Chương 101: CDM 2, Chapter 37: Subject Matter Expert

I had an idea, but I wanted to run it by Enforcer McDouglas before I brought it to Investigator Dempson. McDouglas, however, was out and wasn't expected to return for another week. On my way back to the elevators, I noticed that Enforcer Grensmith was in. I knocked on his door.

"What brings you by this morning, Enforcer Gray?"

"I had some questions about harvest procedures. It relates to work I'm doing for Dempson." Grensmith stood to move a stack of binders off a chair and invited me to sit.

"The black market case?"

"Yes."

"How can I help?" Grensmith asked.

"Why don't we inspect inside of the monsters that come out of gates?" Grensmith stiffened and thought.

"I… I don't know. I suppose that's because it violates procedure. With how sensitive and valuable gate materials can be, an Enforcer chopping up a monster instead of a professional processor could ruin thousands of dollars."

"Smugglers have been using people for mules for a while, though, right? It's not a new idea."

"No, it's certainly not." His brow furrowed.

"We don't exactly search for contreband. Our job is to confirm that harvest sites are safe and that records are accurate. It's not like we search every box and drum on a site either, for that matter."

"In a way, we do," I countered.

"We do inventory counts and weight checks all the time. There's a chance we pop open an empty drum or climb up to look in the bed of a dump truck. It might not happen often, but it does happen. There's never a reason for us to look inside of a monster." Grensmith leaned back, nodding.

"I'm investigating drake wings, titanboa skin, frost worms, and nightmare butterflies."

"Moths." I swallowed.

"Dragon toads eat drakes. Dread catfish eat titanboas. Frost salamanders don't eat frost worms, but the size difference tracks. And killer chameleons eat nightmare… moths."

"Wrap it up to protect it and then stuff it in."

"Yeah. You would still need some equipment and manpower to do that, but it's possible."

"Okay. That's a plausible theory. Where does my help come in?"

"Could we prove any of that with drone footage?" I asked.

"Would you be able to look at a monster corpse from an overhead view and tell that something was inside?"

"That's an interesting question," Grensmith said.

"I'm honestly not sure."

"If I sent you a few video clips and screenshots, would you mind taking a look?"

"Not at all."

"Thank you. I'll put that together for you today." I sent Grensmith the files a little after 5 p. m. At 8 p. m. he emailed to ask if I was still in the office. I was, so I went down to the fourth floor to see him.

"Nightshift for RAID?" he asked.

"No. Just working late."

"I took a look at what you sent me." I sat and listened. Grensmith turned his monitor to face me, knocking over a cup of pencils along the way. When we had collected them, he showed me a screenshot of a dragon toad strapped to a flatbed.

"This is a long way from proof, but…" He pointed to the toad's mouth.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone tie the mouth shut like that. You sent me four of these, and this is the only toad strapped that way." He changed to an image of a killer chameleon.

"You've seen these in the field. The tongues are always out. This one's isn't."

"Oh, yeah, you're right." Grensmith nodded.

"The tongue is way easier to harvest if you pull it out of the mouth before rigor mortis sets in. Unlike the mouth binding, this I know for certain is unusual." The dread catfish appeared on the screen next.

"Nothing sticks out to me on this one." Then came the frost salamanders, the same iguana-like monsters that joined the frost giants in their march toward civilization.

"This could just be a variation between individuals, but its stomach doesn't look flat enough. When these die, they go limp, and that pushes their bellies out to the side. This one does that but only a little bit."

"Thank you," I said, looking back over the images myself.

"This is really helpful."

"It's not proof, though."

"I know, but do you think there's enough here to be suspicious?"

"I know I'll be looking at things differently the next time I'm on site for an inspection," Grensmith answered.

"Thank you. This is very helpful." The night our episode of Behind the Crawl: China aired, we met at Megan and Beth's apartment to watch. For as much time as we spent on that trip, we were maybe 20 minutes of a 45-minute episode. The rest of the footage focused on the behind the scenes interpersonal relationships of our guides. They framed Dawit as an ultra-aggressive lady's man, but none of us ever got that impression of him.

