The door opened to admit a short man in dark clothing and an overhanging hood. There were three people already in the room, one in a chair behind a desk, the other two standing at either side of it, as if waiting. The one that was seated, a balding, slightly overweight human, spoke first. "Strings?"
In response, the hooded figure slowly approached the desk, empty hands held high, then leaned over it and pulled back his hood ever so slightly for a moment before straightening.
The man behind the desk seemed satisfied and removed two pouches, one small and one large and set them down on the desk with a clank. "Well, I'm not sure why you wanted so much secrecy this time, but I take it the usual payment is fine? One quarter for coming, the rest if, as usual, we like what you have for us?" He slid the smaller pouch across the table.
"No," said the hooded figure, sliding the pouch back. "For this, I don't want gold. I have a different request. Take off your shirts and gloves. All of you. Then I'll speak."
The two men on either side of the desk, large burly types, looked to the seated man and back to the hooded figure in confusion and annoyance. "Is this some kind of joke?" asked the seated man after a moment.
"No," replied the hooded figure. "I have information I think the guild wants, and I want the guild to have it, but this is my price. Take off your shirts and gloves."
The seated figure contemplated this for a moment before answering. "Well, Strings, you've done well by us before, but gods help you if you don't have a reason for this, because it's going to cost you." He nodded to the figures standing on either side and then started unbuttoning his shirt.
Once the three were appropriately undressed, the hooded figure began examining them. He stopped for a moment at the large brawny man on his left to take a closer look at a tattoo of a heart with the word "Mother" inscribed in it on the man's shoulder. "You have a problem with it?" growled the man through clenched teeth."
"Not at all; it's very touching," said the figure lightly, and continued on to pause for a moment to examine a ring on the left hand of the seated figure, and then the last man on the other side. Finally, he nodded and removed two pieces of folded paper and a ring from a bag.
"The guild has a problem," he said smoothly. "I'm guessing you've been seeing some of your operations disrupted, contracts lost, and some of the agents you've sent to look into it have disappeared. That's because you have a new competitor, which you probably already guessed. What you might not yet have guessed is that they all bear tattoos that look like this, usually on the chest." He unfolded the first piece of paper to reveal a stylized wolf's head. "They also wear rings like these," and he dropped the ring on top of the paper, "on the middle finger of the right hand." He paused. "Oh, you can get dressed again, by the way. Your manly figures make me envious."
"Now, I suspect that about a month ago, things got quiet again for a while," he continued as the two bodyguards put their clothes back on. "This isn't because they gave up and went away, but because they had something of a setback. They will almost certainly, however, be back, and if you don't do something about it, you'll find them running things eventually. They have an advantage, you see, the reason why you've probably had a hard time sending agents after them. They're werewolves."
The man behind the desk, who had left his shirt ignored in favor of the ring and the paper, looked up and stared hard at the cloaked figure, who was toying idly with the piece of paper he was still holding.
"Ah," said the figure, "something that you hadn't yet guessed, or at least weren't sure about. I assure you that my source on this is highly reliable. I suggest you recommend to whoever it is that you recommend things that the guild invest in silvered, or if possible, mithril weapons. This is a list of all the people I've seen with either the ring or the tattoo or both, and where I saw them, in case you want to start cleaning house." He let the second piece of paper fall to the desk.
"How are you involved in this?" asked the seated man, picking up the second paper.
"Me?" The hooded figure's voice sounded genuinely surprised. "Oh, I don't get involved in such things. I just collect and tell stories. I hope this one was to your liking, and you're not too upset about the price."
The seated man shook his head. "It was well spent."
"Then I suggest you ask it of anyone else you to whom you tell this story, because I suspect they may have people in the guild, and I don't know how far up. Anything else you wanted to know?"
The seated man shook his head again, still reading the list of names and places. "This will do."
The hooded figure nodded and left, leaving the two large men to stare after him, looking anywhere but at the shirtless figure between them.
Copyright © 2004-2005 by Zed Pobre. All rights reserved. This text is NOT available under a Creative Commons license.
