By the time the courier finally slowed down, I had started taking it personally.
We had followed the little bastard through most of the night. It stopped once for water, twice to check behind itself, and somehow kept moving at the same irritating pace. The fox stayed ahead while Luna and I followed farther back, using the broken hills and thick brush whenever the courier looked behind itself.
My eyes kept track of it whenever the terrain opened up. When trees, brush, or another ridge blocked the view, the fox handled the trail by scent. The arrangement worked well enough that none of us had needed to argue about it for almost an hour.
Then the courier changed direction again.
The fox stopped near the bottom of a rocky slope and waited for us. I walked up beside her and looked toward the north-east.
"Please tell me we're close."
"No."
I looked at her, and she looked back without any sign that she understood why that answer was irritating.
Luna arrived a few steps behind me. "That sounded promising."
"It should have kept going south," the fox said.
"But it didn't."
"No."
"Do you know why?"
"No."
Luna rubbed the back of her neck. "You don't have many answers, do you?"
The fox's ears shifted toward her. "I have enough to keep you following me."
I stepped between them before the argument could grow legs.
"Where did you expect it to go?"
"There was another relay farther south."
"Was?"
"I do not know if it is still there."
"That answer is becoming popular."
The fox ignored me.
I looked toward the next ridge. The courier had disappeared behind it several minutes ago, but I had seen enough before the terrain blocked it. The creature had slowed during the last stretch and started checking the route ahead more often.
That mattered more than another argument.
"We follow."
Luna nodded. The fox stared at me for a few seconds before moving again.
"You ask many questions for someone who always decides the same thing," she said.
"I like information."
"You ignore half of it."
"Only the useless half."
Her ears flattened as she moved ahead.
Luna caught up beside me. "You enjoy annoying her."
"I enjoy annoying many people."
"I've noticed."
We continued north-east as the ground became worse. Dry soil gave way to loose rock, narrow gullies, and steep slopes that forced all three of us to slow down.
The courier slowed too.
It had spent hours walking like someone had threatened its family with paperwork. Now it stopped often, listened, and checked the route ahead before moving again.
The fox lowered herself close to the ground. "We are near something."
"Something useful?"
"I cannot smell usefulness."
"Pity."
Luna's hand moved closer to her claymore.
The fox noticed. "Do not draw it yet."
"I know."
"You touched it."
"I'm allowed to touch my own weapon."
The fox turned forward again.
I leaned slightly toward Luna. "You two are doing well."
"Shut up."
I smiled and kept moving.
We followed the courier around the base of another ridge. The ground climbed gradually until the fox stopped behind a section of broken rock, lowered herself, and moved forward carefully.
I followed her, with Luna close behind me.
The ground beyond the ridge dropped into an old quarry. High rock walls surrounded most of the floor, rusted conveyors crossed part of the site, and several concrete buildings stood near the centre and southern side. Two old excavation tunnels disappeared into the far wall.
I counted twenty-seven monsters outside before a group disappeared behind one of the buildings. There would be more inside.
The courier crossed the quarry floor toward a square concrete building near the centre. A wide equipment entrance faced the yard, with a smaller door at the rear.
Luna crouched beside me. "How many?"
"Twenty-seven outside that I can see."
The fox's nose moved. "More inside."
"How many?"
"I cannot tell."
Luna looked at her. "You smelled three from a bridge yesterday."
"They were three."
"That explains nothing."
I kept watching the quarry before they could start again.
Monsters moved supplies between the buildings. Two wagons stood near one of the old conveyors, both loaded with sacks and wooden crates. A group of goblins sorted bundles beside them while several orcs worked near a larger storage building. Different species were working together, but some groups still kept apart whenever nobody gave them a task.
This was bigger than the relay.
Luna leaned closer. "Staging site?"
I looked to the fox for an answer.
She watched the quarry before replying. "It is being used like one."
"What does that mean?"
"Supplies arrive. Reports arrive. Orders leave."
