Sloane Mocha-Java had never been to a World Fair, and she wasn't about to start, now. At the time of the first one, eight years ago, her family had still be mourning the loss of her little brother, Alfred. Four years ago, her parents had gone to the second World Fair, in Tonad, but she herself had spent the entire summer in Triscot, where she received a particular type of training she could not have received anywhere else. This year her parents were in Sorret for the third World Fair, and they'd practically begged her to come with them, but she had insisted she just wanted to stay home and relax, after all her rigorous studying. It was her final year at Kurok University, and she said not only that she didn't have the energy to immerse herself in the hustle and bustle of such an event, but that she missed Pritt, and just wanted to spend her summer break in her home village. It wasn't exactly a lie, but neither was it the whole truth. There was something very specific she wanted- no, needed- to do in Pritt, and this might well be her one and only opportunity to do it.
What she needed so badly to do was something she'd been planning and preparing for ever since Alfie's death, when Sloane herself had been just eleven years old. 900 had been a particularly dangerous year, in Pritt, as there was a war going on between all the various gangs in the village. The year before, several inter-village gangs had begun forming, throughout the world, and it seemed that if any Prittian gang was going to have the "honor" of joining one of them, they'd have to prove themselves worthy by first claiming dominance in their own village. As if that weren't bad enough, several gangs from Kurok banded together and invaded Pritt, hoping to wipe out all the local gangs and take over, themselves. Well, that plan had backfired miserably for the Kurokish gangs, not that Sloane cared. In fact, she was barely aware of any of this, at the time. The fights all happened either outside of town, or in districts where her own family almost never went, anyway. Sloane and her brother led a privileged, mostly sheltered life, and had little idea of how much violence and evil existed in the world beyond their posh experience.
That all changed on the afternoon of 7 Sp'yet, when Alfie attended the birthday party of one of his friends. Their parents had wanted Alfie to stay home that day, since it was, after all, Son's Day, and they wanted to spend it with their son. But Alfie insisted that if it was his day, he should be able to spend it the way he wanted. Besides, the party would take only a couple of hours, and then he could spend the rest of the day with them. They had relented, and let him go to the party, even though it was in a less affluent part of town. Not a bad part, exactly, and not one they had reason to think any gangs would intrude upon. In fact, it had been a couple of weeks since there'd been news of gang activity anywhere in the village. But for whatever reason, the violence suddenly erupted anew, on that We'ginday afternoon, and spilled into the very park where Alfie's friend's party was being held. Aside from the party, there were numerous other people in the park that day, many of whom were injured and a few who were killed. Alfie himself was the only child, and the only attendee of the party, who was hurt. The others all escaped, but no one would later be able to give a clear account of how Alfie had been left behind, or what exactly had happened to him. It was only later that the police investigation into the matter revealed that he had been shot by a fireball, the work of an unknown Sorreter.
Until that day, apparently, the police hadn't even been aware that there were any Sorreters in Pritt. It wasn't a complete shock, however, as it was well known that Sorreters had been moving to many new villages, over the past year or so. Some of them joined gangs, and some were just looking or honest work, such as selling spell devices to those who could afford them. But it was unclear how many Sorreters might be in Pritt, at present, and the police couldn't find any witnesses who were willing to testify about any aspect of the gang battle that had taken place that day. Which also wasn't surprising, as people almost never wanted to testify against the gangs, these days. It didn't take long for Sloane's parents to realize the police had given up on the case, a fact that Sloane often overheard them talking about in angry tones, in spite of their efforts to shield her from the whole business.
But Sloane didn't want to be shielded. She wanted her brother's killer brought to justice. And if the police couldn't do it, she decided to do it herself. Of course she realized she was much too young to do anything, at least not yet. But she would grow up, she would learn all she could about the law, and she would train. Make herself strong. She would learn not only how to take on gangsters, but even Sorreters. She was willing to wait as long as it took. However, she also knew that by the time she was ready to take action, the case would be ice cold, and it would surely be impossible to discover who had killed her brother. So even if it would be years before she could get her revenge, the time to learn the killer's identity was now. So she went to the park where her brother had been killed, and began looking for witnesses, herself. (It was a bit of a trick managing to do this without her parents finding out where she was going or what she was up to, but she'd always been a clever child.) She went there every day for a week, and talked to countless people, before finally finding someone who admitted to having seen anything.
