Arlo Pike drifted through the city. It had taken a little bit of time to check on where

the Pelicans had played four days ago. It was a small theater in the north part of the

city. The city train system had a branch in that area that looped back to the main line

at the end of the branch.

Checking in with the Guard had given him Rowena’s possible routes from either the

school, or her house. It had also painted a small picture of Mister and Mistress

Remora for him. The father wanted the girl back. The mother didn’t.

Mister Remora was getting charged for the work, so they were going to try to return

the girl from wherever she was at the moment.

If Mistress Remora didn’t like that, then she could try to argue with Jason about what

was right and true.

Pike decided to try the train station closest to the Remora house. Maybe he could pick

up the trail there. Then he could follow it to where she would have boarded the

sidetrain to get to the theater. Then he could see if he could find any traces from there.

Jason would probably have found something from the girls by that time.

Pike decided that he wasn’t going to make his meeting at the Toad. He needed to send

a message to Jason to prevent him from rushing all over the city looking for him.

Pike found a cab driver sitting at the curb. The man looked bored. The finder nodded.

He had a messenger if the man would agree to the job.

“I need to send a message to the Toad saloon,” said Pike. “I was wondering if I could

hire you to deliver it.”

“I suppose,” said the driver. “I don’t really have anything else to do right now.”

“Thank you,” said Pike. He took paper and pen from his bag. He wrote a simple note

to let Jason know he was going to be on the trains heading north for a bit. He folded

the paper up and put it in an envelope from his bag. He handed it over. He pulled out

a gold piece and handed that over too.

The driver bit the gold piece to see if it was real.

“My partner is named Jason,” said Pike. “He’s about my height, dark hair, dark eyes.

He’s wearing a basket sword on his belt. He will give you another gold piece on

delivery. If he’s not there, hand the note to the owner Terrence. He’s a big man with

a tattoo on his face. Tell him that I said I would cover a gold piece to you on delivery.

Tell him to get the gold piece from Jason.”

“Take the note to the Toad, hand it to Jason, or Terrence. Ask for a gold piece from

either one,” said the driver. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Better hurry,” said Pike. “Jason will be there shortly. He will be looking for me.”

“Don’t worry, he won’t be waiting long for another gold piece,” said the cab driver.

He climbed on the bench of his taxi and released the brake. He cracked the reins and

his team of horses started pulling the cab away from the curb.

Pike watched the cab roll out of sight. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake. He shook

his head. He had made his choice. He had to push on with the rest of his job.

He walked down to the train station. He caught glimpses of Rowena as he walked.

She seemed happy enough. He caught her in a turn and she was smiling about

something.

He decided that whatever had happened she had not run away from home, and she

hadn’t had any kind of personal trouble. She was too happy as she headed for the train

station.

Something beyond her control had kept her from returning home. Once he knew what

that was, he felt that he would be able to hand that over to Jason without any regrets.

It wouldn’t be the first time they had started looking for one thing to find something

completely different trying to keep its existence hidden from the world so it could

eat its fill without attracting attention.

That led to Jason cutting it to pieces with the sword he had been given.

Pike boarded the local and rode it to the platform where Rowena would have to

transfer to the north side express. Once he was at the station, he would do the same

thing to see where she got off. He would follow that to where she had wound up.

If she had wound up in trouble by human hands, Jason would grant them the same

mercy as he would any monstrous predator working in the city.

It would just take a lot more explaining to the Guard why they had left human beings

scatterd along the rails.

Pike knew his partner would stick to any story he came up with to tell the Guard why

he had slain the villains instead of turning them in.

Pike would cover anything Jason said, or come up with an alibi to show he wasn’t in

the area.

The finder stepped off on the transfer platform. He stepped away from the doors. The

express would be coming through soon. Once he was onboard, he could look for the

traces he needed.

The express came into the station. He frowned as it stopped for the transfer. Rowena

didn’t board this train.

Why hadn’t she boarded the express to see the Pelicans? He looked around for

something that could help him.

He saw Rowena standing on the platform. She boarded a train, but not the express.

What other train came through here? The train authority didn’t have anything written

down on their schedules.

“You lost, Mister?,” asked a voice from near the stairs.

Pike looked at the source. The voice belonged to a young girl with too big eyes and

hair cut asymmetrically so one side was nearly bald, and the other was long. She wore

three marks of the Rhiem on the cheek on the short hair side of her face.

“No,” said Pike. “I was looking for a girl who got on the express to go to a show in

the North Side.”

“She didn’t get on any normal train,” said the girl. “Anyway, she’s dead. Go home

and be happy you didn’t get on the death train with her.”

“Death train?,” Pike asked. That was a new one on him. Jason would love it as a

challenge.

“There’s a train that poses as the North Side Express,” said the girl. “People get on

it, but they don’t come back to this station. The locals call it the Death Train.”

