97: Wyndhund Haulage

So Guido turned up at the Templars. He had purple paint on his hands, but I think that was from scrubbing the statues in the temple, not from joining the Purple Hand. And so we had to tell him everything we did so he could be patronising about it. Vinny gave him the bird (I would like to give him the bird, mum) to have a look at. And he said well done. So I said well done to Guido for saying well done to us.

We talked about trying to find Abu Tawb who might be able to help us find Vizier Bahr. I think Blume met him at the garden party, but we didn’t know that much about him. But I think Schutzmann would probably be able to find him if he was still in town.

We decided to have a closer look at Wyndhund Haulage. Vinny said he knew some ladies whose apartment overlooked the compound (he’s a top shagger, mum) and went to have a look. And we had a walk around it. It looked like quite a large walled yard with three gateways and several buildings inside it. And it was very busy with the gates opening regularly to allow carts in and out.

Fred said that the area was largely under the control of the low kings and that there wouldn’t be much chance of the watch turning up to help if we needed them in a hurry.

Guido went in and pretended to be Gustav, a priest of Handrich. He got to speak to a foreman and explained that he might want to do business with the company, and the foreman said that the owners would contact him. Guido said he was happy to wait, but the foreman was doubtful that the owner, Herr Emmerich, would turn up.

Despite that Guido spent half an hour in the compound pretending to wait, checking it out and working out where the main office would be. He found a building that was locked, with no windows, and three fierce dogs chained up outside, and decided that would be the one we needed to get inside.

I’m not sure if Vinny found anything useful out. But whatever he did, he said it cost him two shillings. I went on a tour of the sewers to see where they met the compound, but we were in such a poor area with not very good sewerage that there weren’t any handy sewer tunnels.

Remembering Fred’s tip about surveillance, we all met up again some way from the compound. We went to the Blazing Hearth to eat, because they had good food. Remember, it was run by members of the Greenhill family of the Picklechurch Greenhills from Sauerapfel, mum.

Guido told us that the compound looked like any normal business. But he said it was too normal to be legit. I’m not sure how something could be too normal, mum, but that’s what he said.

Then we saw a group of men walking up the steps and it looked like they were coming for us. They looked like criminal types, and I thought there was going to be a fight. Vinny recognised some of them as working for the Big Cheese, so he hid his face behind a menu.

The leader of these toughs introduced himself politely enough as Hannes, and said he ran the security at Wyndhund and he had heard that we were familiar with the company. Guido kept to his original story but Hannes suggested he stopped pretending and forget about the business. He said that the business was under the protection of Gouda and any interference would make him angry.

I could see that Fred was itching to fight Hannes and Guido looked like he would enjoy it, too. But Hannes just thanked us for our time, quite pleasantly. Guido said he would convey his message to the temple of Handrich, but Hannes just laughed.

I think that perhaps they thought we were a rival gang trying to get a piece of their action, but I don’t think they realised that we were the law. But when they had gone Guido got up and began to follow them. And I was quite surprised that, considering he had his robes on, he was able to blend into the crowd and follow them without them noticing.

He followed them to some sort of run down building in Altquartier, which he decided must be a Gouda gang base. But I don’t think it had much to do with Wyndhund, who were probably just paying Gouda for protection, and we decided even a business run by the Purple Hand would need to pay for protection.

Meanwhile Vinny was getting upset, and told us that we would be in big trouble if we crossed Gouda, and he had heard they had even skinned people alive. Anyway, mum, we weren’t to be put off, and we made plans to visit Wyndhund that night. I even bought a load of sausages for the guard dogs.

So we returned to Wyndhund Haulage in the middle of the night. All the gates were locked and barred, all the lights were out, and no one was about. We sent Vinny back up to his ladies’ room to have a look and he came back pretty quickly, because I don’t think he had any money left.

Blume had a listen and she said she could hear some heavy stuff being moved around. But she said it was weird that she heard only the movement, but no talking, or banter, or anything like that. And we agreed that it was suspicious for people to work like that in complete darkness with no chat. Vinny said maybe the Big Cheese had cut their tongues out.

Guido showed Blume and I some gestures in Battle Tongue which we could use to warn him, and set us to keep watch. And then he and Fred lifted Vinny up onto the wall so he could look into the compound.

Vinny said he saw six figures moving stiffly in the darkness. And then we had a chat about what to do next. I pointed out that KITUM stood for Komission for Investigating Threats Unknown in Middenheim, and this was definitely a threat, and in Middenheim, and we didn’t know what it was, so it felt like we had little choice but to investigate.

So Vinny picked the lock of one of the gates. It was still barred on the inside, but it meant we would be able to get out quickly if we needed to. To be honest, mum, I was surprised he managed it, and it did take a while. But he did it. Guido told me to get the sausages ready, but I had to admit that I’d eaten them. Being in KITUM can be hungry work. But Vinny had a load of butter he’d bought for getting out of tight spots.

So Fred and Guido helped everyone onto the wall, and then we helped pull them up, and we all dropped down into the compound. We could see there were loads of crates and barrels around the place, making a bit of a maze.

Guido beckoned Vinny to follow him to the office, and they crept off together using the crates as cover. But they had not gone far when Guido made a noise and the figures noticed them. I sort of expected the creatures to move like they had been working, sort of stilted and jerky. But they didn’t. They suddenly sprinted towards us at full speed.

Gosh. I will write later to let you know what happened next, mum. Hopefully the girls like the cliffhanger. I hope they don’t find it too frightening. I know that at that moment, I was quite scared.