"Not now...!"

There was a groan, followed by the grumble of thunder that echoed from above. Rinvar didn't think it was about to happen this early - and he was caught by it while passing through the open grounds of Glansmund Park. A jagged fork of lightning was seen from afar; the first drops of rain began falling in a mist-like consistency. There was no shade in sight, save for a clump of beech and willow trees that were at the other end of the pace. Rinvar could now feel the drops tapping on his shoulders; it wouldn't be long before the rain was strong enough to soak him wet. His soles were making squelches against the earth on his way to get shelter - or at least a shade that will let him wait the pour out. He found such a place in the form of a dried out well with a large enough roof. Rinvar went near the center of the hole where the shade formed a shadow above his body. Another roll of thunder signaled the clouds to unload all of their contents to the earth; drops of water began beating down the ground, taking some particles of dust and mud elsewhere.

Patches of brown slowly dissolved into lighter shades of tan until only the silver film of water was seen on the surface. Sounds of dripping, dropping and flowing water rushed to his ears - so much that the captain's head almost felt moist. His hand reached out for his right pant pocket and pulled out a chained watch.

"From how this rain is going to turn out, it is going to be a while before I can get back to headquarters."

He slid the watch back to his pocket, watching the pour drench everything below the sky. Rinvar should have known better, but that day's house specials at St. Germain's were too much for him to refuse. It was a rare moment to take a filling meal outside of what the headquarters' mess hall had to provide at that time. Choice steaks over corned beef, but the latter was proven good in its own right to most of the Empire's personnel. Now Rinvar had to spend the energy from what he had eaten sitting down waiting for the rain to pass.

The captain looked at the sky, and his mind made images of the disks he had seen both at Altrecht and at the Aurelburg archives. What could have changed had he decided to shoot down one of those contraptions? Nothing would have changed their state, he thought; the Gray Fox proving to be too elusive even if they had a broken machine to examine. Rinvar doubted if it would hold any information that led to where the crime lord was operating. A whiff of wind went his way, lifting the folds of his coat a few degrees. The pour clattered even faster, drowning the environs in water and noise.

Almost an hour passed when the rain weakened; dense drops became thin, almost unseen lines all around the captain. Rinvar opted to start moving fast; he wouldn't want his clothes carrying water on his journey back to headquarters. He sprinted past stone and wooden benches that collected a layer of water during the pour. It was a good thing, he thought; this meant that he would be exiting right at the western end of the Korlinstrasse. It meant almost half an hour less on his return journey to the Imperial Field Police's compound.

Less than a dozen meters into the road was a restaurant that just dried its outside seats for new customers. Three men stood around the newly-cleaned table. Suits and ties that peaked from the cover of coats hinted at them being members of the Empire's merchant classes, or were people from another city who came to Luminberg for business arrangements. None of them possessed the angled and often shiny faces of Blauroseners; they were most likely at the capital to arrange matters involving business and assets.

All three took their seats; one of them made a crooked grin before lighting up a cigar to plug onto his mouth. The same maroon-suited waiter who prepared the trio's table earlier returned with a tray of three cups of what smelled as hazelnut and full city roasts. One of them, a fat man sporting a monocle, began speaking:

"The Kaiser is taking the situation too lightly. These syndicates are doing whatever they please here. Who knows when they will decide to make the capital their next battlefield?"

"Your coffee is too weak, Max." A blonde man sitting opposite him said, "you're just feeding off your paranoia again. I'm sure that the Field Police will get to their senses and sort this out for real."

"I'm not too confident about that, given that one of my businesses in Altrecht was turned to ash by that syndicate war. My former staff there even said that a metal monster broke through my store and machine gunned a few rivals who hid in my warehouse. And that was the fuel section. We are letting these madmen get away with it and all we could do is shrug shoulders and sigh!"

"That's the third week you've told us that story." Another man, this time with a large mustache, spoke up. "We understand you of course, but you must..."

Rinvar just went through the Kirchlenstrasse; he would soon be two turns away from reaching the road leading to headquarters. The droning hum of motorcars and the damp scent of steam went past him. He heard a faint, screeching whirr. A ruby red vehicle with a pointy beak and rather angled hood sped by. Whoever was driving it had no trouble maneuvering past its slower, round-roofed counterparts.

"Must be one of those Eisenhauer Y-series models. I wonder when I will go home to Elena driving that?" he thought.

He sprinted past a row of three restaurants and two ice cream parlors; Rinvar wanted to grab a quick bratwurst from one of the nearby stands while on the move, but opted to burn more of what he ate more than an hour ago. Only less than two hundred meters more and he should be seeing the gates of the Imperial Field Police Headquarters - the blue lions that stood on each side would most likely stare down at him for not going back to work on time. He could only blame the rain, and hope that Director Arinas would not mind. Being forty-six minutes behind schedule is not something that she would not notice.

Rinvar entered the headquarters' compound, exchanging fast salutes to each sentry and fellow officer whom he happened to pass by. The Investigation Bureau glistened in front of him; the new blue, red and gold scheme seemed very efficient in trapping water. Rays of sunlight reflected on the building as if the facade were made with a thin layer of crystal.

It was a lot warmer inside, even after Rinvar took off his coat and set it on a nearby hanger. Going around town in his officer's uniform proved to be a little challenging - he needed to fix the creases on his cuffs. Farin was waiting inside one of the conference rooms at the second floor. Her face almost crumpled to a frown, but it restored its stern smile on sight of the captain.

"It was a bad day for a walk. I told you that."

"St. Germain was too much for me to resist." Rinvar settled on the director's left side. "Besides, I had the coupons."

