The Bome City Shuttle Port was relatively far from the hospital, but Duard’s constant irritations led the cab driver through the fastest possible routes.  Duard had no interest in seeing the sights or even the locals.  Only the shuttle port mattered.  Consequently, it took much less time to reach than usual.  Of course, his next destination was still a mystery but he was definitely leaving this land.  

Being a booming city, Bome’s port was always busy.  There were more shuttles parked than one would care to count.  Every space was full.  A few shuttles were preparing to launch while others hovered and spun in the sky preparing to land in the soon to be empty spots.

Each shuttle had a graphic noting their next stop.  After leaving the cab, Duard leaned on a pillar to think and make a call.  The shuttles’ graphics animations were slightly entertaining.  Duard watched as the graphics described their next destination while writing out the city’s name.

The call was to Champion’s Chronicle Headquarters.  If Duard was to make any impact on events, he had to be informed.  A lot may have changed in a day.  

It was just after hour seventeen so in Bome City it was well into evening.  However in South Coast, it was a very uncomfortable hour of morning .  Understandably, it took more than a few rings for Humberto to answer, but he was there.  The Chief was always there.  As expected, Chief Meng was a little grumpy this time of day; or night.  However, he knew about all the important stories at the Chronicle.  He seemed unusually glad that Duard was up and about and shared the story freely.

The tale of Juquan and the BigBad Crew moved quickly as Humberto only spoke in important facts.  Apparently they partied and cheated the casino.  After that, the story took a few unexpected turns.  The strangest turn was the reporter Humberto used to follow them.  Duard’s keen memory often kept him from asking for the same information twice, but Chief Meng’s selection was simply inconceivable.

“There has to be a mistake,” Duard corrected with unhideable disbelief, “Brisa?  My Brisa?”  Duard had to stop and lean the communicator to his ear.  There was no way he had heard that part right.

“Yeah Brisa Gan, your errand girl,” the Chief said with certainty, “She hasn’t called in for a while though.  She’s either doing fine or she’s dead.”

“What do you mean dead?”  He asked the question without thinking.  This whole situation seemed like a road trip horror story, “Where did they go?”

“West Drop.”

“West Drop!”  Duard knew for certain that his errand girl hoped to be as good a decent reporter.  However, following the BigBad Crew was too much for her as was going to West Drop.  The two facts together made absolutely no sense.   “Why not throw her to the bear-frogs while you’re at it!”

“She was there, and she could walk,” Humberto shouted back reminding Duard that he could not at the time, “If you want to catch up on the rest of the story, I suggest you go there and talk with her.”  Those were the Chief’s words before ending the connection.

Things were going terribly.  Sadly, things were probably much worse than Duard believed.  His plan to destroy Jaquan hung on a thread.  How could he find evidence to damage Jaquan if he couldn’t find Jaquan.  However, he was glad to have called.  He would look a fool if he had walked into this with the information he had only yesterday.  

Duard rushed to his private craft.  There was no time to lose. He should be there in a few hours.  

He scoffed at the idea of Brisa doing fine on anything.  All she’s fine for is getting my tea and sandwiches.  If she went to West Drop, chances are that she’s already robbed and stranded.  I’ll have to clean up whatever mess she’s found herself in.

#1 – Opportunity #34 – Opportunity #36