Chương 94: 81: Jonesy

It's a lot more convenient getting booked when everyone involved knows it's bullshit and are just moving along to keep up appearances. Once I was in an interrogation room, both Tancreds made themselves known.

"Could you show the most decent bit of fucking chivalry?" Asked the chief as the agent stepped past her into the room, which he waved off dismissively.

"Chivalry's for maidens, not battleaxes, lady," he sniped while he kicked up one of the chairs and took a seat. Wendy scoffed and pulled up the other chair and sat down.

"Alright, Leo," the auditor started.

"You called in on the details, but start from the top for the chief." I gave as clear an explanation I could. I was hired by a guy named Slim Dickens as part of a five-man team to play muscle and bodyguard for some shipments of olive oil and silver. A vampire who was pretty vested with the Virginia HenchNet, going by the name of Hidalgo showed up and killed most everyone except myself and Slim. I gave the basics on Hidalgo's appearance and the fact he drank pig blood.

Hidalgo and I fought after I convinced him that I had to do my job. I barely beat him, he accepted the terms of our agreement and left. Slim was nowhere to be found, likely escaped. I added on that Hidalgo mentioned that he wasn't alone, and how it lined up with Chris noticing that he could tell six people were watching us at the vote, but he could only find five of them.

"Interesting," she first stated flatly, before continuing.

"The pig's blood thing actually makes me curious as to where he gets it from. I'll put some feelers out at all the butcher shops in the area, see if we can get eyes on them. I find it strange he'd be so willing to kill that easily, though. Hench arrests are usually low-grade since they're third party labor..."

"Yeah," I brought up.

"But these are mostly random criminals, under-the-table laborers, people who can't find work elsewhere. How many of them have families to go home to? Coworkers, roommates? If I wasn't there to call it in, how would you or I even know they were killed?" The two Tancreds hummed in thought before the agent spoke.

"That's a common issue in villain ecosystems. They're hiring losers and vagabonds. Mostly men in their mid-twenties to early fifties, disenfranchised. Crime families built the industry back in the thirties during the Great Depression, where the only work was basically make-work. Basically opened the doors for the physically fit lowest-common-denominator to slip past contributing to society."

"Unfortunately, yes," Wendy added on.

"You two are both right in that regard. They all might have high body counts from their own internal food chain. I just wonder how many were killed like this. We've never found any bodies washing up..." Collectively, we all looked at each other.

"No fucking way," the agent stated out loud.

"No, it's too easy," I clarified.

"You sure?" Wendy inquired.

"Let's look at it like this. The ADU are a recent presence, yeah? I've also seen no indication that they have any direct presence in the HenchNet. They may not be on the same side. Additionally, those guys at the house were alive when the Wyrdwood was using them. Probably needs living people." I didn't mention the vision. About how it could take thoughts. That was my smoking gun. But I wasn't letting that information out yet. No way to know if it was true, and there was no way to research it.

Too much informational waste. Agent Tancred hummed, finger knuckle pushing along his mustache.

"Okay. But here's something to consider. They're probably not killing each other all the time. Shit like this is probably very uncommon. You can hide a lot, but not gang wars. But just making a guy disappear, nonlethally? Make him go work in a coal mine somewhere? That'd be completely normal. And the ADU are another venue for that.

"I doubt it," I answered.

"There's not enough we've seen to really point fingers at anything yet."

"Hm, yeah," he conceded.

"We're not trying to break apart the entire HenchNet anyway." That last statement prompted a look from the chief.

"What do you mean?"

"Huh?"

"You're just going to let an organized crime ring just linger in town?"

"Oh my God-" Tancred pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Wendy, you understand what the Hell a power vacuum is. You were GRS with me. You know why we weren't exactly killing every warlord."

"Yeah, because we were profiting off of them." The auditor threw his hands up, looking at me almost defeatedly.

"You'd think this woman wasn't as decorated with the CIA as I was." His head turned back to her.

"No, Wendy, that's a side benefit. The main purpose is that instantaneous removal of the most malicious predators in the ecosystem does not make the ecosystem safe. Take out all the wolves, and the deer overpopulate. Too many deer around kill local plant life, spread ticks, the works." Didn't think I'd be in a position where something Tancred said actually made sense to me, and wasn't obvious like the sky being blue.

