Chapter 2

The Circus

1:00 P.M.

                Detective Rick Estle stepped off the electro-bus right outside of the fairground. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but instead of smelling a freshly washed world his nostrils were filled with the lingering smells of upturned dirt, manure, sweat, and various snack foods continued that wafted and permeated the street beside the wood fence covered in various posters proclaiming the oddities, and once in a lifetime experiences awaiting past the ticket booth.  Heaving a sigh, he walked up to the ticket booth that was in front of a closed wood gate that proclaimed that the circus would be open to the public in a week. Seeing no one he turned and placed a hand on the gate, and he gave it a light push just to check if it was locked but instead of finding resistance it opened effortlessly. 

                In front of him rose a large red and white building, it was three stories and had no windows except for four at the top that ringed around the base of a red spire. Rick headed towards the circus building.

“Hey!” a gruff voice called from the side, “We are closed!”

Rick turned to see a round man holding a large half eaten fish sandwich, with a cudgel hanging from his belt. “I am just here to see Mr. Kite!”

“Ah, Detective Estle! I am sorry I have only seen you in pictures, you need to head to the right to the small white building, that is his office.”

“Thank you.” Rick waved as he turned toward the indicated building. It just had one door and one window at the front. Rick knocked and hearing no reply he opened the door, immediately a blast of cold air came out, as well as the smell of spicy Ouah eel, a recognizable Se’falon dish. The room they entered looked like a small waiting room with a couple of chairs. There were pictures on the walls of famous ships on the left there was The Eversafe, William Tielens ship, and across from it was The Nevreak the ship of Emmuel Marl’beck, the man who first explored the Anti-Nexus and lived. On the side table there was the culprit for the smell, an abandoned plate of food.

                “… Get it ready! The Lord Governor himself will be attending the day we open. I want the high wire secured and ready.” A voice with a deep bass rumbled out of the closed door across from Rick.

                “I don’t trust the wire not made by the artisans back home.”

                “The wire you find here will work, I’m sure of it.  We are absolutely not going to have time to send for some from Tortatellan. Besides communication through the towers is spotty.”

                “I know you have ways of getting some.”

                “My people in The Long District are having supply issues, I will ask them but expect nothing.”

                The door was yanked open, and a short thin woman walked out with a pinched nose. She was wearing a light blue skirt with a slightly darker blue button up top and red pump heels. She was not dressed like Rick imagined an acrobat to dress, she looked more like she was getting ready for a desk job in the Lower Nexus District. She walked over and picked up the food. “I don’t actually need the wire from Tortatellan,” she nearly whispered,” but Barty has been paying more attention to his husks of humans than his actually humans, so I just need to find ways to get him to remember we exist.

                “Because he lost one?”

                “No, this has been going on now for a while, while they are the most exotic thing we have, it wouldn’t be a very good show with only the gray men.”

                “I am sure this circus could survive without them.”

                “I am not so sure about that, but what do I know, I’m just an acrobat.” With a nod of her head, she left.

                Rick steeled himself for the second time that day and entered a room that was blue and covered in various nautical imagery and knick-knacks. Sitting at the desk was a short lean man, he had the low-profile muscles of a swimmer, defined yet not bulky. He stood and spoke in a low rumble “Hello, I’m sorry to bother you but my idiot trainer let a gray man escape.” Unlike Eddy he had the accent of someone from the Seffalon Islands. “You will be paid 1,000 G for a quick recovery.”

                “I cannot promise how quick the recovery will be every case is different in length.”

                “To fail to recover the gray man in twenty-four hours and we will be forced to put our blackmail into effect.” Rick looked past Mr. Kite, out the window and watched handlers bring tigers out on leashes, teaching them to jump through hoops. One of them kept pulling and refusing to jump, the handler took a switch and smacked it across the tiger’s backside drawing a small drop of blood instead of jumping as expected the tiger turned, reared up, and swatted his handler across the face, the scream could be heard faintly through the wall. Mr. Kite did not flinch. another handler put a gun to the tiger’s head. Rick looked away but he still jumped at the sound. Mr. Kite did not flinch. “You are a tool, just as everyone and everything at this circus is, a replaceable, expendable tool.”

