Pariah #1: New Arrival: Perils of Azure City Read Online Free PDF Page B

unopposed.
    He ran a hand through his greasy dark hair and sat down on a recently cleared work bench. 'I suppose I should thank you,' he muttered, 'I think you made yourself an enemy in the Snakes - those guys know how to hold a grudge.'
    She gave a nonchalant shrug, 'Perhaps. Or perhaps they'll be too afraid to even think about crossing me again. Break the leader and the pack tend to split. Either way, it doesn't really matter.'
    Crowley smiled at the reminder of Kruger's fate, 'If you say so, but you haven't met that dude's mean ass sister...'
    'Enough,' she interrupted, stepping further into the room, 'Let’s talk about Underhaven, shall we?'
    He licked his lips and took a moment to respond. 'Okay... what do you know about them?'
    'As I said before, they are traffickers. They act as an underground black market, dealing in illicit materials. It seems they have gotten very good at it. They started out in narcotics but have since branched out and grown. They now specialise in vice. They have a habit of kidnapping young women and... indoctrinating them somehow into becoming sex workers. Those are the girls that reappear, at least; many disappear and I have my suspicions that they are sold on as slaves. They are well funded, they are organised, and they are difficult to find,' she reeled off her knowledge as if she were reading it from a book, and she left emphasis on her final point, looking to Crowley expectantly. 'I've busted pimps with connections back to Underhaven, and a few dealers, but so far I've found no way to reach them directly.'
    Crowley listened, his eyes occasionally straying down her body. He couldn't hide his surprise at her depth of knowledge, 'Wow,' he said, 'you really are a super heroine, huh?'
    Again he was met with a vague shrug of the shoulders, 'Something like that, I suppose. Now, stop deflecting. Tell me what you know. Tell me where I can find them.'
    'Alright, alright,' he took a breath, 'These people are serious business. I was only ever on the fringes, but I saw enough and heard enough to know that they're on another level than most outfits in this city. Like you said, they deal many things to many people, and that gives them far-reaching influence. They got plenty of people on the payroll and they even have a few metas working for them.'
    Her eyes narrowed, 'Who?'
    It was his turn to shrug, 'I don't know, I only have what I was told. They have a crew of four metas who act as serious enforcers for whoever the head hauncho is. All I know about them is that they scare the crap out of even their own people. Word is that they are kept on side by being allowed to, erm, partake of the various materials that Underhaven deal. Apparently they clashed with Lady Avalon a while ago, so it probably says a lot that they are still working the streets. What I do know is that there is another meta who helps run the show; they call her the red mistress, and she is some kind of telepath. So as you can imagine, these guys have a lot of firepower.'
    She listened to him carefully, the implications of his words sinking in. 'Good to know. I'll see what I can learn about this crew and about this red mistress. Now, point me where to look.'
    'That is a tricky one. See, a lot of their safe houses and the like get moved around a lot. Not much would still be where I remember it.'
    'But some of it would,' she pressed.
    He nodded, 'Yeah. I can point you in two directions. The first is a place they have in the 'gate where they stockpile product and hold it until it can be shifted. In the later days, before I left, they started...'
    His gaze dropped to his feet.
    'They started processing some of the girls there. Due to its importance as a storage spot for large amounts of product it’s not the kind of location they will have changed. There's another place that they opened up in the 'gate but I never found out where that was - but it was basically a sister site to the place I know. I guess their expansion required more room to