Ruin and wreckage ruled over the outpost in Ravenwey Burrows. Following the deadly Justicars attack, many were injured and were missing from the outpost while they were recovering from their wounds. Those who remained fit to serve were trying to do their best to bring the outpost back to a normal-looking state. Many of the walls were riddled with bullets holes and fractures. In addition, some of the old machinery caved down due to heavy damage and had to be removed.
As Arkaneh walked into the outpost, he noticed how vacant the place felt. What was once a place packed with armed members and Kleon Hanford's escort girls now only had about half as much members, while Kleon's girls remained at the Godly Succubi until he would consider the current situation safe enough for them to come back. Kleon lost two girls during the attack, which infuriated him, according to what Arkaneh overheard, therefore turning him very cautious before losing any more of his income source. Arkaneh actually preferred it that way. He never liked seeing those girls around, shaming themselves and giving pleasure to men who certainly didn’t deserve it, in his opinion.
Griffiths had been helping in clearing the wreckage as well from time to time, but mostly he would sit in his office, at the top of the staircase and bury his head in lines of Vex and a bottle of scotch. Some of the whispers that Arkaneh had caught claimed that his addictions had only worsened after losing so many of his men.
Making his way to one of the offices at the end of the abandoned factory, Arkaneh found Talimay and Fenia. Talimay was overlooking at Fenia, as the short-haired technology genius was typing away on her laptop. "You wanted to see me?" he asked Talimay.
"Yes," The red-headed lieutenant turned to him. "I wanted your opinion on something."
Arkaneh drew closer to the two and saw satellite images on Fenia's laptop of the old dockyards in Servein. "Ever since Braden was kidnapped, I've been trying to track down his SmartWrist," Fenia explained. "One of the members who fought beside him during the attack claimed that he saw Braden being taken while his SmartWrist was still on him. I considered it a long shot and didn’t give much hope that it'll work but…"
"Braden's SmartWrist just turned on." Talimay finished her sentence.
"It was turned off until now, but less than an hour ago I managed to get a signal from it and I was able to track down its location."
"And that's where Braden is?" Arkaneh pointed at the satellite images. "At the old dockyards in Servein?"
"Apparently so," Fenia said.
"We're not sure what to make of it. It feels like—"
"Like a trap," Arkaneh could already tell. "You're right, it does. If I had to bet my money, I'd say it's a trap."
"So… what should we do about it?"
Arkaneh thought about it for a while. The old dockyards… it's mainly a vast open space so I wouldn’t consider it the best place for an ambush. There's little where they can hide. No… if I had to guess… "Fenia, could you look up if there are any buildings near the dockyards?" he asked.
Fenia became highly concentrated as she typed away on her laptop. A minute later she returned her answer. "There's only one in proximity. There are a few more others, but they're many miles away from—"
"Show me that one building." He cut her midsentence, rudely. A few clicks later he saw an image of a tall building displayed on the laptop. The building looked like an office building, an old one, yet at least 20 stories high. "How far is that building from Braden's location?" he asked.
"not much, about half a mile away."
Even though Arkaneh's face remained emotionless as always, his eyes clearly shone with the spark of an idea brewing inside his head. "Talimay," he turned to look at her. "Can you gather some of your men?"
"How many?" she asked.
"6."
"Yeah, I can manage that."
"Good, tell them to get to that building and wait at its entrance until they receive word from you."
"Wait… what are you planning?" Talimay hesitated.
"I'll tell you on the way. Come on, we need to go." Arkaneh went for the door.
"Go where?" Fenia asked.
"To the old dockyards in Servein," he replied. The two followed Arkaneh to Talimay's car outside. As they walked, Talimay had contacted her men using her SmartWrist and assembled her team, telling them to wait at the building near the dockyards. Fenia begged to know Arkaneh's plan again and again, looking nervous, until finally he laid it out to them in the car.
During the drive to Servein, Arkaneh tried remembering the last time he was in the old dockyards. He was about 16 when his uncle, Jeremy, took him and his brother, Edrimer, to a restaurant in Servein. On their way back, they passed through the old dockyards, and as they watched them religiously, asking their uncle why were there burned out storage facilities and smashed walls all over there, Jeremy told them the story of the Clash of Rampage. That was how Arkaneh first learned about the bloody war that waged between Jegaar Hill the Wendigo, and several other mob gangs, including Code Sanguinary and Men of Midas, led by Jospeh Mallistrom at the time. To this day, the Clash of Rampage stands as a shameful, blood-soaked event in Alataria's crime history, and is even taught in several school during history classes, most likely as a deterrent that might hopefully stir young generations away from crime. But stories and tales do not shape a man's future. In the end, the events of his life will put a man on a certain path, and no story, as awful as it may be, will have the power to change that path.
The final battle to end the Clash of Rampage was the one that took place in the old dockyards of Servein. Countless men were killed on that day, on all sides, and by the time that fight was over, all that was left of the dockyards was nothing but an ashen wasteland of havoc and destruction. Some think that the government left the dockyards in that state ever since so they would serve as some sort of a monument or a reminder of the tragedy that happened there. Others claim that they did it purely because they never saw a reason to spend money rebuilding it, with Herkin Port now standing as their replacement.
