Chapter 100 — Problems
Chapter 100: Problems
The bath did us all good. At some point, Gabrielle could no longer endure the seriousness of the conversation, though calling it serious was generous, given that Fleur and Penny were quietly running their feet along my legs, doing their best to look as though it was entirely accidental and hoping Gabrielle wouldn't notice. In any case, Gabrielle eventually gave up, splashed everyone, and the conversation dissolved from something vaguely coherent into something entirely unclassifiable.
Still, the release after the meeting with the Inquisitors was something I had needed.
Now I was sitting in my study, staring at yet another report with a distracted frown, feeling that something in it was off. I just couldn't put my finger on what.
I read through it again and leaned back in my chair, still holding the sheet in my right hand. What could possibly be suspicious about a routine delivery report covering basic supplies that we were not yet producing within the district?
I raised the page and read it more carefully.
The purchase... same supplier, same quantities, same prices, everything identical.
With a flick of my wand, I pulled the previous reports to me and began comparing them side by side.
Same supplier, same volume, same prices, same delivery times, so what had made me uneasy?
I summoned several more earlier reports and went through them. Right, wait. What is this?
My eye had caught a note added at the bottom of one report: *The merchant pressed us to accept that the goods this time were of higher quality and therefore worth more.*
I read it several times, then went back through the others. Each one contained something similar: in one, the merchant had claimed his own procurement costs had risen; in another, something else entirely. But the thread running through all of them was the same: he had wanted more money than the agreed price.
I checked the latest report again. No such note this time, but there was another one, saying that the merchant had seemed to be in a tremendous hurry to be rid of our people. Which was strange, given that we paid considerably above the market floor. I conjured a Patronus on the spot and sent it to the warehouse supervisor.
"Kenward, do not release anything from the latest delivery. Seal the warehouses."
The Patronus darted away. I waited a couple of minutes, long enough for it to reach its destination, then sent the next message to the head of the werewolf contingent.
"Sidius White, I need someone with an excellent nose at the warehouses."
The third message went to Cissy.
"Mom, please send someone capable of conducting a rapid analysis to the warehouses."
I rose from my desk, gathered all the reports, and made for the door at a brisk pace.
"Draco?"
Fleur appeared in the doorway of her room. It was evening, and she was probably on her way to sneak into my room as usual, though why she still thought of it as sneaking in, I couldn't imagine, since everyone already knew perfectly well that both she and Penny slept there.
"I'll be late. Go ahead and settle in with Penny, same as always."
"Idiot."
Fleur's door clicked shut. As I passed Penny's room a moment later, I heard the soft pad of bare feet moving away from the door. By the time I reached the entrance, I had conjured another Patronus for Bella.
"Bella, please assemble the rapid-response group. We may be needed on an active operation. Experienced fighters, not new recruits."
The Patronus shot away, and I set off for the warehouses. When I arrived, they were already cordoned off, and Bella was approaching at a quick march with her people. The others, including Cissy, were already on site.
"Draco, what's all this?"
"Here, read this. It's the latest report, and these are the previous ones. Read them and tell me if anything strikes you as suspicious."
I handed the documents to Cissy, and Bella immediately leaned over to look as well.
"Right, your name?"
"Alex, sir."
"No 'sir' needed, Mr. Black will do. Is your nose particularly good?"
"One of the best in the pack."
"Excellent."
I gave a slow nod.
"Here's what I need from you. You'll be let into the warehouse and shown where the goods from the last delivery are stored. I need you to examine them very carefully for any unfamiliar scents. Can you manage that?"
"I think so."
The werewolf gave a slightly uncertain nod.
I turned to the warehouse supervisor.
"Can you show him where the goods from the last delivery are kept?"
"Of course."
"Both of you, be careful in there. I don't want to alarm anyone, but it's possible that breathing the air in there too deeply may not be entirely safe."
The werewolf flinched.
"That is precisely why we're sending a werewolf in. You'll detect any foreign scent before it builds up to a dangerous level, which means we'll be able to treat you more easily if needed."
He looked at me with a flicker of surprise, but my words seemed to settle his nerves somewhat.
"So, look here."
Kenward used his boot to scratch a rough floor plan into the earth beside the warehouse.
"...you won't need to go far in. The goods are here, and here. There's quite a lot of it, but..."
"I can manage."
Alex nodded, and a few moments later the warehouse door was opened and he slipped inside, immediately beginning to move slowly and carefully, nose working.
"Draco, are you not overdoing this a little?"
Cissy came to stand beside me and handed the reports back with a slightly uncertain expression.
"The merchant's behaviour is a bit unusual, I'll grant you that, but surely not enough to warrant..."