We didn't talk much to the other boosters to know what was accurate and what was clever editing. The producers stayed true to their word–and our contract–and didn't reveal our faces or voices. The show spent an uncomfortably high number of minutes on Megan and Beth in the pool. The show never outright stated so, but the editing heavily implied that Beth was the second Dungeon Diva. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Nathan was especially concerned by that. Beth and I did not have matching body types. Megan waved it off, arguing that our viewers would see that the team grew. In the last video they watched, the Dungeon Divas were me, Megan, and Kimmy. Now that Beth had joined us for a hunt, she was basically one too.

"I don't think they'll mix the two of you up," Megan teased. The footage of our crawls was cut up to show Dawit's team being the heroes. They helped us a great deal, yes, but any time one of the black mages killed something, the editing made it look like Megan or I was about to die. And then Leonard Resmith made an appearance and bragged about Bluewater and their leveling service. About halfway through the show, Megan's phone buzzed.

That was her cue to take our most recent YouTube video live, our hunt at the Banning #2 Mine. As the end of the show neared, we braced ourselves. Nad-Nade and the show producers both promised to promote our video, and I think some part of us expected that to be a lie. All of this had been too good to be true. Megan appeared on screen. We saw an overhead view of goblins swarming her and then cut to footage from her follower drone, giving viewers an eye-level perspective of 30 goblins rushing in for the kill.

Then it cut to us running back to the truck. It was clear we were being pursued, but the promo video didn't say by what. And it was over. Nathan paced in the hallway between the living room and the bedrooms. I hadn't noticed him get up. Instead of pacing, my anxiety expressed itself as stone stillness. The show was over, and I still hadn't taken my eyes off the television.

"Frank's website has a big spike in traffic," Beth reported, looking at her phone.

"Follower count is going up too." The show had never promoted Steel Town Bows & Arrows specifically, but Beth posted during the show to point out what bow I was using. She did something similar for our other two sponsors, Ironskin and Gate Girl Glitter. Then Nathan made a post on the Nad-Nade subreddit, asking if anyone knew who made the bow that one Dungeon Diva was using. As soon as Beth posted the answer, Frank's numbers started a fresh, rapid climb. Megan refreshed our pages constantly.

15 minutes after the show ended, the Banning #2 Mine episode had over 300, 000 views. I was so relieved. If that momentum held, we would for certain be able to repay the money Nathan fronted for renting all of that equipment. Not earning that back would have crushed me. That gift wasn't meant for us. It was for him.

"450, 000," Megan updated later.

"We need to have a family meeting," Beth said with seriousness.

"What's wrong?" Megan asked.

"Nad-Nade promised to give us a long-term contract if this content performed well. We need to agree on what we want. I know we have a few ideas floating around, but they're going to want specifics." Nathan raised a finger.

"First of all, Bethward, you're not allowed to sound more responsible than us. I was really about to bring that up." Beth smiled.

"So? What do we want?"

"I think we need to talk about what we want to be before we decide what to ask for," I said.

"We just set a new bar for ourselves with how that hunt went down. I mean, Megan blasting goblins with that hose is already a meme." I held up my phone. A still of Megan bowling over goblins with a spray of water had the caption, "When I hold it the whole drive home."

"Why is that high bar a bad thing?" Nathan asked.

"It was really expensive. We can't guarantee that a stunt like that is possible or necessary. And, see? I'm already calling it a stunt. That implies taking risks purely to be more entertaining."

"Bro, you got to let the money thing go," Nathan replied.

"I know that's bugging you, but it was my choice, and I'm glad I made the investment. It's done."

"But we'll need money for the next thing, or maybe the next thing is even more expensive."

"We can base that off of the profit we make on this video. Maybe Nad-Nade even gives us a budget for shit like that. That's a possibility. So, again, we can take money out of the discussion."

