51 Espionage

The first Lynx Mice reports started trickling in that evening.

Remian summarized it in his head, then glumly sat down at the far corner of the Guild Hall mumbling to himself for ten minutes straight. Mindy, George and Tim tried to give him privacy and space to think at first, but after a bit, Mindy's concern and curiosity got the better of her and she went over to ask, "What happened?"

"It's like this." Remian squared off and spoke to her frankly. "The Lynxmice have thoroughly covered the entire East Side and divided it into four regions. The first region is the safest, where they need only worry about cats. There's not much there, they say, just a lot of flour and old rations."

"Uhuh." Mindy nodded, still a bit blur.

"The second region is a little farther in to the East Side. There, they say that the humans drink more burning water than eat. There are a lot of humans in that area, and they like to chase Lynxmice around for no reason, or sometimes try to feed them with burning water. It is a funny and weird region."

"Huh…" Mindy frowned, confused.

"The third region, farther out, has less people, and they seem to like dream powder. Dream powder is some sort of fishy smelling powder that makes people snooze around all day. People there take dream powder all the time, hardly eating or sleeping or drinking, and sometimes, they never wake up, and nobody seems to mind."

"Uh…?" Mindy blinked.

"Finally, the last and most dangerous region!" Remian exclaimed. "Half the Lynxmice there have fallen, completely lost very suddenly. It is where the fish are kept, and the cats there are many and fierce! There are only a few people, and they eat very good food, and drink very sweet burning water, and they have a different kind of powder that makes them stronger, faster, and quicker at catching Lynxmice. Ten brave heroes have been killed trying to steal cheese from them! The other forty were lost to the tunnels when they went down the wrong hole and fell right through the bottom of the ledge."

"Wait. Cheese? You sent mice to the East Side to steal cheese?" Mindy gaped.

"No. I sent them there to gather information." Remian growled. "But this is the result I get! Reports of food and cats!"

Mindy burst out laughing. "You should send Vigil. He's smarter than that."

"Vigil…?" Remian frowned. "It's one thing to send mice to gather information. A wolfcat is a whole different matter."

"He'll be fine. Just put him in a whole group of Lynxmice. I doubt the Secret Waves will even notice." Mindy's face sobered. "They're too drugged to care anyway."

Ten minutes later, Remian and Mindy and Vigil colluded and conspired together in a corner.

"You'll be in charge!" Mindy told Vigil.

Remian translated.

[Do I have to eat cheese?] Vigil's nose wrinkled. Remian translated it back.

"No, no, you can have as much barbecued meat as you want." Mindy replied. Remian translated that too.

[Even the honey-marinated special?]

"Not the special. Those, you get if you learn something good."

[What about the clay-baked version?]

They negotiated while Remian translated. In the end, Vigil became a special agent of the espionage department and promised clearer and more useful intel in exchange for better food.

Miik wasn't very comfortable with that. [Am I fired? Is he replacing me?!]

"No, no, we just need a smarter agent in the field. You're still the chief of your clan. Also, he might not be there forever, just for this season."

Miik stared at Vigil challengingly. [My clan will become smarter! One day, we'll be better than him!]

"Yeah, let's hope that day comes soon." Remian grunted. "Until then, let Vigil hang out with them. We need them to cover him."

The next morning, Vigil came back with his first bit of truly valuable intel.

The Secret Waves were sending reports to someone else through a magic crystal.

What were they saying? Vigil wasn't entirely sure and the Lynxmice understood even less.

They tried sending in the hunters. Joshu, Xia, Denise and Candice went in under the guise of trade or just taking a walk, or trying to have a good time.

They were watched every step of the way. They couldn't even get past the first section. Try as they might, there were too many eyes on them, too much suspicion, to gather any proper intel.

Finally, Mindy, Tim and George snuck into the East Side over the next few nights. Vigil led them in, picking their routes while the Lynxmice scouted ahead and ran diversions. They were relentless in their mischief! They tripped up guards, jumped onto hair, stole underwear, and even ran a two-hour nine-mouse chorus of yuletide carols in perfect squeak-ish…

But at last, toward the end of the week, the three young spies returned with grim news.

"It was them." Mindy's face was pale, her fists clenched. "I can't believe it, but it was them all along."

"What? What did they do?" Remian asked.

"Ultrasonic emitters." George explained. "They use crystals to create dissonance fields that…"

"They've been calling the Beast Waves! That's the 'secret' of the 'waves'!" Tim summarized. "Someone's been sending them special crystals by airship, and they've been using the Beast Waves to keep everyone in town and in bad moods. The more upset people are, the more others die and the more suffering everyone is in, the more their drugs sell."

"Also, their sponsor on the other side of the crystal wants people to steer clear of the Frontier." George added.

"They make the drugs with some special fish." Mindy added. "They catch the fish from the river; their wells are located right above the nesting grounds of those Red Keral Fish."

"Also, they're actually very rich. Like… unbelievably rich." Tim added enviously. "There's a couple there who likes to literally swim in money."

George clutched his eyes. "You can't imagine… the things we've seen…"

Tim shuddered. "I feel unclean."

"We ARE unclean. I need a bath!" Mindy declared. "We had to skulk around dusty basements, moldy attics and more cramped store rooms than I ever want to see again!"

"Actually, I don't think we needed to skulk around that much." Tim mentioned. "A lot of those gangsters were too stoned to care. But the Lynxmice were just having so much fun…"

"We need to teach those mice some human language." Mindy grumped. She glanced around. "I suppose I'll have to do it mysef."

"Not you." Remian cut in. "I need you with the airships and improving your wind magic."

"Then who's going to do it?" Mindy asked.

"Tim? Can you handle it?" Remian turned to him.

"Me? But I have to cook…"

"Forget cooking! There's dozens of people around who can cook. But I need someone I can trust with the Wilds on this one." And someone they could trust with secrets too, even though Remian didn't say that out loud.

"Uh…" Tim thought about it. "I could give it a shot, I guess?"

"Please do." Remian requested. "I'll make it a Tier 3 Priority Mission. That means double rewards."

"I have become a mouse-trainer…" Tim said out loud, stunned.

"Spymaster!" Mindy corrected.

"Mouse master?" George tried.

"Mouse Master!" Mindy cheered. "Mouse Master!!"

Remian patted Tim on the back consolingly. "Who knows? The Lynxmice seem willing to obey in return for food. You might find your cooking skills handy after all."

"Most cooks try to get rid of mice, not feed them."

"Well, we do things different. Train and feed those mice well, Tim." Remian advised. "I have a feeling we're going to need them a lot in the future."