The easy breeze caressed Arkaneh's long, blonde hair through the open car window as he sat in the driver's seat of the van with which he had just driven along with about a dozen brothers to a construction site in the rural scenery of Swillstorm, Northstock. “Where are we going?” the men asked Arkaneh throughout the whole ride there. “What's our job here?” they begged to know, and yet Arkaneh spoke nothing to them, leaving them in the dark up until the moment of their arrival at the site. The men stood at the site, dressed in Elastics, waiting for the White Knights to show up.
Meanwhile, Arkaneh enjoyed the clean air and silence of the rural scenery for a change. He felt as if every room and space inside the factory outpost in Ravenwey Burrows was filled with racket and fights over dumb things, accompanied by the awful smell of booze and cigarettes. Barbarians. All of them. No matter where you go, or who you're affiliated with, whether if you’re a member of Men of Midas or a biker of Harley Nation, they're all fools. Lowlife scum who consider shooting a man down and stealing his money their greatest achievement in life.
Escort girls from the Godly Succubi roamed the halls of the factory, pleasing and teasing whatever man they came across. You can thank good old Griffiths for that pleasure. That man sure loves his women. He's the one who brought those girls into the outpost, buying the loyalty of his men with cheap, easy filth.
Men like Griffiths repulsed Arkaneh. It seemed that every time he looked at the lieutenant, he would find his face either buried in a line of Vex or between a girl's breasts. One of the reasons he found himself so disgusted by the degrading acts of the escort girls was because it would remind him of his ex-girlfriend, Elina. Whenever he saw one of those brutes running his hand all over an escort girl's body, he would be reminded of how the men who took them on that fateful night touched her. Whenever he would see one of them forcing a girl to do something against her will, he would be reminded of how Elina had begged those men to stop.
Arkaneh looked at the cloudy afternoon sky, wondering if she was up there, watching him. He wondered if she would understand the reasons behind his actions, the reason why he joined Men of Midas and what he was planning to do. His face showed no emotion, for he wouldn’t allow himself to show weakness, even though he was all alone in that van.
Elina used to love the green sights and broad fields around here. Shortly before she died, she begged me to take her for a trip in the Northstock district. She wanted to breathe the fresh, cold air of the north and run through the grassy hills of Swillstorm. He could see those hills now from afar. They had a vibrant hue of green to them and were big enough to be seen from miles away. It was no wonder that Northstock was considered one of the most beautiful districts in Alataria when it came to vistas. I was going to fulfill her wish and take her here, but… I never got to do it.
Arkaneh never forgot the night she died, nor would he ever. It was a scar forever engraved in his memory, forever tormenting him with the picture of losing the love of his life. It had been two years since it happened, during which the pain hadn’t subsided much. During those past two years, Arkaneh made sure that the people who did it were punished, and he did that with utmost brutality. Yet, he never regretted what he did to them, as gruesome as it was. They deserved it, in his mind. Anyone who stands in the way of my plans would meet the same kind of cruelty. I have no sympathy to spare for anyone. I lost that kind of emotion on the night Elina died.
Once more, Arkaneh looked up at the sky. He closed his eyes and pictured her face among the clouds. If you truly are out there, my dear Elina, I hope you're not disgusted by what I am today. I know that you would never picture me as a criminal and a killer, but know that there is a great purpose behind all of this, and when the time comes, I hope you can see that and forgive me for these sins.
He relished the cold breeze a minute longer before coming to a decision. It's been almost an hour now. The Justicars aren’t coming. That can only mean one thing… Griffiths is not the rat.
Arkaneh called the men back to the van. They seemed restless and agitated, having been forced to wait for no one for so long. Once they were all back in the vehicle, Arkaneh drove back to Ravenwey Burrows.
If Griffiths isn’t the rat, and Talimay can't be as well, then it has to be one of the organization's members. This complicates things. Finding this rat just turned much more difficult. Unless… an idea started to take form in his mind.
