Swamped Chapter 143 Page 22

“They show how tough they are by wearing knives on their jewelry,” you explain. “Lots of them brag about how they stole the knives. Honestly, though, they’re more about looking tough than being tough.”

“An odd choice of gang to recruit for something like this, then,” Bert muses.

“Not as odd as you’d think. They’re desperate for credibility. They’d jump at the chance to be part of something big, even if they don’t really understand it.”

You walk for a bit and soon find the Slippers. One has a knife hanging from each ear, the other has four arranged on a necklace. They both look like they’re trying very hard not to show how scared they are.

Which should make it pretty easy to get answers out of them.

“Hey! Shouldn’t you two be at work?” you ask.

“Doing what, exactly? We can’t do the job they gave us ’cause there’s a mad priest in the room, they don’t want us wanderin’ around, and nobody’s been by to tell us to do anythin’ else,” the one with the earrings grunts.

Well. This could be simpler than you thought.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something about the priest, then?” you ask.

“Not for what we’re gettin’ paid,” the one with the necklace sneers. “That guy’s dangerous. Even the big guys don’t want to go near him if they can help it. Can’t blame ’em, after what happened to Bull.”

“Why, what happened?” Bert asks.

“The guy knocked him down with one punch. Didn’t even look like it hit that hard,” says Earrings. “And Bull’s pretty damn big. I once saw a cart hit him and he didn’t bat an eye.”

“Well. Sounds like a problem we might be able to help with,” you reply confidently. “So where is he?”

They both look skeptically at you.

“And what exactly do you think you can do, lady?” Necklace asks. “You don’t look all that tough. Neither does your buddy there.”

Big words from the Slippers. But then, they’re all about appearances, aren’t they?

You’ll just have to be suitably intimidating, you suppose.