Further Research

After they gathered this information, the group returns to the Conquistador, but not before Rod has a look at the many stalls in the farmers’ market. He looks for some weed to scratch a certain itch, and is pleasantly surprised that LAW does not seem to mind that an old guy sells the stuff basically in the open, along with other roots, herbs and buds for your common household needs. Also, the price is more than fair: Being close to the Mississippi has some advantages.

The group quickly checks the hospital in Union Quarter, a very orderly place. It is basically a continuation of Uptown, but without the walls and the check at the Lock. One sees many well-clothed and armed people, along with the ubiquitous LAW soldiers keeping the peace. After shoving through the throng of sick and hurt people which constantly besieges the Saint Brigid hospital, they speak with a pretty young doctor called Vesper: No, there have been no new doctors here, and no new nurses, which is a pity because they really could use some help. After making a short report to judge Stoneleigh in Uptown and a lunch in one of Uptown’s community kitchens, they decide to try their luck at the border between the Remnants and Drifting Susan. It is, at the moment, the only lead they have.

When LAW made Memphis their headquarters, they decided to pull down all structures from the Long Ago and replace them with their own buildings: a new start in more than one way. But it takes decades and many resources to do this, and looking at the Remnants it seems that Law has just given up – for the time being. Rickety apartment complexes and office buildings from the Long Ago dominate the narrow and winding streets. Dangerous rope bridges connect the buildings, which have been repaired again and again – nonetheless, every year people are injured when walls cave in or bricks drop. The Remnants are a constant reminder that Memphis is not a new city, but stands on the ground of a necropolis from the Long Ago, and who knows what secrets this ground covers even today.

Further south, the plain is sprinkled with tents, ramshackle huts and vehicles used as temporary shelter, and also some old ruins used as workshops and market stalls. Small cooking fires burn everywhere. This is the shantytown of Drifting Susan, a collection of ragtag travelers. LAW has no patrol in this area, but they sweep the place now and then, especially if they need new workers for a road project or the prison farms. It is late afternoon, and the wide street between the two quarters is full of people. A LAW patrol moves through, while the group discusses their approach. The group quickly bribes some street kids to look for a muscular man with short black hair and blue eyes. The street vendors are also questioned, but only after a while the men meet an old scrap merchant who can help them. The withered crone remembers a strapping young man who bought some metal wiring and gears, a few test tubes and such stuff. She believes he was sent from the Gears to fetch replacement parts. For what? She doesn’t know. That was maybe two weeks ago.

So, Uziel really seems to be in the Remnants, but, as Rod realizes with a sigh, this is still a huge place, and finding him there is going to be very difficult. One could wait for the street kids to discover him, or for the crone to see the false benefactor in the streets. Not really prospects guaranteeing success. But Mal Porter remembers a place called the Labor Bar. It is a big place, an institution, really, in the Gears, and hundreds of workers spend at least a part of their evening there. Also, the shift bosses use the place to gather workers for the day. Maybe someone has seen him there, if he really poses as a worker in the Gears. As darkness falls, the men make their way towards the place.