“This is Rude,” said Nolan.

  “What is?” asked Rori.

  “Not ‘what’, ‘who’. That guy over there is Rude.”

  “The one with the floppy cap? Do you know him?”

  “Of course, how else would I know his name is Rude?”

  “You mean that his name is literally ‘Rude?’”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s not a great name.”

  “I kind of like it.”

  “For the record, is he though?”

  “What? ‘Rude’?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sometimes, but usually not particularly.”

  “Rude, this is Rori,” said Nolan as they got to the table.

  “Alright,” Rude said without looking up. The cap he wore was a reddish-brown color that nearly, but not quite, matched the color of his pants. His hair was either dark brown or black, but it was hard to tell as it was cut short and mostly under the cap. His eyes and skin were also dark brown. His shirt was a light brown and his boots, yet another shade of brown. Overall, the totality of his outfit just made him look drab and uninteresting.

  “Did you get what we needed?” asked Nolan.

  “Yeah.”

  “Both the info and the other stuff?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is it here or do we need to go elsewhere?”

  “Go.”

  “Let’s head out then.”

  “Okay.”

  Rude got up from the table and headed out the door without a word or look to either of them.

  “Not much of a talker, is he?” asked Rori.

  “Sometimes, but usually not particularly.”

  They headed out onto the street. When they got to the door, they could see Rude already about halfway up the block. He had evidently seen no reason to wait. They hustled to catch up.

  The streets had gotten quite a bit busier as the day had progressed and now there were times when the three couldn’t walk side by side. Rori was often forced to walk behind the other two. So eventually he gave up and just remained there.

  On one such occasion Nolan said, “At the agreed upon price?”

  “Fifty less,” said Rude.

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  “Okay, must have been easier to get than you thought.”

  Rude said nothing.

  Because Rori was watching the two people directly in front of him he saw the small pouch of money change hands. But it was over so quick and done so slyly that he doubted anyone without his exact vantage point could have seen anything. He never saw Rude put the pouch away, but in an instant both of Rude’s hands were empty so he must have done something with it.

  They continued up the street in silence and covered three more blocks squeezing between and around the other people traveling with or against them. At the end of the fourth block, Rude stopped, turned around and began to head back the way they had come. Nolan seemed unsurprised, so Rori kept silent and continued to follow.

  After another block traveled back in the direction that they had come Nolan said, “Okay, it was a pleasure doing business with you.”

  Nolan stopped walking, so Rori did likewise. Rude continued walking back the way they had come without a sound.

  “Did we get whatever it was we were supposed to get?” asked Rori uncertainly.

  “Yeah. Let’s go somewhere private and take a look.”

  As they were near the main bridge that crossed over the Lycea River, Nolan took them there. They stopped halfway across, and Nolan leaned against the railing while watching the men loading a ship on the other shore. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a small parcel.

  Nolan cut the brown string that tied up the package with a small, wooden handled knife with a short blade. The knife then disappeared from sight as quickly as it had appeared. Nolan handed the string to Rori and began to unwrap the paper that, based on the shape underneath, seemed to be covering a small vial.

  “If this is something secret, shouldn’t we be looking at it somewhere more private than here?” asked Rori.

  “This is probably one of the most private spots around,” said Nolan.

  “We are in plain sight. In every direction there are scores of people for hundreds of feet who could be watching what we are doing right now.”

  “True, but we also can see them. Nobody can get close to us without us being aware of it. Anyone who has been watching us saw us meet with Rude. They know we didn’t do it just for fun. It is likely we got something from him. If we hid in a back alley or a secret room, we’d just be asking for them to spy on us or even try and take it from us. So instead, we sit here. Out in the open, only a dozen or so feet from the Lorenthian guards stationed on both sides of this bridge. And what did the people watching us learn? That we have some string, a piece of paper and whatever was hidden inside the paper. Nothing more. Nothing particularly useful to them. Now hush and let me read this.”

  Nolan scanned the page and then began to tear the piece of paper up into tiny squares. When he was done, he tossed the lot over the edge and watched it scatter down into the water below.

  “What did it say?” asked Rori.

  “It said we need to hustle if we are going to be in the right place at the right time.”

  “Why did we practically run across the city if we were just going to stand here in an alley?” asked Rori.

  “So, we could be early. Also, the note didn’t give us a definite timetable.”

  “I’d ask to read the note, but you scattered it into the river. So maybe at this point you could just tell me what it said.”

  “It said that Hargraves is scheduled to meet here at that building across the street this morning. That after the meeting he was going to head back to the government buildings and leave for Lorenthia. So, we basically have this one shot at getting back the book before he’s out of our reach.”

  “Okay, what’s the plan?”

  “This is the plan,” said Nolan holding up a small vial that contained a gel-like slime that was a bright green color.

  “Is it some type of potion, or poison or what?”

  “Imogene’s Slimy Green is a poison made by combining extracts from green slime and a gelatinous cube. It is one of the most potent poisons around. One drop of it coming in contact with your skin can cause paralysis for a short period of time. If a sizable amount got on you or if it was on the blade of a weapon that cut you, it would almost assuredly cause you to be paralyzed for a long time but more likely would instantly kill you.”

  “You’re going to kill Hargraves!? I can’t be a part of that!?”

  “Of course not. As I said, that is what Imogene’s Slimy Green can do. This is just some stuff Rude makes that looks a lot like it.”

  “What will this do to you?”

  Nolan popped the top off the vial and took a careful sniff.

  “Smells a lot like soap, so I guess it will probably get you clean.”

  “I have a feeling I’m going to regret this, but can you please tell me how a bottle of fake poison that smells like soap is going to get us back the journal.”

  “It’s simple. See that street corner there,” said Nolan pointing across the street.