"You've been to one before?"
"Yes."
"Here?"
"No."
I studied the quarry again.
A wide dirt route entered from the east. A narrower track left toward the north. The western side had no proper road, but the slope was climbable in several places. The two tunnels in the southern wall bothered me most because I could see guards at both entrances but nothing beyond them.
Luna looked toward the central building. "The courier left the pack in there."
"Probably."
"You saw it come out?"
"Not yet."
"Then why probably?"
"Because it walked all night to deliver something, and I doubt the reward was a tour of an ugly quarry."
She gave me a look and turned back to the site.
We watched for another twenty minutes.
A small group entered through the eastern route carrying food and two wooden boxes. A goblin left through the northern track with a pack across its back. Several monsters went into the central building carrying papers, and others came out with smaller bundles.
The place wasn't just storing supplies. Information was moving through it.
Luna touched my arm and pointed.
The courier had come back outside without its pack.
"There," she whispered.
"I saw."
I checked the communicator. The screen worked, but the signal was gone.
"Can we report?" Luna asked.
"No."
"Go back until it works?"
I looked down at the quarry. The relay had started clearing itself after the foxes disappeared. If the people running this place learned that we were following one of their couriers, I doubted the records would still be sitting on a table when we returned.
"I want the records first."
Luna studied the quarry again. "There are more than thirty, and we know there are more in the tunnels."
"Yes."
"You sound very relaxed about that."
"I'm not planning to fight all of them one at a time."
The fox looked at me. "You will attack."
"Yes."
Luna glanced over. "I thought we were discussing it."
"We are."
"You already decided."
"That doesn't stop discussion."
"That is a terrible way to lead."
"It has worked so far."
The fox looked between us without comment.
I pointed toward the eastern entrance. "Can you make them think human scouts are moving through the trees there?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Enough."
"Make them visible in pieces. A person between two trees, movement behind brush, weapons catching light. I want guards checking the route, not the whole place running."
The fox watched the eastern side of the quarry. "I can do that."
I turned to Luna.
"You take the west side. Stay above the quarry until the distraction starts, then stop anyone trying to climb out."
"Alive?"
"Only the ones inside the records building stay alive. Anyone outside who fights dies."
Luna nodded once. "And the tunnels?"
"If they're carrying records or working with the reports, keep them breathing. Everyone else made their choice."
"And you?"
"Centre building."
"Of course."
I pulled a needle from inside my coat and threw it toward the quarry. It struck the central building and lodged in a crack beneath a damaged window.
The fox watched it. "You did that yesterday."
"Yes."
"What does it do?"
"It marks the place."
"For what?"
"Later."
She stared at me.
I pointed east. "Go."
The fox moved away without another question.
Luna stayed beside me. "You trust her with this?"
"Enough."
"That answer is becoming popular too."
"She wants to stay alive, and she wants her mate alive. Helping me is the best way to protect both."
"And later?"
"Later can annoy me later."
Luna looked toward the route she needed to take. "Give me ten minutes."
"You have fifteen."
"Why?"
"I'm generous."
She stared at me before moving back down the ridge.
I waited while the quarry kept working. A wagon entered, two groups left separately, and the courier stayed near the central building.
Fourteen minutes passed before movement appeared between the trees near the eastern route. Luna had enough time to reach the western side, and the fox had started on schedule.
The fox started carefully. A human-shaped figure crossed one gap and disappeared. Another appeared farther back between the trees. A flash from what looked like a rifle scope caught the light before vanishing again.
The guards at the eastern entrance noticed.
One shouted toward the quarry.
Six monsters moved toward the entrance, and four more followed from near the central buildings. The orcs beside the storage building stood and reached for weapons, but they stayed where they were.
The fox had pulled enough attention away from the centre.
I disappeared from the ridge and appeared beside the damaged window of the central building. My hand caught the frame, and I climbed inside before anyone outside noticed.
The room held four monsters and enough paper to make Zelda dangerous for weeks.
