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Author's Chapter Notes:
beneath the streets
Thirty men of varying degrees of armor and armament stood ranged around the small, rubble-strewn clearing, Rawne and Freedan standing at the head of the group.

The morning sun still low on the horizon, casting the entire area in deep shadows. Amidst the debris sprawled several Squatter corpses in front of a door hanging at a crooked angle. Two more mercenaries emerged from the blackness beyond, giving Rawne the All Clear signal.

“Sir, we’ve secured the entrance,” Rawne announced.

“Excellent,” Freedan replied. “No telling how much of a head start they might have. This way we don’t have to worry about the guards at the known entrances flapping their lips, even if we pay them off. Nobody’s going to miss this trash…”

Stepping over one of the bodies as they entered.

And was immediately greeted by a miasma of squalor that made the fetid air outside smell pristine by comparison.

“Damn!” Freedan gagged, holding a handkerchief over his nose. “What died in here?”

“A lot of things, I would imagine,” was Rawne’s toneless response. “It’s still not too late to return to the mansion. Just because there hasn’t been a peep out of our quarry doesn’t—”

“I already told you,” Freedan hissed, “I want to see that brat die with my own two eyes. If they haven’t tried to go to the authorities already, it means they chose to go after the treasure. I’m not letting either get away from me now, not after all these years.”

Couldn’t facepalm hard enough at how cliché the secret passage in Vandenberg Manor turned out to be, like something out of a hundred cheesy movies he’d seen back in New Cali, let alone at where it let out.

“My informants reported several unidentified individuals causing a scene when they passed this way, only hours ago,” Rawne informed him, “but I’ve also got my people keeping an eye on the seaport.”

“He’s not going to run away.”

“Of course not,” Rawne concurred as they strode deeper into the gloom, illuminated now only by lamps and flashlights. “And neither will that impostor. But they’re obviously not from around here, and I want to know how they got here. If they have any friends, or a ship, we could use that as leverage.”

“And what of the butler, Sebastian?” Freedan asked. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find him down here, too.”

“Definitely not coming down here, as I figured,” Rawne replied. “Not only is he too old— too soft— to be crawling around a place like this, but my eyes in the harbor last saw him taking the ferry to Amarrah, though he gave them the slip not long after he arrived. Most likely hiding out somewhere, waiting. At least I’ve taken measures to ensure that he can’t get anywhere near the Assembly Hall without being intercepted.”

“I was hoping we could bring him along as a hostage,” Freedan shrugged. “It would serve him right, after causing so much interference back there…”

Leaving behind four men to guard the lower entrance, they proceeded through a gaping hole in the wall, into a passage visibly older than anything above it.

“Either way, it looks like the Assembly won’t be an issue if they’re down here,” Freedan mused, “it’s almost a shame we cleaned up after the incident. We could have spun it as a kidnapping and ransom gone wrong— complete with Squatters to blame for it— but I guess we’ll just have to settle for the Young Master losing his grip and getting ‘lost’ down here instead. Pity he’ll never be found.”

“I would have preferred a smaller company,” Rawne told him, “as it will be all but impossible to sneak up on them with these numbers, but those three strangers are a troublesome bunch, that much we’ve already seen. And of course there’s the matter of your personal safety.”

“Just leave the boy to me,” Freedan told him. “You handle the impostor and his friends. With them out of the way, we can finally leave this Low End dump and go back to New Cali. With the Vandenberg fortune at our disposal, and your crew to back us, we’ll make a killing, and be up in the Towers in no time. I can finally take back my life…”

“We also need to make sure to do something about the butler,” Rawne pointed out. “He already knew too much, even before last night’s incident, now he’s just another loose end. I’ve already left word for my contacts on Amarrah to start looking into it, but we’re probably going to have to take a bigger group when this is over. We can’t leave this many witnesses behind here.”

“Yes, yes,” Freedan agreed. “Fortunately, we have a ship that can hold it all, and a crew we can hire on when the time comes.”

“I will get back to them about that as soon as possible,” Rawne replied. “Word on the street is that Mercer is still looking for a buyer—”

Somewhere farther down the passage, they were interrupted by an echoing scream, followed by several indistinct shouts and noises.

“That must be them!” Freedan whispered triumphantly.

“No more talking from here out,” Rawne ordered his men. “Whoever’s out there, they haven’t noticed us yet.” Motioning them forward, he said, “We can still get the drop on them if we’re quiet.”

Freedan nodded, grinning from ear to ear at the thought of being the ones to spring the trap this time.