It was a We'ginday, exactly one month since Alfie's death. Almost five weeks earlier, someone had set up a little shrine to the little boy who had died, whom no one had known, but everyone felt very sorry about, when they heard the story. Many had come to pay respects, leave flowers, say prayers. Strange, Sloane thought, that no one who had actually seen the battle came to the shrine... unless they had seen, and their caring simply didn't extend as far as doing anything to actually help bring his killer to justice. But on this one day, there were no visitors to the shrine. The flowers were all dead or nearly so. A month had passed; it was old news. (The new news was that the terrible gang war was finally over, so everyone was happy. So why would they want to dwell on anything so depressing as the death of a little boy they'd never even met?) She sat on a bench, staring at the shrine, and trying not to cry. She began to think she might as well give up, too. It was hopeless. If no one had talked yet, no one ever would. But then, just as she stood to leave, a young man sat down. Sloane turned to look at him; he looked about seventeen, and wore dirty clothes. He also obviously hadn't shaved in some time, though Sloane couldn't guess how long. She judged him to be a street rat, though neither he nor his clothes seemed so unclean as to have been one for very long. Not that she was a great judge of that, either; she hadn't seen many street rats in her life, even in her past week of questioning strangers.
She decided to give it one last chance. If this street rat had seen nothing (or said he hadn't), she'd give up for good. "Excuse me. Um... by any chance... I'm sorry to bother you, but... Do you know..." she faltered, unsure what to say. She didn't understand why, after all the practice she'd had, but somehow asking the same question suddenly felt terribly daunting, perhaps even rude.
The stranger turned and looked at her. "Yes?"
"Do you know... I mean, by any chance, might you have been here a month ago, when..."
"When that battle happened? Yeah, I was here. Why?" He grinned wryly. "You a cop, or something?"
Sloane laughed, just a little. So little, that she wasn't sure anyone would have even recognized it as laughter, or heard anything at all. But to her, it felt almost overwhelming. She hadn't even come close to laughing... for a month, now. But she quickly composed herself, and said quite seriously, "No, of course not! It's just..." she nodded at the shrine, which was now virtually unrecognizable as such. "Did you hear about that boy?"
The stranger looked at the shrine, his face suddenly so serious that one would hardly believe it had held a grin mere moments ago. He was silent for half a centhour, before replying, "Yeah, I heard."
Sloane stared at the side of his face for a few moments, unable to speak. She felt almost mesmerized, until he turned to stare back at her. He didn't even say anything, but the movement of his head snapped her out of her reverie, and she blurted, "He was my brother."
The stranger's face registered surprise, then sympathy. "Oh... I'm so sorry," he said quietly.
"I don't suppose... you saw who killed him? The police haven't been able to find any witnesses. So I've been trying, but no one wants to talk. They're all afraid. I mean, I'm sure most of them really didn't see, but even if anyone did, no one wants to testify against gangsters, especially a Sorreter. But I'm not looking for anyone to testify. I just want to know... who it was. I just... want a name I can attach all this hatred to. A name I can curse."
He stared at her a few more seconds, then said, "Her name is Faye."
Sloane's eyes widened. She couldn't believe it. She finally had an answer. She asked her informant if he could draw a sketch of this 'Faye,' and he said he'd do the best he could, though he was no artist. She reached into her satchel, took out a sketch pad and pencil, which she'd bought a week ago, and had been beginning to think had been a waste of money. She handed them to the stranger, who went to work. When he'd finished, Sloane looked at his drawing and laughed, obviously more audibly this time, for he said, once again grinning, "I said I wasn't an artist."
The two of them sat and talked a while longer, and she learned that his name was Spike. It turned out that he wasn't actually a street rat, or at least he hadn't been until recently. He'd been a member of one of the gangs that had come from Kurok, and the only one who'd stayed behind when they'd been defeated. He said he was ashamed of having taken part in the battle. "Being in a gang just isn't what it used to be. It was just fun and games, when I joined. But now..." he shook his head. "I can't do that anymore. But I don't know what to do. All I know is I want revenge against Garrison, the gangster who united Pritt's gangs against mine. Maybe if I get a chance, I could get revenge against Faye, for you, too. She's working with him, now. But I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to do anything to anyone. And even if I do, I have no idea what I'll do after."
Sloane sat in silent contemplation, for a few centhours, her silence occasionally broken by a quiet "Hmmm."
After awhile, Spike laughed nervously. "You look so serious, for such a little girl. I mean, I know you've got plenty of reason to be that way, but... what are you thinking?"
