A few men and women gathered around where Dodger was waiting when the gate was opened and a few inmates were released. She had no trouble spotting Yellow-Eyes as the only Argonian. He locked eyes on her immediately and fairly ran to embrace her.
“Dodger! Are you okay!? I’m so sorry! I never…” he asked.
“Runt, don’t you mean?” she interrupted him, laughing. “I’m fine… dad. They lied to you. I was in my own cell and there were only two others there. Plus, they were kind of nice anyway.”
“Really? You’re fine?” he asked as they headed away from the prison.
“Really.”
“Dodger, I’m really happy you’re all right. I imagined the worst.”
“I think that’s what they wanted. But shouldn’t you be calling me ‘Runt’?” she asked.
“Probably, but I’m not acting anymore. I should never have asked you to come inside with me. But you’re right. Let’s get back to the inn,” he said, then hesitated. “No. Let’s go to a restaurant instead. My treat.”
Dodger looked at the big Argonian. She realized that her time with him made her suspicious of his motivation. Did he really care about her, or was it all an act? She realized she really couldn’t tell. In the long run, she could only trust him or not. He’d never lied to her as far as she knew, so she decided she might as well go on trusting him.
“Sounds good… dad,” she said and held his hand.
The day passed slowly, but he didn’t discuss anything about his plans. He told her he would wait for Veronica that night instead and then he’d tell them both what he’d learned. Instead they spent the day walking around the city with Yellow-Eyes pointing out various places of interest, and not just places of interest to tourists. He showed her where merchants tossed out their stale bread that the ‘urban outdoorsmen’ could eat. He showed her cubbies and untenanted buildings where someone ‘on the lam’ could hole up for a few days. And he told her about all the laws that could get you into trouble if you were from a rural area and didn’t know the rules. By the time they returned to their room, her feet were exhausted but her mind was spinning. She spent the next hours making extensive notes in her notebook, which was quickly getting filled up.
It was early evening when the knocks came.
“Alone,” Veronica’s voice said from behind the door, and he opened the door for her. This time she was dressed very differently, and Dodger admitted that she rather missed the outrageous outfit of the previous night. Now she was dressed in a dark but well tailored outfit, her hair tied back and a sword at her side.
Dodger sat on the bed, but very much alert as the two sat at the small table.
“Veronica, it is impossible. I think I’ve got a way in. It’s dangerous, but it offers a way out again. But there’s no way I can deal with the guards. The best time is around 4am. The night watch is getting tired and the morning watch hasn’t come on yet. I expect your assassin is being held in the Solitary wing, but a guard is stationed at the only way into that wing at all times, and he sits facing outward. He doesn’t sleep either. They’re good guards.”
“But, you found a way in and out? Of the Imperial prison?! Through the sewers I bet. That’s what Johan was thinking.”
“No. The sewers are a maze, and the guards know them perfectly well. Anyone trying to escape through the sewers is bound to get lost or mauled by the rats that live there, and the guards would be on him long before he found his way out. Plus there are traps and wards there. That is a suicide’s escape. No, there’s a better way. But it doesn’t matter because we can’t get past the guards.”
Veronica sat back and looked at Yellow-Eyes a long time before sighing deeply and saying, “I can get rid of some of the guards, if you can tell me which ones.”
“You?! How? You don’t go in the field.” Yellow-Eyes asked, incredulous.
“You tell me which I need to get rid of, and I’ll tell you how,” Veronica said, looking sad.
“Only two really. The one at the entrance to the Solitary ward and there’s also an area near the torture room that needs to be cleared. The guard there paces from the torture room to main cells and back.”
“That’s all? Just those two? That seems impossible.”
“That’s all. It will take about 20 minutes, tops. But I won’t tell you how until you need to know. The less people that know, till we’re ready, the better.”
“I’ll need to get out too,” Veronica said, her eyes closed in thought. “I can’t leave the way I come in. But I can get to the torture chamber.”
“You? Veronica, I only planned for one field op and the target to get out.”
“You can’t do two?”
Yellow-Eyes looked directly at Dodger. “Not without help.”
“Her? What can she do?”