“Do you know anybody who has ever seen it?,” asked Pike.

“I have,” said the girl. “I was waiting on the Express. This train comes into the station

about ten-fifteen minutes early. I thought about boarding, but something told me to

wait. A guy got on. The train took off. I heard screaming as the train rolled away.

Then the real Express came in.”

“And this happens a lot?,” said Pike.

“I guess,” said the girl. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m going to ask my partner if he wants to destroy a train,” said Pike. “Thanks for

you help.”

“You don’t want to get involved with this,” said the girl. “It could eat your soul.”

“My partner is a monster hunter,” said Pike. “He lives for this sort of thing.”

“You two are going to get yourselves killed,” said the girl. “The Death Train runs on

its own time. You won’t know when it’s coming in.”

“I don’t need to know when it’s coming in,” Pike said. “I just need a general time.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?,” said the girl.

“We promised her father we would figure out what happened and take steps,” said

Pike. “Thanks for your help. I have to meet my partner and talk things over with

him.”

“I think you’re going to need my help,” said the girl. “You haven’t seen it yet.”

“We’ll have to ride the train back, or get a cab,” said Pike. “Which do you prefer?”

“I think we can take the train,” said the girl.

“My name’s Arlo Pike,” said Pike.

“Tilda Crass,” said the girl. “You said you have a partner?”

“His name is Jason,” said Pike. “We went into business together and he takes

care of a lot of our cases after I find what we’re looking for.”

“Sounds okay,” said Tilda. “I wonder if I could do that. How hard is it?”

“You have to have a lot of patience, a knack for finding people who can point you in

the right direction, some charm, and a lot of luck,” said Pike. “All I have is the

patience and the luck. Jason covers the other half.”

“Let’s go talk to him,” said Tilda. “I think you two should leave the Death Train alone

and work on finding something else.”

“I can’t do that at the moment,” said Pike. “Rowena Remora has been missing for

four days by this point. We have to show that she’s dead somehow. Punishing her

murderer will be icing on the cake if you’re right about the train.”

“I’m positive about what I saw,” said Tilda. “The word spreading around means

others saw similar things but are afraid to go to the Guard for whatever reason.”

“That’s where we come in,” said Pike. “We take up the slack the Guard leaves us to

make sure everything is better.”

“How exactly does that work?,” asked the girl.

“People want answers to their questions,” said Pike. “They want to know if their

loved ones vanished of their free will, or were taken. The Guard is not set up to

answer those questions. So someone like me has to get the answers for our clients.

After that, they have to decide what they want to do.”

“And you think your client is going to want to destroy the Death Train?,” said Tilda.

“Jason will,” said Pike. “And since he is going to do it regardless, I might as well lend

a hand where I can. He has a lot of experience killing things. If this fake train is alive,

he’ll figure out how to kill it.”

“Do you think so?,” asked Tilda.

“Jason can be relentless when he wants to be,” said Pike. “I don’t think a train has a

chance against him.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Tilda.

“We’ll go down and meet Jason at the Toad, then we’ll know where we stand and can

plan what to do next,” said Pike. “You don’t have to get involved with this.”

“I could have saved that guy if I had been quicker,” said Tilda. “I could have stopped

him from getting on the Death Train. Now I don’t even know who he was, or if

anyone is looking for him, or anything. I don’t even know if he was a commuter like

me, or if he had just wanted to get home and took the train as a one time thing.”

“If he is still alive, we’ll find him,” said Pike.

“And if he isn’t,” said Tilda.

“Then his killer won’t be alive either,” said Pike. “Jason won’t allow it.”

“Really?,” said Tilda.

“He takes killing monsters seriously,” said Pike. “Here comes our train.”

“He takes killing monsters seriously?,” said Tilda. Her eyebrows went up with the

question.

“He loves that stuff,” said Pike. “It’s not really part of the finding business, but he

comes in handy when I have to collect debts.”

“Really?,” said Tilda.

Pike nodded.

They waited for the train to come to a stop. Tilda checked the car before they opened.

They boarded and Pike went to the back of the car. He stood next to the door at the

back. If there was a problem, he had the exit right next to him to duck out.

Jason was the fighter in their partnership. He had told Pike to always be ready to

get out if he thought he couldn’t handle things. The finder had taken the advice

to heart and always made sure he had a way out of any room he was in.

If he couldn’t get out of the door, he had a window at his other side. Two possible

exits was better than standing in the center of the car and having to choose two in

the sides where they were close enough together that he might have to run to the front

of the car to get out with people trying to kill him.

“Not sitting?,” said Tilda. She sat down in the open seat.

“I like to be ready in case there’s trouble,” said Pike.

Another piece of advice was never to sit down on a train.

You never knew when you had to defend yourself, or break for the doors.