He was strapped to a chair, a bag still over his head as he was in the center of our interrogation room. I search his pockets, and find something resembling a leather-clad wallet. I open it, and find an ID badge on the inside, behind a barrier of transparent leather, reading it. “Is your name… Jack Calahoun?”

“Yeah, that’d be me. Licensed PI.” Reading through the specifics of the text, it matches his words.

“And legally licensed by the city of Halych to have a firearm?”

“Yes, though that took me a few more bribes than I care to admit.” A private investigator that managed to get a firearm by putting money in the right place. That made more sense than I want to admit, but the fact that he knew where to place his bribes tells me that this man’s serious business.

“Okay, so, why were you following us?”

“I heard something come down the wire; that somebody in the Teneb business was gonna be making a move on someone else, a big move, though I didn’t know who. Sounded like they wanted more space so they could market Teneb to a wider audience, so I decided to check it out for myself.” This was suspicious; he phrased it like he overheard there was gonna be a fire sale at a furniture store.

“Who hired you to do this?”

“Nobody. Or, I suppose, I hired myself to have a look around.”

“Do you honestly expect us to believe that? A private investigator sticking his neck out for the hell of it?”

“You wanna know the truth? I have something of a… personal history, with Teneb. Lost a few friends to it. Saw as it slowly seeped its way into corrupting multiple government offices. I’ve even had a few firsthand glimpses into the kind of absolutely vile shit it does to people, and yet the streets want more of it.”

I look over to Lenny, hoping that he would corroborate Jack’s claim about it getting into government offices. “Oh, yeah. Not much got proven, but the rumors are all over that there’s a few politicians in Halych’s governmental system that are at the very least conspiring with the underground Teneb network. I even heard a story that there was a reporter that was on the verge of busting it when the guy he investigated died mysteriously.”

“Yeah, I was looking at that case. I even knew one of that reporter’s friends, said he had to skip town ‘cause he thought he was next. We don’t talk a lot anymore.” Shit. Maybe the curse of Teneb runs deeper than I thought within this city’s veins.

I decide to quiz him on the subject of Teneb, since he seems to know so much about it. “So, you say you’ve seen Teneb’s effects on people first-hand. Describe your accounts to us.”

“Well, where do I begin? I’ve seen it, their eyes go black, they BLEED black, and they start acting like, well, fuckin’ animals. It gets way worse if they get into a fight, too, they’ll just keep coming no matter how many times you kick the shit out of them. I had one eat three revolver rounds to the chest and keep running at me. I think you can imagine how that might be quite distressing when I’ve only got six rounds.” His words reminded me of the compelling weight still in my pocket.

“I can imagine. Anything else?”

“It’s addictive as hell, and I hear that there are experimental strains of the shit floating around, though the big players in the Teneb ‘industry’ are keeping it under tight wraps. Strains that do crazy shit like give you more withdrawal than release, or sometimes worse.” This did corroborate strongly with the experience I had to deal with not long after I joined the Haracrein.

“Right, then. Back to the present; what were you intending to do at that meeting?”

“To be honest, I was just gonna see what the hell was going on with this move, and sort of decide from there, but I saw those bodies on the floor. I recognize their style, I think-lots of machetes and maybe a few throwing knives thrown in. Those guys are serious business, but they’re not loyal to any one of the big players-more like mercenaries that take money from anyone to do less than honest thug work, particularly for tough customers.” Jack visibly shudders, and I can feel him playing the frames back in his mind of all the blood on the floor, like a crimson lake, and the bodies that-put together-barely gave you any room for getting through without getting your shoes stained. Only the area behind the counter would’ve been spared that particular mess. “I’ve been playing it over, trying to think of who the fuck could’ve possibly taken them on like that and somehow come up ahead, and I think I get it now.” I await his conclusion, waiting to see if he knew who we are. “You’re those… street samurai motherfuckers, right?”

Lenny had a chuckle, and I barely stifle a laugh in time. It was a terrible break of tension to have, but it was undeniable that we both found his name for us pretty funny. The Street Samurai… not such a bad reputation, is it?

“Maybe we are. What do you know of these street samurai?”

“Oh, they’re scary motherfuckers, tightly organized, the boogeyman that haunts the big players in the Teneb industry, except you don’t see them around very often, because it’s theorized that they maintain a small area. They’ve got an area, though, and it’s pretty lucrative. It would actually make a lot of sense for one of them to try and make a play on the street samurai, if this area of theirs is as awesome as they seem to make it out to be. Also prevents them from pissing off the other big players simultaneously, keeps them all out of a cockfight that’ll just piss off the public and cut into their profits.”

“Well, we’re probably the street samurai you speak of.”

“Makes way too much sense, the way you bagged me and carried me off, it almost felt surgical. That, and I can tell your muscle is quite skilled. It’s harder than you’d think to find expertise in the underground. All the normal muscles know how to do is manhandle you with sheer force, like apes. What he did felt more like art.”

Lenny half-smiled, but said nothing else about the man’s comments regarding his performance.

I cross my arms, wanting to get to the end of this chain of revelations. “Alright, so you hate the big Teneb players, and you wanted to see who they were swinging on next. What’s your endgame, here?”

“Now?” Jack chuckles. “I have a feeling you really don’t want to let that shit just slide, trying to ace you during a sit-down like that. I know that’d be practically unforgivable among the other gangs. So...” Jack tilts his head, his voice showing a nervous tilt near the end of his sentence. “I’d like to help you do that.”

“Just because you hate Teneb that much? You’re not even expecting a paycheck?”

“You can pay me as much as you think is fair once this is over, but if you’re as shut-in about the criminal underworld as I think you are, you’d be able to make plenty of use of my… expertise and knowledge.” Jack lets out a hearty chuckle, clearly more confident than he was a few sentences ago.

“We’ll have to think about the offer, Jack.” I lean towards him slightly. “Though, I personally am quite interested in jumping in on this little vendetta of yours.”

Lenny and I walk to a side room and close the door. He flicks open his flip phone and gets into a short call with Sigmund. He closes his phone. “Looks like the old man’s giving us the go-ahead to free him.”

“Excellent.” I open the door and step back into the interrogation room, Jack still tied up in the middle, the same flourescent lamp as always shining right above him. “Guess we’re going to be working with you after all. Just give us an hour or so for… onboarding, and you’ll be free to go.”

“Are you saying I get to be a samurai warrior now?” I couldn’t help but smile at the comment, but focus instead on getting a burner phone, and planting Lenny’s number and my own onto it. I slip the gun into one of his pockets and the burner into another, alongside his ID badge.

“You’ll be coming out the same way you came in, and then dumped somewhere at random. Then you’re home free.”

“Why does it feel like I’m being carried off to a BDSM dungeon?” Two of the guards almost laughed at that line, and I had to admit, it was one of his most clever lines yet. He’s carried off by two guards as we head back to the dormitory to check in on the recruits.