If he didn’t know it housed a noble’s secret organisation, Gunnar would have thought the warehouse he stood before was just another abandoned shed. That was kind of the point of secret bases and the like though.

He had followed the directions exactly, down various streets, walkways and bridges, the closer he got the quieter it grew. In fact he had only seen a single other person down this street, a clearly drunk man sleeping on a dilapidated bench. A few bodies here and there, but they were even worse company. Walther really chose his headquarters carefully, if it was his headquarters.

As with most warehouses there was one large garage door and a smaller man sized door next to it, both locked tight, but next to the normal door sat an old keypad. It might have worked, but it wasn’t the method Gunnar was given to get inside. He knocked on the door, waiting a few seconds for an answer, but he received none.

He sighed. ‘Of Mice,’ he grumbled.

After a few seconds there was the shuffling of movement on the other side. ‘And men,’ a voice replied as the door began to screech open.

Gunnar paced waiting for the door to open, it was quite agonisingly slow. ‘You were happy to give me a secret code but not the code for the keypad?’

Behind the very thick door Oswin’s face appeared, he furrowed his brow at the mercenary. ‘Keypad’s fake, doesn’t open anything, it’s just there to confuse thieves and squatters.’

Gunnar lifted his head and scoffed. ‘You know. That’s a decent idea actually, tricked me.’

‘Oh.’ Oswin seemed a little surprised. ‘Uh, thanks.’ Gunnar was almost certain that was the first thanks he had received from the man. He moved out of the way to let Gunnar in, then closed the door as fast as he could.

They stood in a decently sized workshop style room, a lot of workbenches, a few old and decrepit deskpads and no windows or doors, but it clearly wasn’t the whole warehouse. Anyone who did manage to break in here would just think it’s a workhouse at first glance.

‘There another layer of security or something? A secret door?’ he asked, tapping various parts of the far wall.

Oswin walked to one of the busted old deskpads seemingly at random. ‘There’s as many layers as we need.’ He pressed a series of buttons then the screen sprung open revealing a smaller and far more modern cellpad inside the frame. After another few taps on this new pad the wall Gunnar stood by began to lift from its foundation, not just one small part. The whole wall was a secret door.

The rest of the warehouse revealed itself behind the hidden wall. In the middle of the room sat a lot of modern tech, a few weird instruments and a small group of folk working with them. Three in total, not including Oswin or Walther who was currently nowhere to be seen.

On the side Gunnar had entered from there was a mini garage near the main door. Walthers van, a large luxurious vehicle and a couple of old banged up dweller machines. Even those were a rare sight in the lower city. Around them were more workbenches and wires hooked up to the van. A nearby deskpad had various specs for the van on it.

Meanwhile over on the far end of the warehouse Walther walked out of a small room with blacked out windows that sat in the corner, it must have been his office. He walked over to the rest of the group and made eye contact with Gunnar, waving him over.

The three new faces were working on individual stations, two women and a rough looking man. One of the women had a few large desks with a few old and torn maps of the service tunnels and a few deskpads sitting around her. There was a hand drawn map of Sector 14 with highlights that appeared to denote the various riots over the past few weeks. Another map hanging on a nearby wall had all of the Sinmans murders scattered across it. The owner looked young and fresh faced, a few years Gunnar’s junior at least. Pale skin, multicoloured hair of green, violet and turquoise and a few freckles with an energetic bounce to her movement.

As for the other woman, she looked to be older than Gunnar, though probably not out of her forties. She had shaved sides with a styled tuft of hair sitting on the top of her head and dark skin. Half a dozen sockets were built into the back of her head with various wires jutting out plugged into nearby industrial sized pads. The industrial machines surrounded her. This woman was clearly a Breaker.

Finally there was the rough looking man, wearing a flat cap and missing half of his teeth. Gunnar had seen a dozen similar men fall in with gangers. He had a bunch of his own maps pinned to a board, this board seemed to focus on posse locations, rumours and general ground level information. He had some of the younger woman’s documents at hand nearby.

