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“All right. I’m picturing the bar. Oregis, this may take a few seconds.”
But it wasn’t like before, suddenly they were right there.
“That’s fast.” Yep, more power.
Oregis chimed in. “Nanoseconds, maybe.”
Holly shook her head. “I guess things have changed.”
Rez surveyed the gravel parking lot and what on the surface looked like a run-down bar with cheap wood siding painted red. Several beer signs in the windows reminded him of the Wild Boar. The bar was named Tricksey’s after a wild troll who had originally owned the place then lost it in a night of gambling. Shifters took it over, a mean female and her mate. Both were well known to the black marketers.
The parking lot was already loaded with vehicles of every kind especially trucks for hauling merchandise away. Shifters checked those coming in and turned anyone back who appeared to be working for the Tannisford Goods and Services Department.
“Take us in closer.”
Holly didn’t hesitate. She moved them to the front.
The joint was alive with tunes from an old-fashioned music box, enough drunks to fill a police station tank, and working women on the prowl.
Oregis said, “I understand the concept of the blurred walls, but why is everyone moving? I thought they’d be frozen in time.”
“Because we’re a few minutes in the past,” Holly explained.
“We are? Sweet Goddess. Okay, got it.”
Rez addressed his biggest concern. “Oregis, where do you suggest we launch to hunt for Underworld? I want to save as much time as possible.”
“We should head to the far north end. Things get kinky up there. My guess is we’ll get our best intel from that area.”
“Let’s do it.”
Holly took them deep inside what was a massive cavern system that had been modified to house hundreds of thousands of illegal wares.
Oregis leaned forward. “Keep going. But tell you what. There’s a toilet near the end. We can come out of one of the stalls as though we’d always been here.”
“Sounds good.” Holly was outwardly calm, though Rez sensed she was nerved up. Not a bad thing.
Holly kept moving. The black market was big business and went on for a full two miles with realm-folk moving goods on hand carts every which way. Occasionally, they passed an auction in progress. Food stalls sold questionable edibles and some kind of altercation took place every few hundred yards.
If nothing else, the black market wasn’t boring.
“We’re coming to the end,” Oregis said.
“Is that the bathroom? There on the right?”
“Yup. Where those two lady trolls came out tucking their boobs back in. This could be good.”
“Oregis.” Rez spoke in a sharp voice.
“Right. Sorry, Holly.”
Rez answered for her. “Just stay focused, Horn-Dog.”
Oregis laughed again.
The bathroom was poorly lit and made up of twenty wide stalls. Rez could see it was a hook-up place more than anything else. It wasn’t clean and about three different sets of moans and grunts were going on at the same time.
Rez could feel how close they were to the present and knew when they’d reached it because the realm-folk inside the bathroom all appeared to freeze.