"Do you still have them?"

"Three left."

Rinvar tossed a thin yellow booklet at Farin. The director caught it with two fingers, but it was close to falling off her hand. She opened it and noticed the torn sections that were what Rinvar used.

"Fifty Marks off tossed green salad, sixty Marks off for three orders of currywurst and, a free pitcher of lemon iced tea for and two thousand Marks spent on the house." Farin brought the booklet to the table with a flat palm. "Not one of the house specials left."

"What can I say? I was hungry."

"I shall get back at you for that. Not today though."

Farin turned on the projector. Rinvar caught sight of a picture of one of the broken constructs. A part of its armor was studied by three or four scientists in the picture. At the lower right of the display revealed what looked to be a construction company.

"Good news for us." Farin sat down and looked at the projection for another few seconds. "The scientists found a way to reverse the mana-enhanced properties of the constructs' armor, which gave us the base metal."

"And that is good news because?"

"Let me get to that. This has too much jargon on it..." Farin read through the report; her finger probed for something on the paper until she stopped after five flipped pages. "Ah, here it is. This kind of steel is a product that only one company operating in the Empire offers."

"That would be this... Neue Schwalwerk?" Rinvar based it on the building found at Farin's presentation. "Going down the 'new guy usual suspect route' I see. They are fairly new in the business if I remember. Only a few years short of a decade?"

"Correct. I didn't fully understand how the scientists talked about it. Something to do with carbon treating, face-hardening and mana imbuing. In short, they were talking about how the metal is improved to become effective armor plates. I should have brought along a blacksmith to help me digest their talk easier." Farin let out a short chuckle. Silence ended her laughter, followed by her pushing strayed golden locks off her shoulder.

"You're telling me that the Gray Fox is buying his death machines' steel from this company."

"This company is the top suspect. Who knows? He might even own this firm, considering that Neue Schwalwerk does not process iron mined from Aarnholm. This company imports raw iron and coal from Talyetzin, in Severniya."

"Aarnholm isn't exactly kind to newcomers with their prices, and those north men charge a little less, if I remember it correctly."

"I've heard in the news that metal ore has marked up across the continent, but Severniya will still be selling them cheap."

Farin picked up another file folder from the table and took a five-page document. She went on saying:

"This is an example of Neue Schwalwerk's ledgers." The director slid the papers to Rinvar's side of the table. "Their inventory and logistics staff record in these green notebooks before they are submitted to a master tabulation sphere. This is where they will most likely write down product shipments and client information before encoding it into their system."

"Quality checking and all that stuff..."

"Correct, Captain. We can find a good lead to the Gray Fox if we secure a few of these. It's really recommended if you can get your hands on one of the master spheres, but that may be too much of a job."

"We could just show up at Neue Schwalwerk and ask for their cooperation." Rinvar stretched his legs and put his feet on top of the table. "I'm sure that they won't mind giving us their records on their recent clients."

"If only it were that easy." Farin's angled cheekbones were made more prominent when faint light coming from the ceiling windows outlined her face. "I highly doubt if they would even give us something to work on. Besides, we will need something that did not come out of their press yet."

"So I'll have to steal the documents."

"Yes."

There was something in Farin's smile that brought a wave of anxiety or dread in Rinvar. It was never in her perfectly-aligned teeth, neither in her sharp yet unassuming curve on her lips, or even in the light lines that formed near her temples. She was, after all, one of those looked up to by the higher members of the Imperial Armed Forces not only for mere prowess. Her placement in the Investigations Bureau blunted the wishes of many generals to avail of everything Director Arinas could provide to their command. Of course, the emperor always wanted to make competent and highly capable people were distributed in every department.

Rinvar was too familiar with Farin's expression: it was one he wouldn't be able to object or decline.

He knew that she would press him to do something that was either too daring, too difficult, or plainly too specific that nobody else but the captain could make it work. Farin broke the silence when she said:

"I know. I'll have to push you into doing this, but I will make it easier for you."

"And how exactly?" Rinvar stretched his back, and angled the chair to almost a hundred and fifty degrees before reverting to its original position. "I don't think going there in full uniform is going to do the trick."

"The Imperial Health Ministry is going to run a sanitation inspection across all factories in the Capital. I can put you among their ranks, if only temporary."

"Oh. Great." Rinvar scratched his head; his eyes not losing track of Farin. "Kitchen and toilet inspector?"

"I'd better start learning how to act the part if I were you. The Ministry will start their program a week from now." The director spoke in a lighter, almost playful tone. Rinvar could tell that she was enjoying this. "I'll have someone fit your sanitation inspector uniform in two days."

"Easy for you to say." The captain was trying to figure out if forcing out laughter or a sigh out of his new assignment would make things better. "And about those spotters for the flying plates..."

"I am going to assign three squads for that task. All you need to do is brief them once I have my final list done."

"Thanks Farin. Also, is it possible for them to have those night vision telescopes?"

"I'll pay the armory a visit for that."

Farin turned off the projector and began putting the folders inside a large white envelope. She pulled out a brown folder from the mass of documents and handed it to the captain.

"Here's something to read while you're at it. I included the floor plans of Neue Schwalwerk's factory, depot and workers' quarters. The Health Ministry's memorandum and objectives for the inspection are also inside."

"Thanks."

"Not a problem." Farin wound a string around the envelope's cover, ending it in a simple knot. "Besides, I don't want Elena worrying too much about you and what I ask you to do. I shall go to the cafeteria for a coffee."

Rinvar extended a salute without standing up; the director returned the gesture and headed for the door.