When Gunnar reached the tables, the three stopped their work to look up at him, Walther stood in the middle of their space, smiling at the mercenary. ‘I can finally bid you welcome, Gunnar Vaen.’

Gunnar noticed that both the Breaker and the flatcap wearing man didn’t have the most welcoming expressions. The other woman seemed the friendly sort though, judging by her smile. He waved half heartedly. ‘Hey there.’

Walther wandered round the table and tapped Gunnar shoulder, nudging him closer to the work stations. ‘Alright, quick introductions. These three already know about you Gunnar, so it’s just gonna be one-sided.’ He walked over to the colourful woman first, who was staring at Gunnar. ‘This is Wen-Lian. She’s got a photographic memory and has an obsession with maps and history. Knows almost as much about noble families as I do.’

The woman in question still just sat staring at Gunnar. ‘Uh, nice to meet you?’ He stuck out his hand.

She blinked and stood up in a panic. ‘O-ooh! Yesh. Sorry, nice to meet you!’ She shook Gunnar’s hand enthusiastically.

‘Are you alright?’ He smirked.

She sat herself back down and nodded. ‘Uhuh, sorry. Just been watching you work this whole time but never seen you up close. Wasn’t expecting… Uh anyway nice to meet you,’ she blurted out and spun back around. Gunnar couldn’t help but smile. This girl was a breath of fresh air, even if she didn’t know it she wore her feelings openly.

The old man moved away from Wen-Lian with a shake of his head and stood by the breaker, who sat cross armed scowling at Gunnar. ‘This is Slaine, our resident breaker.’

‘Slaine’s not a real name surely? We doing code names at this little club?’ Gunnar joked.

She shrugged. ‘I am.’ The Breaker sat forward and adjusted the wiring in her skull to sit more comfortably. ‘You only have a few cybernetic enhancements and they’re all years outdated, why?’

Gunnar rolled his eyes. ‘This shit again,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Look, I’m happy with what I’ve got and don’t want anymore, why does everyone care so much?’

Slaine slapped a button on a nearby console causing the wires to hiss and pop off her skull, she then stood up and walked to Gunnar, hands on her hip. ‘We’re gonna be putting our lives in your hands, yet you refuse to be the best you can be, I’m entitled to know why. You’re not a “Pure Humanity” headcase, since you have a few, so what are you?’

She stood a head shorter than Gunnar, that didn’t stop her from trying to look as intimidating as possible. Trying and half succeeding. Gunnar stood himself tall to match her, dwarfing the breaker. ‘I’m done with this conversation. I’m more than capable without enhancements. In fact I’d run circles around most of the enhanced fuckers in this city. I don’t need them.’

Before the conversation could get any more heated, Walther moved in between them. ‘Now now Slaine, you’ve watched the footage too, Mr Vaen is plenty competent.’ Walther turned to Gunnar. ‘Please don’t make enemies with my other employees.’ He tapped Gunnar’s arm and turned him to the last of the group. To their sides Slaine sat back down, still shooting daggers through him.

Said final employee took his hat off and bowed his head, despite the fact he also didn’t look too happy to see the mercenary. ‘You can call me Juju, and yes that is my actual name. Parents must’ve had a fucked up sense of humour.’ His actions and expressions were not matching up.

Walther moved between them a hand on both their shoulders. ‘Juju is my eyes and ears on the street. Drones do a good job as cameras, but having ground level eyes is just as important,’ he smiled at the man. ‘Juju knows someone in every block of the city.’

Gunnar nods, he couldn’t tell if this was worth all the wait. Just three experts in their fields, it didn’t seem like much. ‘I thought there’d be more of you to be honest.’

Juju scoffed, he then followed with an eye roll. ‘Obviously there’s more, but we ain’t ever met em, and you definitely won’t. We’re the sector 14 cell. Keeps security better if cells know as little as possible about each other.’

The mercenary lent against a nearby pillar, crossing his arms. ‘Is there a cell for every sector then?’