"And other guys would try to take over the open opportunity. Guys like Big Balls might be our safest bet for now," I added on.

"Thank you for understanding me," the auditor called out before returning his focus to Wendy, who sighed.

"Fine, I get it," she conceded.

"But if you witness them committing a crime and can risk calling my men in, do it. Even if we can't just wipe them out, we can let natural entropy do its job. As for Slim, we haven't found him yet. They likely have hideouts specifically for the risk of any sort of APB."

"What's he gonna be charged with?" I asked, crossing my arms and leaning my back against the concrete wall.

"It's just a regular search for a witness to five murders right now. Depending on the origin of the silver, there could be some straw purchase or even money laundering-related charges. With the courier dead, we're stuck looking into seeing if any have mint marks left over. Oh, yeah, also." She pointed a finger to me.

"Have you seen any sign of Clowncar on the HenchNet at all?" I shook my head.

"It's kind of just old guys talking about their lives or vaguely referencing jobs. Big Balls is one of the more influential ones and he mostly just talks about barbecues."

"Are you sure it's not code for something?" This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Pulling up my phone, I went into the HenchNet Facebook group and flicked to one of the posts about barbecues, before holding my phone up to her. There was a picture of Big Balls quite literally at a grill with a few other goon-looking types.

"I think at his size he mostly just cares about food. Wonder how he made it this far with all of that." Agent Tancred piped up.

"Well henching isn't just being hired muscle. Couriers, book-cookers, shit even cold callers are known henchman jobs. They're just less common, in that order, because the average henchman is a stupid middle school dropout." I pursed my lips.

"... Which is why you're a great fit for the mission, to be honest."

"Thanks," I noted.

"Right, do we need to do anything else here? I want sleep."

"Nothing we need you for," Agent Tancred verified, before his wife followed up.

"Go finish up your booking with Officer Bennett, he's going to take you back home." With that, I got up and made my way out of the interrogation room. Bennett was there. I recognized him from the last time I was in an interrogation room. He didn't bother offering me water this time. He had me sign some papers, do my thumb prints, the same song and dance as before, before bringing me to a patrol car and driving me back to the base.

I didn't even say anything to him when I exited the car, just trudging straight down to my room. Everywhere was quiet as a mouse. Staffers and cafeteria workers were likely not going to be back for a couple more hours, when the sun would rise. Honestly, it was kind of nice, that little window of peace and quiet. No costumes. No HenchNet. No ADU. No, the only thing at this hour was quiet contemplation as I trudged my way to my room, and flopped into my bed.

That's one thing learning to temper my strength did well for me: I could just throw myself into a resting position instead of having to carefully maneuver in like I was about to snap the frame apart. Sleep refused to come. Forcing my eyes shut and trying to just let it take me in the night proved worthless. It was strange how easily one could get used to a lack of sleep, but once they've had a few weeks of normal rest, even the shortest stint of insomnia feels like torture.

The lack of sleep, winding down from getting my ass beat by a vampire, I thought it was starting to make me hallucinate. At one point, I thought I saw a cat in my room, with such a rich sheen on its coat it almost shined. The only reason I didn't chase it was because I knew there was no way for a cat to get in here without someone seeing. Besides, cats aren't shiny.

Across the next few days I had stuck to handling patrols instead of focusing on schoolwork or the undercover gig. Needed to let things cool down before I tried henching again. Thankfully no one had reached out to me yet, though that was interrupted right as I was slipping my mask off from a day's patrol, right before debrief. I didn't recognize the number, and upon answering it, I heard a slightly high pitched, older man's voice. For a second I thought it was Big Balls, but the accent was different.

"Hey, I'm lookin' for a Harry," he said.

"You've got him."

"Heard you were caught up in that Slim business. You alright?"

"Uh, yeah. Few hundred bucks short, but I'm alright. Who are you, exactly?"