On his way back to the abandoned factory, Arkaneh wondered if Reus or his lieutenants had suspected that they had a traitor in the organization, given how many tackles they've had with the Justicars. A traitor in Men of Midas… I've heard what happened once when a traitor was discovered in this organization. It was a story well known among people in Alataria. Usually, conversations about Joseph Mallistrom would at some point bring up the infamous story. Most people know that story as the Night of Obliteration.
Back then, the mob gang known as Rage Legion was starting to become a real threat in Alataria. They established two outposts, one in Framstead in the north and another in Sanriel, in the Westden Fells district. Their numbers were rising, and their ringleader became very ambitious. Too ambitious, some would say. He wanted to take over the drug trade, and to do that, he needed to get rid of Joseph. Men of Midas was still recovering from its latest war with the Ferals, so he assumed the timing was perfect. Thus, he took one of his tenderfoots and made him join Men of Midas as a spy. He wanted him to gather as much information as he could so that Rage Legion could strike at Joseph most effectively.
However, Joseph was a smart man. Brilliant, many would claim. It didn’t take him long before he realized that his latest recruit was a spy for Rage Legion. He had suspected for a while that Rage Legion and its ringleader were trying to take him and his organization out, so he made sure to eliminate the threat entirely. Instead of killing the traitor in his ranks, he told him in confidence that he heard more than enough rumors about Rage Legion wanting to take over the drug trade, and since he was too weak from his latest war to fight them, he was going to give them a part of it and ensure peace. He sent him to Rage Legion's ringleader to set up a meeting so that they could divide territories and agree on terms. Joseph was scheduled to meet with Rage Legion's ringleader and his lieutenants in their Framstead outpost. On that night, Reus sent the spy once more, this time to Rage Legion's Sanriel outpost, with a bag containing several packs of Vexillum. He told them to give it to the members in the Sanriel outpost as a gesture of good faith, and made it clear to him once again that it was all being done to ensure peace. When Reus finally got to Framstead for his scheduled meeting, he waited outside their outpost with his men, while one of them pumped gas-form Sorelium into outpost's air ventilation.
Gas-form Sorelium… they say Sorelium isn’t fatal in small enough doses, but any more than that would kill any person within seconds. Choking your enemy with gas-form Sorelium is a sure way to kill him.
While Rage Legion's ringleader and his lieutenants were choked to death inside, Joseph and his men waited outside and shot the few sole survivors who managed to run away from the gas. At the same time, the spy arrived at the Sanriel outpost with the bag of Vex he was given from Reus. However, the Vex in the bag was fake. It was baking powder with purple food coloring. Among the packs, several explosive charges were hidden. Reus places several of his men outside the Sanriel outpost, and once they saw the bag entering the outpost, they triggered the explosives and set the outpost ablaze.
Later that night, Reus ordered his men to search everywhere in Framstead and Sanriel for whatever last members of Rage Legion remaining and wipe them out. By the next morning, Rage Legion no longer existed. In a single night, Joseph managed to obliterate an entire mob gang.
To that day, the only memory remaining of Rage Legion is their old outpost in Framstead, which was taken over by Lady Dread shortly after their demise.
It's a nice story, but I doubt history will repeat itself. Reus isn’t Joseph. What he lacks in cleverness compared to his father he makes up with paranoia.
Once he made it back to the factory, he walked in along with the other men. Through the clear windows, Arkaneh could see Griffiths sitting in his office at the top of the staircase. He climbed the squeaky, rusty stairs and entered the lieutenant's office.
Griffiths was just opening his half-empty bottle of scotch. He noticed Arkaneh just as he took a sip of it straight from the bottle. Griffiths looked at the tenderfoot long and hard, burning him with his gaze. Arkaneh already knew why he seemed angry.