His elderly boss tapped his nose. ‘That’s also something I keep close to my chest. All you need to know is that there are more and every single one works towards the same goal. Though I will admit you’re the first mercenary I’ve ever hired. Aside from Breakers.’

‘Not a fan of mercs?’

‘Mercenaries are unpredictable violent brutes. From what I’ve seen you’re no different,’ Juju snarled.

A spinning chair echoed in the warehouse behind them as Slaine tapped away on a nearby pad. ‘I wouldn’t call him a brute, not according to his records anyway. Unpredictable and violent stack up though.’

The mercenary tried to contain the pangs of rage that kept rising in his chest. He had only just got here, proving just how violent or brutish he could be wasn’t the most mature option, and might actually be too predictable. He breathed out. ‘Can I request that you don’t look at my private files?’ he smiled at Slaine.

She looked him over briefly and turned her chair back around all but ignoring him. ‘You can request it. Doesn’t mean I’ll listen.’

Gunnar stared at her dumbfounded. ‘Is this really the elite crew you want ME to work with?’ he asked his boss.

Walther laughed wide with hands on his slightly rotund belly. ‘The better someone is at something, the more eccentric they become. Not like that should be a surprise.’

‘Aww come on Gunnar Vaen, these two grow on ya. Besides, Juju’s completely harmless, big softie inside.’ Wen-Lian joined in the conversation.

Not seeming to like Wen-Lian’s description of him Juju scowled and turned back to his work Walther, still smiling, clapped his hands and moved to a desk near Wen-Lian’s work surface. He tapped it. ‘This’ll be your desk Gunnar.’

On top of it sat a deskpad and a few weapon cases and ammo boxes, on the floor next to it was a weapons rack. Gunnar found himself oddly overwhelmed. ‘I have a desk? I thought I was just a field agent?’

‘What you don’t usually do prep work? Don’t ever do research?’ Juju mocked him without looking up from his work.

Gunnar didn’t really show much of a reaction to his taunting. ‘Yeah, of course I do. Just… Never had a job like this before I guess.’

For whatever reason, this felt nice. A desk was something he had never had, it spoke of mundane jobs that most dwellers could only dream of. Obviously this was nothing on the level of a high up administration job and it definitely wasn’t cushiony, but it was a desk. The mercenary found it oddly endearing.

His employer watched him staring at the desk for half a minute then moved in front of his vision. ‘Right. Well, feel free to stick around and get to know the team if you want, but I don’t currently have an active job for you,’ he tapped the mercenary’s shoulder then went to turn around, but Gunnar’s hand stopped him.

He had just remembered part of the reason he had come here. ‘I almost forgot,’ he said. Reaching for his pocket, Gunnar pulled the wrapped tail of Puppet and gestured for Walther to take it. ‘Don’t unwrap it in your hands,’ he warned.

Though hesitant, Walther took the tail from Gunnar’s hands, clearly having no idea of what it could be. Both Juju and Wen-Lian showed curiosity too, crowding around him as he placed it on an empty desk. Oswin also wandered over.

Slowly Walther unwrapped it, his expression growing wider and wider, until it was completely out in the open. Walther looked at Gunnar. ‘Is this?’ Gunnar nodded. Walther looked back. ‘You said the armour was impenetrable.’

‘It was. Or still is I suppose. At least with any conventional weapon, I saw a rocket launcher blast off one of their fingers, but that was about it.’ He pointed at the base of the tail, the cut off point. Still splattered with toxic blood, it omitted a sickly sweet smell. ‘It was thanks to this, the acidic toxins in a cultist’s blood.’

‘Cultist?’ Juju murmured.

Gunnar nodded. ‘The Gospel of Puinsee. You ever met any? Reason they wear those outfits is because their bodies are filled with this fucked up gas, their blood seems to hold it concentrated. Melt right through flesh and metal.’

Wen Lian pointed at it, looking a little worried. ‘S-so is this the big bad beast’s tail that you were talking about, boss?’