Yellow-Eyes ignored the question. “Dodger, after last night, I have no right at all to ask this of you. But if this plan is going to work, and Veronica has a way to get rid of the guards, I can’t do it without you.”
“So you are going in the field too?” Veronica asked him. “I thought you might have to.”
“It’s the only way I know.”
Dodger spoke up then. “I’ll go.”
Yellow-Eyes spoke in a quiet, serious tone, “I guess I don’t have to tell you how dangerous this is, right? This is death-penalty stuff Dodger.”
Dodger looked at Veronica. She didn’t know what Veronica was going to have to do to get rid of those guards, but it was obviously something serious.
“I’m in too deep to turn back now, Yellow-Eyes. I’ll go.”
Yellow-Eyes turned back to Veronica, who looked like she was about to throw up. “Veronica, how will you get rid of the guards?” Yellow-Eyes demanded.
The face that looked up at him was expressionless. “You know what I used to do, before I met you and Johan.”
Yellow-Eyes blurted out, “No!”
“It’s the only way. I know the Captain of the guard. He… likes me.”
“Johan would never let you do that. He may be an arrogant, ambitious asshole, but he loves you.”
Veronica looked at the big Argonian, her face now stern. “He doesn’t need to know.”
“Even if you took him out, how would that get rid of the other guards?”
“I’ll demand we do it in the torture chamber. He’ll dismiss that guard while we’re… busy. And I’ll tell him I get loud and the guard of Solitary is too close. He’ll have to go too.”
“So what will you do about the Captain himself? You can’t kill the Captain of the guard!”
“I’ve got something from an alchemist. Some sort of elixir. Smells terrible but if you pour some on a cloth and hold it over the nose, it renders them unconscious for a little while. It’s quick too.”
Yellow-Eyes thought about that. “Then you don’t have to actually…”
“I do, Kem. He’s not stupid. He wouldn’t take me in there unless he knew I would do it. I need to start a relationship with him beforehand. A week before preferably but we don’t have that much time.”
“And I need a day to find out something. Are you sure he’s worth it Veronica? Johan?”
“No. Not really. But I have no choice Kem. I’m… pregnant. I need to get out of this business. But there’s something else you need to know Kem. Grey is the assassin.”
“Grey? Wait, WHAT? Grey wouldn’t hurt a mouse, let alone kill someone!”
“You don’t know her as well as you think you do, Kem. She is the assassin. You know how stealthy she is. She snuck up behind the target and put a knife to his throat, as planned.”
“No. I don’t believe it. Why would she do that? Even for you and Johan?”
“Johan blackmailed her I think. He knows something about her. I don’t know what, but she agreed to do it.”
“No wonder she put that fail-safe letter in place in case she was caught.”
Veronica nodded.
“And she would have had plenty of opportunity to find out who you and Johan are in ‘real life’,” Yellow-Eyes continued. “Veronica, when this is over, it’s going to be all I can do to keep from killing Johan myself. Turning Grey into an assassin? He’s a cruel, cruel man.”
“Well, if you’re not going to tell me how you’re getting in yet, I guess I’d better get going. I have to go find the Captain.”
“Sorry Veronica. I met him yesterday. He’s not a nice man.”
“Perfect match. I’m not a nice woman,” Veronica said, standing up and crossing to the door. “Thanks again Kem. And you too Dodger. When this is over… well, I’ll make sure you’re both well compensated anyway.”
Yellow-Eyes unlocked the door and she left quietly. Yellow-Eyes stood at the door a long time, lost in thought before turning back to Dodger. “I’m going to be busy tomorrow, Dodger. You can do whatever you like. I’ll leave you some money before I go. Go have a good time.”
Dodger brightened up. She knew just where she was going tomorrow.
“And Dodger… if this should go wrong, please believe me. I’m sorry.”
“It won’t go wrong. Though I’m awfully curious what your plan is.”
“You won’t like it. Grey and Veronica will really not like it. But I can’t do it without you. And, if I know Johan, he’d try some lame plan through the sewers and get Grey and Veronica killed if we don’t,” Yellow-Eyes said, then looked out the opaque window.
The wan light illuminated his face, though whatever he was seeing, it wasn’t anything outside. “At least now I understand her desperation. Pregnant. That’ll change a woman.”
bdfanfic 