The Saffire Ruby
Chapter Eight
By JWolfman

When Harrison McClennen received the news of the Bloodstar Guild arriving at Whisgard, he made several predictions that turned out to be accurate. He knew that despite the pirates' notoriety for pillaging and bloodshed, they wouldn't attack the city. Whisgard was just too heavily defended and the pirates showed up in plain view over the ocean in broad daylight. Another prediction he made was that the Whisgard corsairs wouldn't attack the pirates but instead come up with a deal with them. As a member of the Emerald Parliament, Harrison was all too aware of the corruption within his own government, and several of his colleagues, including some with more seniority than he does, have known connections to the Anderson sisters themselves. They protest against piracy and yet encourage it secretly to fill their seemly bottomless coffers. The fact that Harrison was reputedly incorruptible made him a rather estranged man in political circles. When his predictions eventually became true, he made a public protest in Parliament over the matter and left the building in disgust.

But there was one prediction he made, in secret, that he didn't want to become true. Late in the morning after the pirate airships landed safely across the mountain ranges, the dire prediction stared him in the face as the Anderson sisters showed up on his doorstep. Due to the stress of the previous night, the brown and black-furred musteline was only waking up from a fretful rest when his servant came into the bedroom to relay the news. Wearing only his silk undergarments and a thick bathrobe, the well-aged politician muttered in his native Icaric language as he opened the front door, and glared at the vulpine twins.

Amelia returned his glare with a smile. "Harrison McClennen?" Like her sister, she was dressed in her favorite attire of corset dresses, although due to the compromise they made with the Whisgard authorities, her holsters and sheaths were empty.

"Before you stink my place with your presence, I want to know what you want from me," Harrison spat back, blocking the doorway with his lithe frame.

"Information. That's all," was her nonchalant reply.

"What?" Harrison found that hard to swallow. Gold, rand bills, jewelry, silver certainly, but information? They risked their lives for information? It took a few moments for him to suddenly remember and guess why they've arrived in the first place, and he mentally shuddered. He instinctually glanced behind the pirates to see several Whisgard guards standing post, but judging from the looks on their bored faces, he realized that they have no real intention of clasping the pirates in chains and hauling them away for good. 

"May we come in?"

Harrison growled. "No."

Amelia sighed and finally pulled out a folded sheet of paper from within her large bosom, and held it out for him with two fingers. "A letter written by King Rustuv, and stamped with his royal insignia, stating that you're one of the protectors of the Saffire Ruby."

Harrison didn't bother taking the letter to read it. What she just said was enough. His small ears laid back against his head and his body slunk away from the door, silently allowing the vulpines to enter his home. The guards didn't bother following them, instead choosing to simply wait outside. Having two blood-thirsty pirates inside his house without security unnerved him, but how would killing him outright benefit them? The pirates immediately walked to the kitchen, attracted to the smell of hot tea. Harrison's servants already fled at the sight of them, and he retreated to sit on a nearby living room chair, letting his new guests treat themselves to the drinks.

Amelia stuffed the letter in between her breasts again, freeing her paws to pour a steaming cup of tea for herself and Christie, and both took their places on a living room couch, facing Harrison. "Judging from the look on your pointy face, the letter's correct."

His eyes remain staring at the carpeted floor. "The Saffire Ruby's not here."

"Of course not, buffoon," Amelia growled back. 

Christie interjected, her paw holding the tea cup shakily. "So it's real?! You've seen it with your own eyes?"

Harrison looked back at them, nodding. "The jewel that I held merely a week ago is indeed real. I know that you pirates want it, but you won't get it."

"Where did you put it? Where is it going now?"

"As if I'm going to tell you, slut."

Amelia merely rolled her eyes slightly, but Christie, the more easily offended of the twins, snarled and thrust her cup toward him, splashing the hot tea onto his face. Harrison screamed, the liquid burning his flesh before his paws cover his face. He barely had the chance to breathe before one of Christie's paws clasp around his neck, pinning him against the chair. Baring her fangs up close, she pried back one of Harrison's paws so that he could see her.

"Call my sister a whore again and I'll bite your nose off!"

