar might drop by soon, but the job must be done first. He wouldn't want to listen to his tirades on the captain's profession just yet.