Rick focused on the Circus owner sitting in front of him, every day in his career he tried to act correctly, go through the legal processes and procedures, and he ended up broke while those who cheated lined their pockets. If he did the legal thing, refused to investigate without proper documentation. His livelihood would be taken away from him, he would become blacklisted, and unable to find a job. But if he bent the rules, investigated, maybe for once he would come out ok. “How did the gray man escape?”

                “The guards had gone to grab some food assuming they had no worry, but the Gray Man got his cage door open and escaped through a hatch. Eddie will show you the cage.” Mr. Kite paused a moment like he was thinking. “Find it or kill it I don’t care. We have two more gray men for the show, I don’t want this getting out.”

                “And if it does get out?”

                “You will be discovered illegally investigating a case.”

                “I understand.”

                Mr. Kite put his hand up to his Nexitech Communication Device and called Eddy. Once done he waved Rick out. “He will be here soon.

                After leaving Rick met up with Eddy outside the small white office, “Which way to the cages?”

                “Ah, they are under the main building, easy access for quickly getting them on stage.”

                They walked in silence for a while, before entering the massive central building. “Do you have any extra detail about how the gray man escape?”

                “Well,” Eddy rung his hands. “We had gotten a relatively fresh one, so it wasn’t as dumb as the others. And well, one of the handlers placed it in a room that was unlocked so it just opened the door and left.”

                “Oh, so it was unlocked.” Rick nodded. “And No one saw it leave?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Because people watching went on a lunch break.” Rick continued. “I have heard that gray men like to eat people on occasion. So why did it not go to where the people were?”

“Well yeah,” Eddy said as he went down some stairs into what looked like a basement. “But they only do that if they see someone, their hearing and smelling is terrible.” The basement had nice red brickwork with alcoves that contained animals like tigers, lions, and elephants. At the end of the hall there were a few alcoves, three out of the four were occupied. The occupants looked human, but they had ashen skin, and they were totally hairless. They made no sound, they barely even reacted to their presence. “Over here,” Eddy said. “Is the cell the one that escaped was kept in.”

Rick got down to look, there were scratches on the ground. “The hinges were so rusty it just pushed its way out. Probably could have gotten out even with it locked.”

“I suppose,” Eddy nodded. “It was probably fresh enough to be restless.”

Rick looked outside the cell and saw a trap door that led up. There appeared to be scratches on the door. “Can gray men climb?”

“Well, yes.”

“Do you lock that trap door?”

“Yeah, it stays locked.”

Rick walked over to it and looked it over. The rungs had moss and gunk growing on them due to the humidity except on places where someone or something had recently climbed. Rick climbed up and easily pushed the door open.

“Uh, well.” Eddy rung his hands. “That is embarrassing.”

Rick grunted, “very.” Crawling out of the trap door behind the circus building, he headed towards the fence line behind him he could hear grunts as eddy pulled himself up as well. Some scraggly shrubs grew against the fence, but while any sets of tracks were washed away, he found broken branches on the shrubbery, shoving his way into the thicket he found a hole in the fence facing a dockyard.

“That’s The Long District.” Eddy stated.

“Well, what would it want that way?” Rick asked.

“They, they seem to like water, and that district has a lot of canals.”

“Is there a specific area they would be attracted too?”

“Probably a swampy area.” Eddy paused “There is a swampy area near the Alfs bridge which has a dock and some buildings that have sunk into the water some.”

“Sounds like a start.” Rick said as he noticed a message from Brick about meeting up. he cursed, causing his inner Alice to frown inside him at his language. “I need to check cameras to see if I can get more details, I will get him.”