"Christie..." Amelia sighed. "Sit down. Come here..." She patted on the spot Christie was sitting previously.

As Christie snarled and let him go to retreat back to her seat, Harrison groaned loudly in pain and both paws cover his face again. "Goddamnit!"

"Answer the questions, tube rat."

Despite the strong burning sensation on his face, Harrison lowered his paws just enough to show his expression of contempt at them. "No."

Amelia bristled. She couldn't threaten him with a pistol or knife, and even if she could, what good would that bring? Harrison wouldn't be so easily bribed, that much she surmised, and even if he told them what they wanted, how could he be trusted? Torture would be nice, but she wouldn't escape from the city unscathed if she tried that to a member of the Emerald Parliament, no matter how many political enemies this person may have. Also the longer she wait here, the farther the Saffire Ruby would be. 

"You have family here, do you not?" If she has to go through that route, she would. 

"Don't you dare," Harrison hissed. "They're innocent!"

"Give me one good reason why I should care." Amelia looked over at the living room dresser, noticing the framed photos. Family photos, photos of young smiling mustelines. "You have children, that much I can see."

Harrison lunged himself at the photos, grabbing them off of Amelia's sight with one sweep of his arms. "Leave them alone!"

"Give us what we want, and our ships will leave before dusk. Just tell us where that jewel is going, and what ship it's on. We don't need your gold or rands or whatever crap you have. What do you have to lose?"

"My integrity..."

The two vulpines laughed, and Amelia stood up. "Integrity? What's that? You lost your integrity the moment you got elected to the Emerald Parliament. I may be a filthy pirate, but I've known the game long enough to see that the people you work with are stuck in the mud. You're a saint blessing over the hopeless. Don't be a stubborn ass and just tell us."

"Leave my house." His voice was just above a growling whisper. 

"Call me spoiled but I always get what I want, Harry." Amelia then glanced at her sister. "Go to his office here and tear everything up. Find whatever you need that says what ship is carrying that fucking jewel."

Harrison cringed at the sound of Christie's laughter. It was a gleeful sound, followed by her giggling as she wandered to find his office, and soon enough his ears catch the sounds of his books thrown off the shelves and papers rustling. His eyes however expressed sudden fear, and Amelia caught it immediately. "If you have something, it's best if you just spill it out for us. Makes our job a hell lot easier, and your children will be spared. And we will come across your children someday... your actions now will determine what we'll do to them."

He looked away from her, and his eyes haphazardly look downward to the framed photos cradled around his arms. One in particular caught his attention; the latest one featuring his six children. All of them smiling for the camera, dressed in their best suits and dresses, their hair groomed and the youngest daughter adorned with ribbons and bows. The oldest, one who would inherit his possessions, stood proudly in the back while carrying the infant son. His children were perfect, and if those vulpine thugs find their way to them...  

The musteline closed his eyes, hoping his actions won't backfire in the future. "Bottom drawer, combination five-nine-three-seven."

Amelia smiled and relayed the information to Christie. Soon enough, they grabbed an envelope from the now-unlocked drawer, bearing the stamp of the Rustuva monarchy. Upon reading the contents inside, she chuckled and nudged Christie on the shoulder. "Time to leave."

Christie squealed like a birthday child, and hurried toward the front door. Amelia glanced back at Harrison one last time. "The Quesator. The Saffire Ruby is in the Quesator."

When Harrison refused to speak, Amelia continued. "I know that one. It's not the flagship of the Rustuva Fleet, but dangerous in its own right. Thank you for this, tube rat. Maybe then I'll spare your wife's crotch droppings."

Harrison spat on the floor, the glob of saliva landing within an inch from her boots. She only laughed, too easily apathetic to be insulted by a scorned musteline. An Icarim politician musteline in that matter. When she joined her sister outside, she folded the note and slipped that into her cleavage to join the other paper. "Captain Benot pilots that airship. King Lionel is smarter than I thought..."

Christie's mood quickly soured. "We have to fight that canine again? I hate that guy so much!"

Amelia hummed softly and clasped her sister's paw to calm her. "Makes our inevitable victory all the more sweet, hun. All the more sweet."

End of Chapter Eight