Walther pulled a monocular eye glass from his pocket, it had enough micro tech built into it to cost more than Gunnar would’ve ordinarily earned in a year. He had assumed the old noble had actual eye enhancements, even Gunnar had a few of those, but he did wear glasses and looked to be using the eye glass to inspect the rusted tail. There were assumptions to be made as to why, but it didn’t seem pertinent to the situation at hand.

The old man pulled the glass close to his eye and silently mouthed a few words to himself, he pulled away. ‘Yeah. Can’t imagine what else this belongs to,’ he stroked his well groomed beard. ‘So the rusted parts, that’s where this cultist gas blood hit?’

‘Hit and stained, just don’t touch it with your bare hands yeah? It’s not as potent now, but look at the cloth.’ The mercenary pointed out the cloth wrappings he had used, several layers had already been melted by the blood.

Walther backed away, dropping the part of the cloth he had been holding onto, Juju and Oswin did too. Juju recovered quickly and grasped Gunnar’s collar. ‘You couldn’t have led with that?’ he growled.

‘Honestly I’m just glad I got here when I did, before it started eating through my jacket.’

A hand grasped Juju’s. ‘Enough. Nobody’s hurt, though I would prefer a more concise report next time,’ Walther gave Gunnar a scowling glance, he could only smirk a little in reply. ‘Besides,’ he turned back to the tail. ‘I had Slaine check over every datastick I had on this cybernetic monstrosity. They were supposed to be nigh impervious. The fact that we’ve found something that can do damage? This is the best news I’ve had in a while.’

He turned around to make sure everyone in the room held his gaze, that they were listening. ‘This Puppet isn’t just some minor annoyance. They aren’t a small roadblock in my plans. They’re a brick wall, and we’ve been working with butter knives trying to cut a hole through. Now, we just might have a sledgehammer.’

Gunnar looked around. ‘I know you got tech here, but not seeing anything that could do the job.’

‘What? To analyse it?’ Walther rolled the thought around his mouth. ‘There’s some basic equipment round back, got it in an auction the Liberty Guard put on. Not going to cut it though,’ he looked between Oswin and Slaine breathing a thoughtful sigh. ‘Not my first choice, but might be the only one. Oswin, contain the tail and escort Slaine to Founders Doubt.’ The old man looked to Slaine. ‘Slaine, get ready to spend a little while amongst nobles.’

Slaine stared blankly at her boss. ‘I’m not leaving that lab, the bootsucker can deal with the nobles.’ She took the wires out of her head once again and folded a portapad, holding it under her arm. Oswin had already run to a set of lockers to retrieve a high security carrying case, or HSCC for short. He did not react to Slaines insult.

She rolled her eyes, but stood up as her boss had ordered. The breaker walked to one of the vehicles, the luxurious looking one and opened one of the rear doors. ‘Hurry up Ozz,’ she demanded before shutting the door.

Oswin didn’t say much in retaliation, just a few irritated grunts as he opened the case, using a pair of tongs to pick up the tail, which started to sizzle even now, burning the surface layer of the metal tongs just a bit.

After dropping the tail in a protective case, he made his way to a metal chute built into the side of the warehouse and threw the tongs in, falling into an incinerator below. Happy with the now closed case and safe from the blood, Oswin bowed at Walther and lifted his hat at the other two before grumbling a farewell to Gunnar as well. He hopped in the driver seat of the luxurious vehicle and waited for the great door of the warehouse to open, allowing him to leave.

Gunnar had been watching, quite amused as the man was ordered around, grumbling all the way. When the door finally closed behind them, the mercenary turned back to Walther. ‘Just let me know if you get anything, the sooner the better.’

‘You’re part of the team now, you’ll know as soon as we do,’ Walther patted his shoulder. ‘Now, I need to send a few messages to a certain noble before those two reach her. You try to get to know the rest of the team.’ With that the old man walked off to his little corner office. Not what anyone would expect for one born in luxury. Gunnar looked around the room at the other two remaining in it, both of which had already gotten back to work as Slaine and Oswin were leaving.