"I didn’t get any reports about a shootout in Swillstorm," he told Arkaneh. "Do NOT tell that you were gone for this long, only to—"
"There was never any gun trade," Arkaneh interrupted him, unable to listen to any more of his ongoing ramblings. Griffiths's eyes widened.
"W-What do you mean—?"
"There was never any gun trade," he said it once again. "I made the whole thing up." Within three seconds, Griffiths put down his bottle of booze and paced toward Arkaneh, grabbing his shirt and slamming him against the wall.
"Are you fucking retarded?! Does this look like a joke to you?!"
"I was trying to—"
"I don’t want to hear a fucking word out of you!"
Arkaneh maintained his composure, despite a strong desire to punch the OldGen. "Listen to me—"
"If you think I'm going to let a fucking TENDERFOOT make a fool out of me—!"
"You're not listening—"
"I'm going to make you suffer like—" Arkaneh twisted Griffiths's hand and shoved him away, making the old man shriek in pain and placed far from him, as he wanted.
"I had to do it," Arkaneh explained himself. "We have a rat in our troops."
"What?" Griffiths shrunk his eyes, looking doubtful. "What are you talking about?"
"Every time we took some kind of action recently, the Justicars were there. They KNEW where and when we would be every time! The only explanation for that is that there's someone in Men of Midas leaking information to them."
"What does this have to do with the fake gun trade?"
"Whoever the rat is, he knows about our actions almost every time, but not ALL of our people know about our activities every single time… unless they're a lieutenant," Griffiths's eyes turned red once more. "In which case, they would know of every action since they need to sanction it."
"So you think either me or Talimay are helping the Justicars?" his face looked repulsed with the notion.
"Talimay's brother, Heycliff, died during that store robbery where the Justicars showed up. If it had been Talimay leaking information directly, she wouldn’t have risked her brother's life and rat out about it. And if it had been indirectly, the Justicars wouldn't risk killing him and sending their own rat into a mourning period where she's useless to them, so she can't be it."
"Which leaves me."
"Which leaves you. I had to check that possibility. That’s why I told only you about a fake stakeout for that gun trade. If you'd been the leak, no matter how, the Justicars would know about it and we would have been attacked by them." Griffiths's eyes narrowed. "Of course, there's also the possibility that one of the other men here is the rat, but there was a higher chance that it would have been you, so I checked you out first. I made sure not to tell any of the men that I took with me where we were heading. That way, whether or not an ambush would take place, it would’ve determined your innocence or lack of."
"I don’t believe this…" Griffiths mumbled to himself.
"Think about it. In case one of THEM was the rat, then even if an ambush would've taken place, it wouldn’t tell me who the rat is. But since nothing happened that means you're not the rat." Once more Arkaneh found himself slammed against the wall within seconds.
"So you risked the lives of your brothers just to check a possibility?!" Griffiths grunted in Arkaneh's ear. His breath was hot and heavy, and had the acute aroma of scotch.
"The rat is responsible for the deaths of many of our brothers, and he can potentially cause a lot more!"
"Who the fuck do you think you are?! You're just a tenderfoot!"
"Does it really matter what I am? You have a very dangerous man in your ranks. As a lieutenant, you have to do something about it."
"Who's to say we really DO have a rat?"
"How else do you explain the Justicars showing up every time we do something?"
Griffiths ground his teeth and clenched his lips. His eyes still burned red, and his grip was still tight on Arkaneh's shirt. Griffiths stared straight into his eyes, eventually calming down, realizing the reality that Arkaneh spoke of.
"A rat in our ranks. A traitor," Griffiths said in disbelief. He raised his bottle and swirled the beverage in it, looking mesmerized. "Reus would go crazy if he heard about this," said Griffiths as he let go of Arkaneh's shirt, burying his face in his hands.
"Reus doesn’t have to know about this yet. Let's try to focus on flushing our guy out before running off to tell Reus."
"Do you have any idea how we can do that?"
"I do, actually, and I'm going to need your help with it."