"I'm trying to think of a plan, to get revenge for both of us. What I said before wasn't totally true. I didn't just want a name to curse. In fact, I thought it was more likely I'd get a picture than a name. A picture I could hold on to until I was old enough to get revenge on my own. But I suppose it's not something I can do alone. I'll need allies, and I think you'd make a good one."
"Wow, you're more serious than I thought. It's kinda scary, kid. But like I said, I don't see what I could possibly do."
"Hmmm." Sloane kept thinking, and finally exclaimed, "Aha! You can join Garrison's gang!"
"I can do what?!"
"Get close, gain their trust, and keep me informed. Together, we can figure out the best time to strike. But you'll have to be very patient, because it might take quite a few years."
"You... you're crazy, kid. What are you, like ten? And you're plotting a years-long strategy for revenge against gangsters?"
"I mean, unless you want to just kill them immediately after gaining their trust. But that'd almost certainly lead to your own death. Better to wait. ...Eleven, by the way. I'll be twelve in Aut'gin."
He stared at her with a dumbfound expression. "Why would they even trust me in the first place? And did you not hear me say I don't want to be a gangster, anymore?"
"We can come up with a good excuse for you to ply them with. But you're right. I don't want to force you into anything you don't want to do. I just thought, you're looking for something to do after getting your revenge, and being in a gang would be something to do. At least, until our revenge has been taken. After that, if you want to quit, I could get you a job in my clan's company. I should be old enough by then to have some power. But, if you're really sure you want no part of it..." she stood, and extended her hand. "It's been a real pleasure meeting you. Thank you, truly, for the information. And now... have a nice life." She waited for him to shake her hand, but he just sat there, gaping at her.
Finally, he laughed, shook her hand, and said, "You know what? I'm in. You might be mad as a furthing, but you've got style. I like you, kid."
That was how it started. Spike managed to get a job as a spy for Garrison's gang, which soon joined LandOrder. Over the next eight years, Sloane recruited several other allies and informants. Most of them were in Pritt, of course, but she met a couple in Triscot, in 904, and others in Kurok, when she moved there in 905 to attend the university. And throughout the years, she continued trying to fashion the perfect plan. It was at Kurok University that she met a deputy police chief, Mila Artemis, who gave a lecture in one of her criminology classes. After class, Sloane approached Deputy Artemis, to compliment her on her speech and ask a few questions. That had really been excuse to talk to her, so that she might segue into asking for private tutoring, and if she might even someday go on a "ride-along" with Artemis or any other police. Throughout Sloane's years of study in Kurok, she and Mila became friends, and while Sloane never revealed her desire for revenge to Mila, the deputy did sympathize over the death of her brother, and was proud of Sloane's determination to join the police. So she sometimes shared a bit more information with Sloane than was appropriate.
So it was that one day in late spring of 908, shortly before summer break began, Sloane met Mila for lunch, and the latter mentioned in passing that there were rumors that InterGang had recently sent a representative to meet with the leader of the Rapscallions, the only gang in Kurok. This was troubling, because the Rapscallions were one of the very few gangs on the Land that had stuck to the old meaning of "gang," from prior to 899, when all gangs had just been temporary rites of passage for kids who wanted to have fun, maybe get in a little mischief together. Not the serious criminal organizations that they'd become, this past decade. If the Rapscallions now decided to get serious, and join InterGang, that could mean big trouble for the Kurok PD. But at the same time, Mila used this as an opportunity to suggest, as she sometimes had over the past few years, that when Sloane graduated at the end of this year, she choose to remain in Kurok and join that village's police, rather than returning home to Pritt. "I know your family wants you to take some time to work for their company, before making a final decision about joining any police department. But if you do become a cop, we could really use good people like you, especially if these rumors are true." Sloane promised, as always, to consider it. But as soon as she could, she called Spike, to ask if he'd heard anything about the rumors.
He said he hadn't, although he had taken some interest in his discovery that two of LandOrder's Sorreters, Faye and a member of her department named Yuki Des'Salucin, had recently begun going off on secret business somewhere, business that apparently had nothing to do with LandOrder. Thus far, he was pretty sure he was the only person in the gang who was aware of this fact, as most of LandOrder's spies weren't in the habit of surveilling members of their own gang. But he hadn't been able to ascertain where the Sorreters had been disappearing to. "Almost makes me wish I was a Sorreter, myself. Translocation would come in pretty handy, in my line of work."