He decided to approach the friendlier of the two, who was back to pouring over a few maps of the nearby neighbourhoods. Gunnar lent over her shoulder and noticed that she wasn’t using the deskpad, instead she was writing in a paper journal, a fancy looking thing. ‘That can’t have been cheap.’

Wen-Lian jumped out of her skin and scattered a few papers in her panic. As she darted around her desk to pick them back up she looked at the mercenary. ‘G-Gu- Mr Vaen, you surprised me.’

He raised his hands. ‘Uh, sorry?’

‘It’s fine. I was just… What was it you said?’ Gunnar went to point at her journal but she carried on before he could say anything. ‘Ah yeah! My journal.’ She smiled. ‘I’ve always preferred the physical over the digital. Pads are useful, incredibly so, I get it, but feeling the paper between your fingers, the data you’ve written down? It’s far more fulfilling.’

‘Can’t be cheap though.’

She shook her head. ‘Of course not, but if you hadn’t noticed our boss isn’t either. Wouldn’t have dreamt of getting such beautiful books before I started working for Walther.’

There was no argument to be had there. It was clear that Wen-Lian was the most welcoming of Walther’s little group. Experts they might have been, but sociable they were not. If he followed what his illustrious boss had said, Wen-Lian could also help him right now. If she was an expert on the old parts of the city, she might know another Gospel church location. Or hopefully something that could start him off on his search at least.

‘Uh,’ Wen-Lian’s voice wavered. ‘Was there something else?’

Gunnar looked back down and realised he was just standing right next to her chair as she looked up at him. He had become completely lost in his own thoughts and had done something most might find a little off putting. ‘Sorry. I wanted to ask you something related to your, uh knowledge on the city?’

She stuttered, but slowly regained her composure. ‘Uh, sure. From what I understand your own knowledge is pretty decent, but I’ll help you how I can.’

The mercenary scratched his scalp, the shaved sides of his head were starting to grow and itch, he realised he hadn’t had a trim in a while and his beard must have looked rough too. ‘Curious if you know any of the Gospels’ church locations? Or maybe at least shrines or places they’ve been spotted?’

She blinked. ‘Honestly you’re the one that got the biggest fish in that particular pond right? Finding the actual church of Puinsee. I mean sure there are a couple of smaller shrines and sects around but that’s the big one, been looking for it for years. I’m honestly impressed.’ She looked at Gunnar with awe in her eyes.

It was something that made Gunnar uncomfortable, friendship was fine and all, but admiration? Wasn’t something he had seen much off and he didn’t deal with it well. Especially considering it wasn’t even him that did most of the work. ‘Well. It was more the Barnett sisters than me… Wait.’ His brain took a second to catch up, but Gunnar honed in on something she said. Other shrines and sects? ‘So you do know some of the other sects?’

Wen-Lian nodded. Gunnar rubbed his chin. ‘Does a speaker that goes by the name of Davon mean anything to you?’

The bubbly girl looked away as she thought, then, her expression soured. ‘Ah. Yeah, I think I have heard that name, though what little I’ve heard hasn’t been great. It was a little difficult to pick up rumours on the street with only Juju acting as our ears, but the few Gospel pads Slaines managed to hack into don’t tell great stories.’

‘That about matches up to what I’d been told. What I don’t know is where he is. So any ideas?’

She pressed her tongue to her cheek then turned around, pulling open one of the draws of her desk. This particular draw had been filled with a dozen or so journals, each with a different label on it. She pulled out one simply labeled ‘religion’ flipping through its pages. ‘Ah!’ She stopped on a page near the end. ‘I can tell you where Devon and his followers were last seen in the city. They suddenly up and disappeared one day some twenty years ago.’

It was twenty years ago that they had lost Aethelstans family, so that certainly added up. The Speaker wasn’t lying, at least about this. Gunnar’s mind drifted for a moment. Every time he thought about the Speaker or Puinsee he felt his pulse quicken. The existence of a God was pretty world breaking, if that’s truly what Puinsee was. Part of him just wanted to scream about it then bury his head in his pillow for a few days, he was having to ignore a quite genuine life changing discovery because he had far too much work to do. ‘You ever been there?’

