Pitter-patter. Crack-boom.


    Rain continued to slosh down on Alex as he and Sayed entered the west side of Dry Turtle, each covered in mud up to their knees as they pushed through the muck that had delayed them since they had left the docks. It had been slow the entire trip over, and Alex was already eyeing the roads for an empty shuttle to steal on the way back—the consequences be damned.


    "Over here, brother." Sayed waved Alex over from the rain and into a convenient patio.


    Alex ran to catch up to him, ducking under the patio and appreciating the immediate relief from the constant taps of raindrops against his clothes. He was soaked to the bone, and a chill ran through his body. Thanks to how a lab experiment rebuilt his body, he probably wouldn''t catch a cold, but that didn''t change the dagger of cold that cut into his spine.


    "So, we need to figure out which one of these warehouses she could be in," Alex said, looking over the several large buildings that stretched down the length of both roads in front of them. "And there''s no one outside to ask because of the storm."


    "That is correct." Sayed nodded as steam hissed off his skin.


    "That''s horrible." Alex sighed, looking up and down the street.


    At the end of the street was a large, empty wooden stage set up where it looked like the district would do auctions. There were several outdoor cages, though all stood empty in the storm. Alex supposed that even slavers wouldn''t want their ''products'' to get sick. He shook his head.


    "Let''s see if we can find anyone to give us directions around here," Alex said. "If we just start busting down doors, they''ll call for the Cleaners, and we''ll have a real fight on our hands. It''s better if we take the more subtle approach."


    "What will we tell them?" Sayed asked. "We are not to merely say, ''We are here to find our friend and free her.'' Even I know that would be a fool''s folly."


    "No, you''re right," Alex said, pulling Sayed closer by the shoulder. "We''re going to tell them that we''re looking to buy a slave. That''ll at least be a better story than that we''re trying to free one."


    "It sours my tongue, but I will go along with it," Sayed said, shaking his head. "Once we find these slavers, I will have my revenge for this slight."


    Alex couldn''t help but smile. He could have chosen a lot worse people to join with when he first asked Sayed to come with him on Glory Plateau, but his unwavering disdain for slavery was a good factor in the man''s favor. The only problem with Sayed was how inflexible he could be in rougher situations.


    "It would be a good bit of revenge for the shuttle ride," he said, remembering when they had first met the two slavers. "I owe them a good punch for that entire conversation they forced on us."


    No break in the rain appeared, but Alex spotted movement down the street. Beneath one of the other patios attached to the various buildings, he saw a man leaning against a wall before standing, walking to the patio''s edge, and throwing out a lit cigarette. The orange light flickered as it fell into the street and was snuffed out.


    "There''s someone," Alex said, pointing down the street. "Let''s go try out our story."


    Together, they ran out into the rain once again, and Alex held up his arm to keep his vision clear. They trudged through mud and ruts to the second patio, and the man standing there watched them on their approach. Alex put down his arm again as he came back beneath the protection of a roof, dripping a line of water from his sleeve as he smiled up at the taller man.


    The man wore a uniform of sorts. It was a long grey coat, and he had a rounded hat on his head. The entire uniform was mostly dry, and Alex guessed he had run for cover the second the storm started. A patch on his right sleeve read ''security'' in yellow letters.


    "What are you boys doing out in this storm?" the man asked, looking both of them over. "There won''t be any sales for the rest of tonight, I think, so there''s hardly a reason to be in the west district if you aren''t renting out one of the buildings."


    "About that," Alex said, smiling as he rubbed the back of his head. "Our ship is heading out tonight, and we had pushed off the business of coming over here until after the storm started. It came so fast that we couldn''t hurry over here before everything closed down."


    "Well, that''s unfortunate," the man said, raising an eyebrow. "But I can tell you that you''re too late to get your business done then. There aren''t going to be any sales in weather like this."


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "You''re right." Alex sighed, looking over to Sayed. "That''s really unfortunate. I guess we''ll just have to return to the ship with nothing to show for it. Our client will be so mad, though."


    "He will be furious." Sayed nodded. "He would have paid extra, I think, to get his hands on a slave quickly."


    "But if they''re closed, there''s nothing to be done," Alex said, reaching out and patting Sayed on the shoulder. "That''s just how things are. We''ll head back to the ship and tell him the news. If we work it right, we should be fine."


    "Are you sure, brother?" Sayed asked, a frown creasing his beard. "Surely there is some other way we can get access to one of the sellers. This mission does not need to fail because of one mistake. Perhaps there are some who would sell to us if they but knew of our plight."


    "You can stop." The man sighed. "I see what you''re going for."