"I agree, it does seem..."
Bella shook her head.
"...excessive?"
"If I'm wrong, we'll count this as a readiness drill for our various departments. And I sincerely hope I'm wrong. But if I'm not, if there is something in there that could harm our people, then I am obliged to check."
"And my team is here to go after the merchant and extract the truth from him, if your suspicions prove well-founded?"
"Yes. We'll need to reach him as quickly as possible, and if necessary, you shall extract it."
"That we can certainly manage."
Bella gave a satisfied nod.
At that moment the werewolf practically vaulted out of the warehouse.
"There... there..."
I caught his eyes. I chose not to attempt Legilimency on a werewolf, and so I did my best through sheer presence to calm him.
"Steady. Breathe in, breathe out. You're outside now. Nothing bad has happened yet. Take it easy."
"Yes."
He exhaled.
"There's... there's a smell in there. Several unusual plants. I couldn't even place it at first. It took me about ten minutes to remember where I'd encountered it before: a certain shop in Knockturn Alley, where people used to bring in some less wholesome plants. I only went there a few times, but..."
"That doesn't matter."
I raised a hand.
"The past is the past. What matters is living by the rules now, and everything will be fine."
"Right."
The werewolf nodded. I looked at Cissy.
"Time for your specialists. Find everything with Alex's help, get it out, and work out exactly what someone was planning to do to us."
"Consider it done."
Cissy conjured an air bubble around herself; the other wizards did the same. The werewolf took a breath and walked back towards the warehouse.
"We're moving out?"
"Yes."
I nodded to Bella, who looked faintly displeased.
"One request before you go."
"What?"
"Out there..."
I nodded towards the district gate.
"...treat it as conditionally hostile territory."
"Understood."
Bella nodded, then led her team at a swift pace towards the exit.
I drew a slow, deep breath and let it out.
"Kenward."
"Yes?"
The man looked at me with a trace of anxiety.
"I apologize, but you'll need to submit to a short interrogation. One drop of Veritaserum, two or three questions, to confirm you have no involvement in this. The same applies to everyone responsible for procurement. I don't doubt your honesty; most of your families live here, after all, but protocol requires it."
"Protocol?"
"Yes. Protocol that we are creating here and now, before we have to write it in blood."
"Understood."
He nodded, and I sighed and transfigured two small chairs from the ground for both of us. We sat down and waited to see what Cissy and her team would bring out.
"No one has taken anything from the new delivery yet, I take it?"
"No. I always issue from the older stock first, so the earlier batches don't sit too long."
I nodded, feeling a small measure of relief.
***
***Several hours later***
"We found it."
Cissy emerged from the warehouse, floating a large pallet of sacks ahead of her with her wand. Several of her people followed, levitating more pallets behind her.
"...a third of the purchased goods are poisoned."
I gave a slow nod.
"Can you determine which poison?"
"Not immediately. But yes, we can."
"Good. And the rest: is the remaining food safe? Are there any other unpleasant surprises hidden among the other supplies?"
"Everything else appears clean. But Alex and I have agreed: tomorrow he'll bring several packmates with good noses, and they'll go through the entire warehouse."
I nodded in understanding.
"Excellent. Then we wait to hear what Bella turns up, and for your verdict as well. Certain poisons can be rather telling in their own right."
"Agreed."
Cissy nodded, then left with her people, and I turned back to Kenward.
"The warehouse stays closed to everyone until tomorrow."
"Understood."
He nodded, and I finally turned and walked towards home. There were things I needed to attend to myself, so it looked as though I wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
With that thought, I arrived at my study and set to work drafting several additional protocols that would need to be discussed with my mothers and the relevant specialists later. They would likely revise them beyond recognition, but I needed to produce a first draft, something that could eventually be put into practice.
"Draco, what happened?"
Fleur came into the study wearing nothing but a dressing gown.
"Problems."
"Mm?"
"Someone nearly poisoned the district. We still depend on outside deliveries (the first harvests are a long way off) and someone slipped poison into a food shipment. Fortunately, I caught the suspicious notes in the report. If I hadn't, the delivery would have worked its way into circulation within a week, and then..."
I shook my head.
"Do you know who?"
"Not yet. The main thing now is for Bella to reach the merchant before whoever hired him does, and for Cissy to identify the poison."
"And what are you doing?"
"Trying to draft protocols so this can't happen again."
"May I help?"
Penny appeared in the doorway.
"Of course."
I nodded and flicked my wand to draw up a chair from against the wall.
"I'll help too."
Another flick, and a second chair appeared on the other side of me. The three of us bent over the work together and did not notice midnight come and go, or the first grey light of morning. But by the time we stopped, we had a working draft to build from.
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