Wen-Lian looked up from her journal. ‘What? To Devon’s church? No, somehow it’s not my idea of a good time… I much prefer staying here, looking over maps. The city is…’ Her voice trembled a little.

Despite her upbeat personality, Wen-Lian still clearly grew up in Juniper City, so there was no way she had gotten this far without suffering in some way or another. There was no judgement to be thrown for how she chose to deal with it, everyone dealt with the city in their own way.

Gunnar’s pocket vibrated. Or his pad to be more specific. Wen-Lian had already sent the address over. It was more than a few sectors over from where he lived, at least a few hours travel time depending on how he wanted to get there. Just like Wen-Lian, that kind of journey wasn’t his idea of a good time. ‘So… What do you need Devon for? Is it related to Puppet?’

‘Nah. I just owe him a swift kick in the bollocks for a friend.’ Gunnar winked, causing the woman to giggle a little. He looked over to his boss’s office. There was little point in getting to know Juju right now, so instead he headed straight for Walther. He had no job right now, so had time to be a little freelance. Though as he passed Juju’s work station an arm reached out to grab him.

The wasn’t much strength behind it, but the grip showed determination. Juju sidled into the mercenaries line of sight. ‘If you’re going to work with us, let me get one thing out there. Don’t fuckin’ hurt Wen-Lian. She’s one of the few good hearts in this shitpile of a city. No need to stink up her soul with our own, you hear me?’ The man whispered to Gunnar with conviction, looking the mercenary in the eyes.

Gunnar was a little surprised, he had already found something to respect in Juju. Maybe it was misguided in a way, but the man looked out for his own. Once again, Gunnar wasn’t one to judge, he hid from plenty of his own problems too. He smiled as friendly as he could make it. ‘I’ll do my best not to disappoint.’

Juju let go of his arm, but he felt as though the man did not believe him one bit. Gunnar was being honest, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to tease him for being so outright hostile. He wasn’t sure how much Wen-Lian had heard, but hopefully she would at least appreciate Juju’s intentions. They didn’t need discord in this little team outside of Gunnar himself.

He tapped on Walther’s door three times and expressed a simple greeting, then let him know he was leaving. Walther told him to keep his pad on and wait to hear from him, to which Gunnar nodded. He would be back here soon enough, just had his own work to take care of first. Puppet was related to this, Gunnar knew it. In fact, it seemed far too obvious to not be the case.

As Gunnar left, the door closed behind him. For a few seconds the whole room was quiet once again save for the hums of machinery. Walther came out of the office with a smile spread across his face. ‘So, what do you guys think now that you’ve met him?’

‘I don’t trust him, Oswin doesn’t either,’ Juju growled.

Wen-Lian spun her seat around. ‘Come on Juju, the guys fun. Besides, Oswin didn’t like any of us when we first arrived. Slaine might be acting like herself but she had no actual complaints.’ She waved off Juju’s sulking.

Their boss patted the grumbling man’s shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve taken plenty of precautions just to be safe even now. I quite like the kid myself, but at the end of the day, he’s still a mercenary.’ The two got back to work and at the very least, Juju felt at least somewhat satisfied.

Back outside Gunnar gave Nati a call who answered in a very irritated voice. ‘What? Finally having a day off so you’d best not be calling about work.’

Gunnar wondered if you could have a day off from caging a growing war. ‘I’ve got a possible lead on Devon, going to check it out.’

For a moment there was silence on the other end. ‘...Have you told Aethelstan yet?’

‘No. I’m gonna wait to see if it goes anywhere. No point getting him worked up when it might be nothing. It’s taking me to the other end of the city though so keep your ears and eyes open whilst I’m gone yeah?’

He heard shifting and then more silence. ‘I did say it was my day off, didn’t I?’

‘Thanks!’ Gunnar replied.

On the other end Nati sighed. ’Just like, don’t get melted or something yeah? Gunnar smiled and ended the call throwing his pad back in his pocket. All he had to do now was journey across a war torn city that was already violent before that. There was nothing to worry about.