"I'm sure it would," Sloane agreed. "Hmmm." Spike knew that 'hmmm' of hers well; he'd heard it often, over the past eight years. And experience had taught him that if he waited, she'd usually arrive at a clever idea. So he waited, as usual. "I wonder," she said, quietly enough that she seemed to be talking to herself rather than to Spike. But she raised her voice to conversational level when she asked, "Do you think they could be meeting with this InterGang agent, here in Kurok?"
"Well, I mean, that was my first thought, when you mentioned that rumor." He was mildly disappointed that she hadn't come up with anything more than that. "I tend to doubt it, though. Neither Faye nor Yuki have ever displayed any hint of disloyalty to LandOrder, or to Garrison. Then again, their first loyalty, I mean before either of them became gangsters, was surely to their respective masters, the ones who taught them magic. And then, both of them took part in the Coming of the Order, each in their own way. For Faye, it started when her master sent her to Pritt, to help guide the organization of a more serious gang, here. For Yuki, it meant actually fighting in the war, along with the elves. That was a few years after Garrison's gang joined LandOrder, and it wasn't until a couple of years after that, that Yuki moved to Pritt and Faye hired him. So I suppose if either of them were going to betray the gang, the only reason I can even begin to imagine is that it would probably have something to do with the Plan that led to the Coming. But as far as anyone knows- or at least as far as I know- the Plan was completed when the Second Order was established, like four years ago. So, yeah, no." He took a breath, paused, then had another thought. "Although... if you're suggesting the agent from the rumors is meeting with them in order to betray InterGang, well, that might be plausible. But if that's the case, I can't imagine why this agent would be working with Faye or Yuki, specifically. I mean, out of all the LandOrder people in the world who this agent could have chosen to work with...." Spike shrugged, though the t-mail call was audio-only, so the shrug was for his own benefit, rather than Sloane's.
Sloane, meanwhile, had been grinning slyly the whole time she listened to her friend speak, which of course he couldn't see any more than she could see his shrug. "Honestly, I have no reason to think your Sorreters are meeting with this agent at all," she said. "Nor any way of speculating as to whether either side was betraying their respective gang, or whether no betrayal at all is going on. Even if your people are coming to Kurok, it could be as competitors against the InterGang agent, to try and convince the Rapscallions to join LandOrder, instead. But it occurs to me that if you've not heard of any such mission, even if it was meant to be secret, chances are there is no such mission. I've every confidence in your ability to suss it out, if Garrison had sent them. So, what I was thinking... was that you're probably right in assuming neither Garrison nor anyone else in LandOrder does know about their extracurricular activities. In which case, it almost doesn't matter what Faye and this Yuki are up to... as long as there's a chance for us to make Garrison think they're betraying him. Perhaps you could report such a suspicion to him, and ask that he send you to Kurok, to investigate. With any luck at all, it'll turn out they actually are betraying LandOrder to InterGang, but even if they're not, I'm sure you and I could make it look like they are."
Another experience with which Spike had become quite familiar, since meeting Sloane, was being dumbstruck by her ideas. And, although Sloane couldn't see his face right now, she had an eerily accurate mental image of his mouth hanging agape. Still, his experience had made Spike quick to recover his wits, and his gape almost immediately transformed into a grin. "I'm sure we could, at that. And if Garrison believes Faye is a traitor-"
"We could kill two birds with one stone. And the birds will blame each other for it."
Spike's grin widened. "I'll get right on that, then." The call ended, and he thought to himself, Silly Spike! Never. Doubt. Sloane. Not for a second.
It was just a little over a month later that the World Fair began in Sorret. A few days after the call, Sloane herself was back in Pritt, visiting with her family for the brief window prior to their departure to attend the Fair. By the time she'd arrived home, Spike was already in Kurok; it amused them both to think of their 'trading places' like that, but during the month leading up to the Fair, the two of them were in frequent t-mail contact. Both of them were quite busy, and as they learned more, they quietly drew their plans. On the first night of the World Fair, Sloane's parents called to say how amazing it all was, and how much they wished she could be with them, enjoying it all. But they admitted she was right: there was a lot of hustle and bustle, and virtually no chance to actually do much relaxing. After the call ended, Sloane sat back on the couch, sipped a cold, delicious, intoxicating beverage, and smiled. She was glad her parents were enjoying themselves, but she was also glad she had the chance to enjoy some quiet, and solitude. "Besides," she said to herself, "if all goes according to plan, before the Fair is over, there'll be some excitement right here in Pritt, which will top anything Sorret has to offer...."