They stopped the car not far from the dockyards. Arkaneh, Talimay, and Fenia hid behind a hill, where they could watch the dockyards from afar. The old port of Alataria looked the same as it did when Arkaneh was 16 years old. Smashed walls and burned out storage facilities were all you could see there. A bit further away, Arkaneh could spot blown-off containers, a kind of damage most likely caused by grenades. Dust and ash were abundant, as well as the ghostly memory of what was once an honorable place of commerce and prosperity. Now our current main port is mainly known for bringing in illegal 'merchandise.'
In the middle of the old port, right at the center of an open space between the storage facilities, the three saw Braden, on his knees, with his head staring at the floor and his hands tied behind his back. A wide stream of blood was raining down from his mouth, covering throughout his chin and going all the way down his neck. They cut out his tongue, Arkaneh realized. But why would they do that? I thought Braden was one of the Justicars.
Fenia gasped as she saw what was done to Braden, yet Talimay reminded her that he was a rat and a traitor and that he deserved a lot more pain than just that.
Looking to the east, Arkaneh saw the tall office building Fenia showed him. Glass windows appeared on all its floors. Arkaneh went for the car and grabbed a pair of binoculars. Watching the building from much closer now, he scanned every floor carefully with his eyes. The building seemed to be completely empty, as each floor proved to look vacant until he reached the 17th floor, where he spotted a glitter. There you are, just like I thought. The three waited a few more minutes until they were notified that Talimay's men were positioned near the building's entrance. "Tell them to go all the way to the 17th floor and get ready for a fight," Arkaneh said to her. Talimay nodded and briefed her men just as he said through the radio device.
It was clear that turning on Braden's SmartWrist was all part of a trap laid by the Justicars, but as soon as Arkaneh noticed that Braden was in the middle of an open space, the idea of an ambush seemed much less likely. However, with the existence of a tall building only about half a mile away, a sniper could easily be placed there to take out whoever was going to come for Braden. The glitter that Arkaneh caught with his binoculars on the 17th floor was the kind that couldn’t be mistaken. It was the kind that came from the reflection of a sniper rifle scope. So far, the Justicars were always one step ahead, but this time, Arkaneh aimed to change that.
Listening closely to their advancement, Arkaneh heard the gunfight that took place on the 17th floor. Arkaneh truly hoped that Talimay's men were outnumbering the Justicars. Otherwise, his plan might backfire. With the tension overcoming her, Talimay demanded to know what the situation up there was. "There are only 3 Justicars up here!" a man shouted through the radio device. "Look out, one of them has some sort of a trigger!" the man's shouted to his comrades over the radio. A trigger? Within that second, Arkaneh's received an answer for his wondering, as a loud, devastating explosion suddenly occurred at the dockyards. The blazing flames were so overwhelmingly bright and high that Arkaneh had to cover his eyes for a moment before he could look at the damage. Talimay and Fenia were speechless, their eyes locked in horror. A great crater now lay where Braden once stood. They strapped a bomb to him… were they hoping to blow some of us off in addition to taking us out by a sniper?
"Oh, my God," Fenia uttered in silence, her jaw dropping to the ground. Shouting came from the radio device. "Drop the weapon!" they heard one of Talimay's men yell. "Get down!" they heard next. "Talimay," one of her men spoke to her over the radio. "We caught one of the Justicars up here with a sniper rifle. The other two are dead."
"Bring him here," Talimay said back, her face red with a desire for vengeance.
Something here doesn’t make sense, Arkaneh thought to himself. If Braden was working for the Justicars, why would they cut out his tongue and strap a bomb to him? He thought about it for a while before reaching a conclusion. I can only think of one explanation. Knowing that we know Braden's identity, the Justicars couldn’t risk us tracking him and letting him lead us where they wouldn’t want us to reach, so they decided to get rid of him. They took out his tongue so he wouldn’t be able to warn anyone about the bomb that's tied to him.
Soon enough, Talimay's team regrouped with them, handing over the prisoner Justicar. His white mask still covered his face. For a moment, Arkaneh pondered on what if it turned out to be Edrimer. The last time he saw him, he promised to treat him as an enemy the next time the two would meet. Talimay stripped him of his mask with a quick, sharp pull. The man looked to be in his 40's, with short gray hair and deep blue eyes. He had light stubble on his face and thin lips.
"Fenia," Talimay turned to her. "Take his picture and run it through your facial recognition software. I want to know who he is." Her lips twitched with fury as she fixed her gaze at the old Justicar. Fenia hurried to snap her SmartWrist straight, and with a tap on its display, she took his picture. "Load him on the car. We're taking this fucker back to Ravenwey Burrows."
On their way back, Arkaneh shared his thoughts with Talimay. She sighed in relief upon hearing them. "So, I guess this puts an end to our rat, once and for all." Arkaneh hoped his dearest that that was true. Fenia was busy at the back seat with her laptop, trying to retrieve the Justicar's identity.
As they left the city of Servein, heading for Ravenwey Burrows, Arkaneh bid the old dockyards farewell. Once again, he was reminded of that day when he visited the city with his uncle and brother. It was a good day, as far as his memory told him. Back then, they were only teenagers, trying to find their place in the world, but earlier, just before the Justicar was unmasked, as Arkaneh stood before the mysterious figure, he couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if it was Edrimer behind that mask. One thing he knew for sure, however. Unlike back then, Arkaneh had now found his place in the world, and unfortunately for him, so did Edrimer.
"I got it!" Fenia announced with excitement, just before they reached the outpost. "Our mystery man is named Serian Conway. He's 46 years old and lives in Morth City."
"Well," Talimay clenched a fist. "I'm going to have some fun with Mr. Conway."
