"How far have you gone with the tracking?" Alrik spoke as soon as he walked into the room with the others from the team.

Usually, Gaya handled communication with them, but even she wasn't so blunt. So they just stared at him for several seconds, some who didn't know who he was wondering why a stranger was questioning them without even a word of greeting. It was their team leader that responded.

"Welcome, Mr Crest. Ms Gaya informed us that you would be joining…"

'Pardon my rudeness, but I really don't have time for pleasantries. Something has come up, so finding that sword is very important. The sooner the better. So get me up to speed."

"Okay sir. But introductions are needed at least, so we can all address each other. I'm the team leader, Graham. Ally is our lead IT expert, and Jonah is her assistant. They're the ones who track any and all transactions that could lead us to the sword. Ray, and Gunner are in charge of black market search, trying to find the sword through the back channels it must have gone through to be sold. Riley is in charge of communications with our Valderran contacts. Since we can't freely travel over, they do the ground work, and get back to us with whatever they find."

"I've heard all your names a few times when receiving my report from Gaya. Nice to put faces to the names, even if it's not under very pleasant circumstances." Alrik said as he took a seat.

"In response to your first question, all my leads have been silent for a while. But three days ago, I was able to intercept a payment notice from a fake company to one of Ray's known black market goons. We're not sure yet if the sword is the artifact that's being sold, but it's being guarded a bit more than regular stolen goods, which is weird. And anything weird usually means it's connected to something that was smuggled from Velmorra." Ally spoke, and Alrik nodded.

"Has the item being sold already been moved to the buyer?" He asked.

"No. That's another weird thing. Yesterday, there was another payment made, but we've seen no indication that the item is being packaged or moved to the owner. That makes it more difficult to trace because we have no idea where it's being held. We were hoping to find it through transit, and trace its location that way, before organising a retrieval." Graham replied.

"Something else must be going down then. Maybe the payment isn't for the sword, or maybe the buyer hasn't made a complete payment yet. How close were you able to get to the seller's possible location? Pull up landmarks if possible, so I can get a feel of the general area." Alrik ordered, and Jonah began typing.

"I'm on it."

"Any information on exactly how much both transactions amount to?" Alrik asked, and Ally printed a document within seconds and handed it over.

"That's quite a substantial sum. Whatever is being sold must be very valuable then. I agree with you. There's a great chance it's actually the sword. But we also have a problem. If it's being sold for this high a sum, that means it must be finding its way to a permanent owner. No more moving around the black market. If it gets sold successfully, this could be the last chance we have to find it before it ends up getting stashed somewhere. And with such an amount, it's possible that it's being purchased by someone from the Valderran Royal family."

"That's true. Valderrans hate anything that has to do with Velmorra. But if they discover that one of our country's treasured artifacts was in their land, they would want it to display, and prove a point. Rub it in our government's faces, especially since they still cling so tightly to the monarchy." Ray spoke.

"These are the closest landmarks to the area we think the sword is being stashed in by the sellers." Jonah said and put the image up on the projector.

Alrik spent several minutes looking over the map of the area, and the last updated image. It didn't take long for him to recognise something, but he discovered that their estimation was wrong.

"You were close, but you went off at this point. The location is in the opposite direction." He said to the team.

"Do you know the sword's location?"Graham asked, and Alrik shook his head.

"Not the exact location. But recently, I got a tip of its general area."

"How sure are you that the tip is accurate? Because if we get it wrong, we only have one chance at a retrieval mission. We can't afford to get caught on Valderran land. We'll be beheaded immediately."

"You don't need to worry too much. None of you will be on the team that retrieves the sword. I can't trust a mission so important to anyone else. And I like my life right now, so I assure you, I will not get caught. And I trust the intel I received, so pull up the maps of the areas opposite the direction you showed me, starting from this point."

As he spoke, Ally began to type, so he faced Gunner. "How exactly do these black market vendors divide their territory? Or is it a free for all?"

"They all have designated spots, just like gangs would. Only the owner of a particular area is allowed to conduct business there. They mix it up sometimes, but usually, it remains the same." Gunner replied.

"That's good to know. That means you'll have an idea who runs the territory when Ally's done with the location estimation. That will make it easier to narrow down the properties being controlled, and possible hiding places to stash a very valuable sword."

They all waited while Ally worked her magic, and then she sent a file to Jonah so he could print some documents, while she sent images to the projector.

"This is the best I could get with what is available. The coordinates are on the document. Gunner, over to you."

'Well, this area is held by a dude called Big O. But he doesn't usually deal with artifacts and things like that. He's a jewel thief. He buys and sells rare gems. Whoever gave the tip for this area, might be wrong."

"And the accounts of the seller from the transactions we've been tracing don't match Big O either." Riley said.

Alrik didn't respond. He just calmly went through the images, matching them up and separating anything that looked vaguely familiar from this soul walking.

"This!"

Alrik sat up as he saw the image of the building with the sun. Though it seemed like an outdated image, since it looked different now.

"Who owns this?" He asked.

"I can't say for certain. It's along the border between Big O's place, and a dealer called the Mandible. He's a drug runner. I don't think he'd be interested in an artifact either."

"Maybe that's what makes them the perfect candidates to hide it. No one would think to find it there. Maybe the two transactions we saw aren't all payment for the sword. The first amount was smaller, so it could be payment for storing the sword, and keeping it safe. Then the second could be the actual payment." Alrik said, and though they were all skeptical, they agreed with that logic.

"Well, I'll follow that up, but I still think we should also keep on with our first trace."

"You'll only waste your efforts. Riley, get across to your contacts. I need to know the layout of the building, if there's security, and how tight the security is. I'm sure they wouldn't want to draw too much attention to the place, so it must be lowkey. And the easiest route to go across the border, and get there." Alrik said as he stood.

"As you wish, boss. It might take a day or two, maybe three."

"Do what you can. Offer them double what they already get paid if it will help. I need the information as soon as… Ugh!" He stumbled and grabbed his head as he was walking towards the door.

"Boss!" "Sir!" "Mr Crest!"

They all rushed forward to help him back to a seat. Alrik nearly screamed as a piercing headache made it feel like his head would fall off. Then the visions came, faster than he could process it. He began to mumble words that none of them understood.

"Lona Bay… ten… Bloody sign… too late…"

"Shouldn't we call an ambulance?" Ally said as she freaked out.

"No. Ms Gaya gave instructions to call her immediately if anything ever happened. Call her. Tell her something is wrong with Mr Crest and to get here as soon as possible." Graham ordered, and Jonah moved to make the call.

All they could do was wait, and stare at Alrik, wondering what was the cause of his pain, and why it happened so suddenly.

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