"You've ignored the part about unnecessary risks," I said.

"I didn't argue about it because I agree. None of you getting hurt is worth extra views."

"You don't think that we'd drift into taking those risks?"

"I just said I agree it's a risk, dude," Nathan countered.

"We have to hold ourselves to the agreement that none of us wants that." Megan added, "I think we're capable of staying smart."

"Do we want to be the kind of hunters that do creative things like poison and flood nests?" Nathan asked. Beth and Megan nodded.

"Yeah, I do," I admitted.

"We need funds for that to be possible." Nathan was right. And both of those hunts were a lot of fun for me–in retrospect, when I was sure I had survived–largely because of the creative problem solving involved. Seeing my stolen food ruse bring down an entire nest? Pumping the Youghiogheny into a goblin tunnel system in the middle of winter? That was amazing.

"You've convinced me," I said.

"We should try to get that budget in our deal if we all agree we need to be cautious."

"We should also talk about finances," Megan began.

"Obviously, we're splitting the profit, but we need to figure out how much we keep in the business and what we plan to use that money for. Financial goals should probably be a part of that too. Like, I know I'm the only one here who is ready to quit their job for this, but maybe we take the next 6 months to figure out where that point is for each of us individually and check in then?"

"I don't want to leave my apprenticeship," Beth said.

"I'm not sure I can commit at the level you're describing."

"That actually works better for me," I interjected.

"I was already worrying about taking you indoors at only level 5, but having you for backup the other day was huge. You know I like having you involved too."

"Not to mention she's our manager," Nathan added. I nodded.

"Yeah, you're already a part of this thing. You don't have to add crawling to that list, but it is nice that you're there if we need you."

"I like that," Beth replied.

"For me, I need to be making more than I am now to go full-time Diva," Nathan shared.

"I don't mind scaling my hours back a little bit to be more available for runs, though."

"Megan does most of the work," I said.

"Editing takes forever. I'd be fine getting her to full-time before Nathan or I do. We can wait so that transition is more gradual." Megan nodded enthusiastically.

"I like that plan. A lot." The rest of us exchanged glances to confirm that we all agreed.

"I feel good about this," Megan said.

"Ha!" Nathan exploded. He winced a moment later.

"Sorry. I just got an email."

"About what?"

"The rental company says Bignate Industries is banned from ever renting again." We all laughed. Our celebration continued late into the night. When Nathan and Megan went to bed and I was in the midst of making up the couch for myself, Beth came back into the room holding her phone.

"Dorion…"

"Hmm?"

"What did you and Frank talk about that night at Milly's?"

"Uhh, what brought that up?" I asked.

"I can see the projects Frank has in his queue. If I take an order down for him, I enter everything into the same system."

"Okay?"

"Did you talk to him about Martin Kielar?" Sighing, I admitted, "Frank asked about it, yes. He noticed how uncomfortable Kielar made you. I didn't tell him anything about what happened, though. Not a word. Why?"

"Frank cancelled the Mill Rats order," Beth said, sitting on the couch next to me.

"That was a big piece of business. He didn't do that because of me, did he?"

"I don't know." Beth started to cry.

"Oh, hey. What's wrong?"

"I told dad Pastor Bill made strange comments about my body. He wouldn't believe me. Dad said I was lying to get out of Bible study and still made me go. But Frank…" Beth sniffed and wiped her nose with her hand.

"But Frank happened to notice I was uncomfortable in front of a customer, and that was it. He cut ties with Kielar even though it's so much money." I put an arm around Beth.

"I'm so sad yet so happy about that. Knowing for sure that dad wasn't looking out for me, seeing someone handle it better… It twists me up inside. But at the same time, I'm lucky enough to have Frank looking after me."

"I understand," I said.

"You're allowed to be sad for what you experienced and happy for what you have now at the same time. Honestly, I hope that keeps happening for you. That means your life is getting better."