The Subway

When you heard the term on the street, the word sounded innocent enough but Sara had learned a long time ago that innocents was a hoax. If you were one to hang around with people who were less than lawful individuals, you also learned that the subway was a black market. One that was designed to keep it's goods traveling fast. Sometimes those goods were as innocent a s fire arms and poached animals. Other times, Sara had learned the hard way that it moved people as well.

Like the subway that people think of most of the time, this one was run below the earth. Normally there were other activities going on as a distraction ranging from bootleg showings of movies, to dog fights, and MMA fights. Mutants and humans taking part in these activities however with the recent reactions that the public was having about a recent video posted on youtube of a young female mutant getting beaten up by the cops, tensions were higher than the usual... Pleasantries....

Sara was tired of hearing about her warehouses being used for trafficking children and young woman. She had two points out of three against her investigations tonight but she didn't care that much. One was the most obvious. She was a mutant and some of the humans here, even some of her old clientele, would no longer speak with her. The other was that there was no secret that she was against the modern day slave trafficking that was going on inside her properties.

It was only about 9:30 pm when Sara arrived on the scene but the sky had been dark for a long time because of the season. Snow and ice still covered the ground so it made it easy to track groups of peoples. Even for someone without the sensory abilities that Sara had. The location was close enough to the park that most people wouldn't think anything of the extra foot traffic. Sara just followed a path that lead to below ground, into a high arching drainage tunnel. The lower part of the tunnel, in the center, sad with cold stinky water and slush since the water was moving, it didn't allow the surface to fully freeze.

Sara was nearly at the end of the first section of tunnels before she saw the lights flickering from the current events. Sara tugged at the collar of her coat. Her tail twitched as she walked and in less than a minute she found herself in a room that was packed with not only people, but their stenches and hot breath that made the air feel so moist. It looked like the party had started early tonight and they were already hauling the first of tonight's combatants and loosers out of a center ring.

Ok. she was here. Now what?

Sara let her attention wonder only for a moment to the fighters that were being introduced in the middle of the open chamber.

For months, this place had been locked as tight as a swiss bank account vault. This particular ring of Human trafficking had one hell of a hidden place based around it. People were careful, that much was certain and the majority of the fighters had no idea what was really going on here.

Multiple crimelords from across the city would bet on these fights and one might notice, if they were connected, that one in particular, Lawrence, the young Upstart from a match several months ago had his star fighter coming here too.

The investors were of course nervous about this, they had seen what this particular fighter could do and they knew if they didn’t go all out on training their people they would be out of luck. Various crime lords had already been toppled by this upstart, him betting everything on this fighter which meant they were already obliged to do the same, real question was, how was this going to work.

In the middle of the Open chamber, Lawrence, that young upstart, had his fighter introduced first, only because she had insisted being apart of this. He knew exactly why she was here and why she wanted to fight in this particular tournament. In all honesty, he was happy because this gave him a chance to go after bigger prey and even if she got what she wanted in the end. Emerald stood there with the upmost confidence and didn't even look like she was looking at the other contestants that were coming into the room, it was like she didn't even know they were there. All she wanted, was to start this tournament.

Sara was still checking the fighters who were preparing for their part of the evening's entertainment when one in particular caught her attention. It had been a long time since Sara had seen, or smelled Emerald, and her right ear flicked back and forth against the back of her head as she wondered exactly what she was doing here. Sara remembered back at the registration camps, how Emerald had taken on more than others to try to spare them or protect them. Sometimes that was heavy work, sometimes it was other punishment. Whom ever her opponent was, Sara could only imagine how much they would have their hands full.

It didn't take long, and Sara found herself listening to the announcer. She should be working on her own little mystery more, but when one doesn't really know where to start, one easily got distracted. Besides. Sometimes the answers to question like where to start, answer themselves.

"I didn't think that I'd see you here. Or at least not on this side of the cage." Sara's right ear flicked back just behind her then she looked over her shoulder. The voice was directed to her, and she recognized the it's owner. Dale. He was a hacker known for moving money. Sometimes he moved 'merchandise' as well and Sara thought he was decent enough, even if he was a criminal. What could she say? Technically so was she. If Dale's hair would lay down flat, he'd have a bowl cut, but instead, his hair was made up of micro sized red ringlets that fell over his forehead in an uneven mop. He was a head shorter than Sara putting him at about 5'5" if he'd stand up straight.

"I only shed blood to survive. Not for sport." Dale chuckled and Sara crossed her arms, slanting her hips with a flick of her tail. "Besides. It wouldn't be a fair fight. At least not in most cases." Sara's eyes wondered back to Emerald for only a moment before flicking back in Dale's direction realizing he'd been watching her carefully. His head tilted, lips pressed together and his eye brows lightly roughed and Sara got the feeling that he was analyzing Sara much the way that he analyzed the codes on a computer. The chuckle of Dales slid smoothly into a half faced smile and he stepped next to Sara so that he could see the contestants better.
“Sport Shmort. It’s cute that you think this type of entertainment, in this setting is about sport.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “And you’re here because….” Sara was enjoying the company, but she was here to try to get a job done.

“To get some money.”

“You move money. Can’t you just type some number into a bank account?”

“I move money for other people.” Dale corrected Sara. “I’m not that stupid to move cash into my own accounts. Their still taking bets. Care to add to mine?”

Sara pulled out her wallet. She’d brought a handful of hundred dollar bills with her for bribes but she sensed this that this one might pay off. “One thoughsand dollars on her.” Sara motioned to Emerald. “Tell them I that I want the bet tripled if the fight ends between two minutes and thirty seconds and two minutes and fourty.” The betting crowd around Sara erupted with last minute bets as others thought Sara’s idea of betting on the times was a good idea.

Dale went to grab Sara’s cash and Sara pulled it out of his reach. She wasn’t done talking but5 Dale was practically dancing on his toes in the same spot. It wasn’t hard to see that he had a gambling problem. “I want the profits split, and I want information on this crowd.”

“Ok okokok.” Dale said impatiently. Sara gave him the cash and he jogged back to a motor greased man who was shouting that it was the last call to wager money with him.