    He held out a gloved hand, palm up. Alex smiled, reaching into his pocket as he opened his gate. He had left pretty much all their money with Wen and Jean. They would need it if they wanted to pay for the repairs. However, his curse made that a nonissue so long as the man didn''t notice what he was about to do.


    Power thrummed through his body in waves, electric arcs racing out of his heart and down to the tips of his fingers and toes. His entire body was filled with a static charge, and his skin tingled as the hair on his arms raised.


    He put his hands in his pocket and focused, imagining a single round coin, gold in color and imprinted with the same symbols that every doler had on it. With a flash of blue light hidden inside his pocket, a solid metal coin fell into his hand.


    He pulled out a gold doler, depositing it in the guard''s hand.


    "That''s a pretty doler," the man said, looking down at the gold in his hand before taking it up to his mouth and biting into it. "But as soft as gold."


    "Our client pays well." Alex shrugged, holding his gate open as the man deposited the coin in his pocket.


    The coin would disappear if he closed his gate, was damaged too much, or was taken too far away from his body. It was only a manifestation of his curse, albeit on the second grade. It was a new application for his curse he hadn''t thought of before since the upgrade a few weeks ago, but he could already see the use.


    "So what kind of slave were you looking for?" the man asked, looking down the street. "There are a lot of different groups working out here. It would help narrow it down to the ones that would be important to you."


    Alex licked his lips. He hadn''t thought about that ahead of time, but he quickly settled on what he would say. He couldn''t hope to know what they would be selling Erin for or if they would just be turning her in for her bounty. Instead, he took the other option.


    "I''m looking for specific sellers," he said. "Our client has heard of some sellers who are highly recommended. Two brothers, in fact."


    "You mean the Harper Brothers?" The man raised his eyebrow. "I''ve never heard them come recommended for much of anything, but if you say so."


    "They are who our client wants," Sayed said, clenching his fist tight. "We very much aim to make sure that our client is happy."


    Anger was written across his face, from his purpling ears to his clenched teeth, but the man either didn''t notice or didn''t care. Alex knew he would need to keep an eye on Sayed so long as they were dealing with slavers, but now he wondered if he would have been better off leaving Sayed with the ship.


    Granted, that would mean trusting Sayed to watch the ship unsupervised.


    "Well, I''m not one to throw away a hundred dolers," the man said, looking up at the sky before spitting on the patio floor. "Though my wife won''t appreciate how much mud she''s about to clean off her boots."


    With that, he stepped out in the rain, expecting Alex and Sayed to follow immediately. Alex sighed, holding up his arm again to protect his eyes as he ran out into the downpour. They ran down the street and across a few buildings before cutting down an alleyway.


    Though the alley acted as a barrier to the wind, it also funneled all the rainwater from the roof and down the sides of the building. Water soaked through Alex''s sleeves as he pushed through what felt like a wave in the ocean. The torrent continued, but he kept sight of the man as he sprinted ahead of them toward a door at the end of the alley.


    "If I needed a bath before, I no longer need to bother!" Sayed yelled beside him, his voice barely coming through the torrent of water.


    Alex did his best not to think about it. The ship hadn''t been stocked with water when they departed from Diamond Peak, and none of them smelled great when they had left the ship. However, when they finally refilled the ship''s tanks, there were two shower rooms on each side.


    "We really weren''t ready for our first ship," Alex said as he passed through the final waterfall from the roof and beneath a small roof that covered the door where the man waited.


    "Here it is," he said, pointing up at the door. "When you''re ready to talk to them, just knock, and I''m sure they''ll come running."


    "You don''t want to stay for them?" Alex asked, raising his eyebrow.


    "I''d rather brave the rain," the man said. "I know you folks are strangers, but be careful around those two. If they weren''t related, I think they''d sell each other into slavery."


    Alex raised an eyebrow but nodded. The man ran off into the rain again, holding his cap tight on his head as he splashed through puddles and ran down the alley. Alex and Sayed were left alone in the wake of his running away. The rain was their only company.


    "We''re not going to knock," Alex said, reaching out to the door and feeling the internal mechanisms with his magnetism.


    If you could control magnetism as part of your curse, it didn''t take much to take apart a lock, and Alex flicked the lever that held the door closed without even breaking a sweat. When he was done, he opened his eyes and nodded up to Sayed.


    "In and out," he said. "We get Erin and get out of there before the Port Authority shows up. No distractions, no tangents. Got that, Sayed?"


    "I do, brother." Sayed nodded, cracking his knuckles and neck.


    With that, Alex reached for the handle on the door and opened it, revealing the darkness beyond.


    Crack-boom.