"You can just call me Jonesy, I'm not one of you guys but I hire out to you guys a lot so I hear plenty about drama. You might've seen me put up some ads. I've got one I just put up, but I wanted to reach out to you while Hidalgo's off sulking over what's happening and we're short some muscle. Big Balls gave me your number. I imagine you need the money, right?" I didn't, but this was an opportunity.

"Yeah, rent's due. What's up?"

"Right, so nothin' illegal, let me make that clear. I run a few shipping houses, and one of 'em is trying to do some negotiation, they're setting up a union, all of that. I just need some scabs to run the place for a little bit while I work things out with them." Yeah, that's why he's hiring thugs from the same sphere as Hidalgo and Big Balls. To just "run the place" while he "works things out." If I were anyone else, I would probably have a harder time picking up on how easily I'm being used.

But this is the exact kind of "trap" I wanted to lock myself in with, shitty as it may be to take up the role of thug.

"Twelve an hour, independent work. That fine with you?"

"What's the job actually entail?"

"Nothing crazy. You move cargo, keep inventory. It's all legitimate, I run an intermediary for a few retailers. I just need to keep the boxes moving or I'm gonna be living in one."

"Okay. And I assume you hired me on because of the-""Yeah, your thing. My OSHA guy's paid off, so you don't need to worry about any inspections." I hummed in thought. This was probably the best chance at actually hearing from other henches. Better odds of figuring out where the drug ring is if you're around a large volume of potential hires. If even just one of them knew, it was an in.

"Alright. I'll do it. One catch, though."

"What's up?"

"My boy Charlie has to come with me. You're gonna need a bookkeeper anyway, right? That's his thing."

"Huh. You know, yeah, we could do with another pencil pusher. I'll take him too. Same rate."

"Okay, good. When do we start?"

"Tomorrow morning. I'll send you the address. See you then, kid." He hung up, and within a few minutes the address showed up in my text messages, alongside the starting time. Okay. This was doable. But it was time for debrief, so I made my way up to the meeting room where our case report paperwork was being handed out. Most everyone was still in costume except for Jairo.

Most of us at this point have opted for evening patrols at the minimum simply because of how busy Chris and I were expected to be with the undercover work. As paperwork finished its distribution by Tancred, he cleared his throat.

"Alright, so any major incidents we should go over? I didn't get any call-ins from you all, so I assume not." May spoke first.

"I didn't call it in because it's just talk, but I did overhear some talks about clown sightings in the area. That could be Clowncar."

"It's possible. Speaking of, Leo, have you heard anything about Clowncar from that Facebook group?" I shook my head.

"No, actually. He might not use the clown stuff on his HenchNet persona. Would make him too obvious."

"Right, right. Put the details of where exactly they were saying they saw a clown into your report, May, I'll see if the PD can put some eyes out there. I'll have my own staff do a loop by as well. Any other developments?" After a few seconds of making sure no one else had anything, I spoke again.

"Got a warehouse gig for Chris and I that starts tomorrow. It's allegedly legal scab labor." His hands went into his pockets as he just stared at me, before slowly nodding.

"... To make sure they're selling contraband or something connected to the drug ring, right?"

"No," I said, already seeing frustration build up in his face.

"It's just an opportunity to get in with the overall HenchNet with lower odds of me fist-fighting vampires. Odds are high if they're hiring from the HenchNet, any random thug could be one of them. In an entire warehouse full of scabs, the odds shoot up high."

"... That's nice and all, Leo, but that's way too much of a gamble. We need something more concrete here if we're going to facilitate you doing undercover work."

"Well, that's why I got Chris in. His persona's the bookkeeper for mine, so I said he could handle their accounting as well. If there's anything that'll be really off, now we can see in the books and on the ground floor." Tancred hummed, dragging his finger along his mustache. At the same time, Chris spoke.

"But I wouldn't even know where to start with that." Tancred waved it off.

"Just because you're complaining, we're definitely doing it. Just take pictures of the books occasionally, send them to us, and I can have someone in admin feed you how to fill them out over comms. Just don't get caught, obviously." Christian sighed, and I tried to get back on topic.

"So you're letting us go through with it, then?"

"Yes. Pack your lunches, you two are getting jobs."