Like any other day: Part 1

[Chucklemonkey]

I checked my pocket watch.

It was approximately four minutes from when I had last checked it, and a full eight hours before I would check it for the last time this day and head home.

It was mid morning, but in in the windowless basement of the guild treasury it was impossible to tell night from day and the first set of wax candles had nearly come to the end of their life. There were five of us here today, not that you would know it as the only sign of life was the rustling of paper or clinking together of guild scrip. My excitement for the day had been that I had finally been given a key to enter the treasury un-supervised.

It had been four months since I had followed my heart through the breach from earth-side. The lure of a lucrative guild contract easing all thoughts as to the difficulty of the transition; as it turned out the laws in Malifaux were far more different than I had given them credit for. I had also been unaware of the additional thirty percent retention tax placed on all guild employees, and so visits to my favourite drinking establishments were so few and far between that I could but daydream about them. At least I had time for that....

Recollections of my time storming into and closing down brothels and illicit saloons, on the other side had almost completely disappeared from a memory which, like my intellect and enthusiasm, appeared to be fading fast.

I checked my pocket watch.

The red light on the department aether-vox began flashing. I grabbed it before anyone else could, thinking a conversation might break the monotony of the day. I had no clue as to how right that would turn out to be.

“Who’s that?” Screamed the voice on the other side of the vox. It was Waldorf Davis, my boss. A good and fair one all things considered. Some people said he had the ear of the Governor himself. I had no idea if this was true, but I had seen him speaking to Lucius once.

“It’s me sir, Charles” I replied.

“Ah good, Anyway listen up Charles. I have just been given the heads up on a mining company failing to pay their taxes or suppliers. I’m heading there now to take them for everything they’ve got. I want you with me Charles. Get yourself on that flea bitten horse of yours and meet me there.”

I jotted down the address before grabbing my case, leaving the basement and heading to the stables where I had parked my one horse carriage that morning. It was old, had taken one too many shunts, and had generally seen better days – much like the horse that pulled it. I dreamed of upgrading to the new carriage-master VX3000 with bucket seats and twin awnings, but my modest salary prevented me from taking that interest further. Still at least my mileage was paid at a rate of 0.4 scrips of hay per mile travelled, it was more than the horse needed and I always considered selling the surplus to a local stable-master, although I never did.

It transpired that it was a warm day in the streets of Malifaux town and I enjoyed cocking a glance at the local showgirl wannabees as they headed to open auditions that I had heard were occurring at the Star over the next few days. My carriage made its way through the winding cobbled streets to the outskirts of town.

A half hour later and I arrived. I looked around and it was clear that this had been no two-bit operation. Valuable drilling rigs and equipment were strewn about the yard and the office building looked as large as any I had seen on a similar site. The wind whipped dust about me as I headed over to Waldorf, who it seemed had already arrived, and had begun berating the foreman, who looked petrified.

I wondered why he was so scared. Surely he was under the protection of the M & SU and even Waldorf was hesitant in seizing absolute control over their assets; unless of course this was an unregulated mine.

“Charles, what the bloody hell took you so long? I thought I was going to have to do everything around here myself. Start checking the site for our security options and take an Inventory asap before those sticky fingered miners half inch everything worth half a scrip around here.”

“Yes sir, right away.”

I headed towards the entrance of the office building, carefully avoiding the stares of the twenty or so miners that had gathered nearby, knowing that this was to be their last day in the job.

Inside the building it was clear that cleanliness had not been a virtue as almost everything seemed to be covered with a thick coat of red dust. The office had nothing but a few tables and chairs that clearly had no value, the store room that I spied in the back left hand corner of the room however, would surely be more lucrative.

I entered the room and immediately began taking note of the weird and wonderful tools on display. I grabbed a chair to stand on so I could determine if the goods on the higher shelves were worth collecting – that, and I had spotted an un-opened bottle of soulstone gin up there, which may just fit into my case undetected. It was just out of reach at first, but that wasn’t going to stop me and I leaned across as far as I could.

I could feel the chair about to topple but could do nothing as I started to fall backwards.

I landed with a thump and struck my back on a locked chest. The pain was unbearable for a moment, but then anger brought me to my feet and I turned to take out my frustration on this inanimate object. Before I could do that however, I noticed two things, the first was that the chest was balanced on two planks of wood, and the second that it was locked with what appeared to be a fairly heavy duty padlock which was new, as it had not been afforded the opportunity of gathering the same film of dust that everything else in this forsaken place seemed to attract.

I grabbed the largest set of bolt cutters I could find and set to work. It soon became clear that the unit was not balanced correctly so I started moving it across the floor to ensure I could get enough leverage to break the lock. It turned out there had been a hole in the floor beneath it but I did not worry about that for the moment and again I began forcefully trying to break the lock.

I could feel it start to give, and then with a snap I knew I had it. I took a moment to consider what may be inside. I figured it may be more soulstone gin and wondered how I would manage to sneak more bottles to my carriage undetected. I licked my lips and lifted the lid......

I immediately knew it was going to be a far longer and more interesting day than any that had preceded it.

[Necromorph]

Very nice, curious to see what's in that chest, lol.

[Absolution Black]

I Love it! I like the flow of your writing style, and the quirky humour that you slip in..... 0.4 scrips of hay per mile (nice tax reference! )

Looking forward to reading the next part and finding out just how much hell, if any, is going to break loose once that chest is opened!!

[Chucklemonkey]

Many thanks for the feedback gentlemen.

You can probably tell the idea was formulated during a somewhat slow day at work. The contents of the chest should be revealed this weekend. I am loving the holiday weekends.

@ A B, I'm enjoying working my way through your stories. Should be up to speed with them soon.

[Absolution Black]

I'm glad you are enjoying them, just posted part 2 of book 4 up today!

Didn't realise there were so many until KArn complained he couldn't track them all down.. thats why i handily put all of the links in a master thread which is in my sig!