The courier stood near a table. Two goblins were sorting packets beside it, while a tall grey-skinned monster sat behind another desk with a short axe within reach.
Everyone looked at me as I drew Heian Emo.
"Don't."
The grey monster grabbed the axe.
A shadow tendril wrapped around its wrist before it got the weapon clear and slammed its arm against the desk.
The courier reached for a knife.
I appeared behind it, kicked the back of its knee, and twisted the weapon out of its hand before it could turn.
One goblin ran toward the rear door.
Heian Emo left my hand and stopped against the wood in front of the goblin's face. It froze.
I pointed at the floor. "Sit."
The goblin looked at me, then sat. The second one joined it without being asked.
The grey monster was still fighting the shadow holding its arm down. I tightened the tendril until the axe slipped from its hand and hit the floor.
A chair dragged across the room under another strand of darkness.
"Sit."
The grey monster understood the gesture and sat.
The courier tried to move again.
I put a boot between its shoulders. "Don't make me work harder."
The translator around my neck crackled.
The courier barked something, but the sound broke apart beneath heavy static before the device cut out completely.
I tapped it once.
Nothing.
"Wonderful."
An alarm started outside sooner than I wanted.
I bound the four with shadow and moved to the nearest table. Maps, reports, human military forms, handwritten notes in several scripts, and wooden boards covered in symbols and dates filled the room.
An empty metal drum stood near the rear wall, ready for burning records if they needed to.
I opened the rear door and stepped outside.
The quarry was properly awake now. The false scouts still held attention near the eastern entrance, but someone had noticed movement in the centre.
Seven monsters were coming toward me. Two orcs, three goblins, a brown-furred creature with long arms, and something broad enough to make the doorway behind me feel small.
I drew Hou Yao, and fire ran along the blade.
The first orc charged.
I disappeared from in front of it and reappeared behind both orcs. Hou Yao cut through the first one from shoulder to hip before the second managed to turn.
The second orc raised its weapon.
Heian Emo crossed the distance and punched through its chest.
The goblins spread apart instead of charging together.
Someone had trained them better than the monsters from the old scattered attacks.
Ors left its sheath and moved above my shoulder.
Light burst across the yard. The goblins covered their faces, and the brown-furred creature dropped close to the ground before moving behind a stack of crates.
The large monster kept coming.
I moved aside before it reached me.
Its shoulder struck the corner of the building, and concrete cracked.
"Don't break the paperwork."
The monster turned and charged again, so apparently it disagreed.
Dark tendrils wrapped around both ankles.
Its legs stopped while the rest of it kept moving, and it hit the dirt hard enough to throw dust across the yard.
Hou Yao came down across the back of its neck.
The head rolled several metres before the body stopped moving.
A rifle shot cracked past my head.
I looked south and found a monster near one of the tunnel entrances holding a human rifle.
Rude.
I appeared behind it, took the rifle from its hands, and drove Hou Yao through its spine.
The body folded before I pulled the blade free.
Another monster came from the tunnel with a hammer.
I stepped past the swing and cut it through the waist.
Both halves hit the ground at different times.
More movement came from inside the tunnels, and that was the real problem. I could kill everything in the quarry, but I could also spend too long doing it while someone inside burned records or moved them through another exit.
I called Ors back to my hand and appeared beside Luna.
She turned as I arrived. Two bodies lay on the western slope behind her, and a third had burned badly enough that I stopped checking.
"South tunnels," I said.
"I see them."
"I need you at the centre building."
"You're leaving the records?"
"I'm finding the people who might order them burned."
Luna looked toward the building and nodded. "I'll hold it."
"Anyone outside dies. The four inside stay alive."
"I remember."
I handed her the broken translator.
"For what?"
"In case you can convince it to work."
She looked down at the device. "You broke it?"
"It stopped."
"So you broke it."
"I'm leaving now."
"That sounds guilty."
I disappeared before she could continue.