Half a Mimic - The Cutthroat Chronicles (A LitRPG Series) by Deck Davis

Author:Deck Davis [Davis, Deck]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

The chest must have taken at least six sailors to drag it from the Wanton ship and to the metalworks, but Yulf managed the carry it to the hideout by himself. When we got back, I was so pissed at Tilde I could have strangled her.

“Go deal with the dead sailors,” I told her. “I don’t even wanna look at ya. Yulf, do you mind going with her, buddy?”

Yulf nodded and the two of them exited the hideout. This left me and Mags alone with our bounty. Mags made us some coffee and I went to the bathroom and I washed my face and my armpits and I let the adrenaline leave me until I felt calmer. Then I headed back downstairs.

“Are we going to open it now?” Mags asked when I rejoined him.

“One second.”

As much as I was desperate to see the cargo, I needed a plan to deal with Tilde. Mags would have good input on the matter, but he was Tilde’s friend and he’d known her a lot longer than he’d known me. I decided I couldn’t trust him on this.

Trying to rationalize what the hell had happened, one thing was clear to me.

Tilde wasn’t stable. Not a bit. She didn’t need to kill those guys, but she did it anyway.

“Sir?” said Magpie.

“Yeah?”

“About Tilde.”

“C’mon, Mags. If you’re gonna tell me it’s just a fuckin’ quirk of her personality that she kills people…”

“Tilde found something out, sir. About the Wanton.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“She only let me know after you were in the warehouse.”

“Alright then,” I said. “Spill.”

“The Wanton isn’t the ship’s only name. Tilde found out that six months ago, it docked in Lanebridge Port with ‘Saltermass’ painted on the side. A year earlier, it sailed into Golden Claw as the ‘Possible’.”

“Alright, so what? It ain’t unusual for smuggler ships to have a false name. It’s the ship equivalent of our costume box upstairs.”

“Okay, sir. Yes. But the thing is, Tilde found out that the Golden Claw navy has a ‘sink on sight’ order put out on the Possible.”

“Sink on sight? That’s only for-”

“Slavers. Yes, sir. The Possible and its crew have been trafficking folks out of colonies in the east. Kids, usually. Sometimes teenage girls. And they’ve been bringing them over here for. Well. You know what for.”

“Shit.”

“Yes, sir. I thought the same.”

“You’re telling me there’s a whole ship full of kidnapped kids docked in Pennywrote?”

Mags shook his head. “No, sir. They aren’t smuggling people this time. But that didn’t matter to Tilde when she heard about its past.”

“I saw her, Mags. Killing those chumps wasn’t for the hell of it. It meant something to her.”

“Sir.”

“Look. I appreciate you telling me. But-”

“I’ve known Tilde for years, sir. If you’re on her side, you’re on her side. She’d kill for you. I’d trust her more than anyone.”

“I don’t even wanna think about that right now. Let’s just get this chest open.”

“Sir.”

Although I was much better at picking padlocks now, some of these ones looked sophisticated and I knew I’d struggle with them.

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