Destiny

"When the second renegade's man walked in, he pretended that he and the first man were friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. The third, smaller man came in right behind the second one, but he pretended not to know either of the other two. The third man sat or stood by himself while the first two went through how-have-you-been and how-are-things conversations.

"After a couple of minutes, the first two started to tell each other how badly they were being taken advantage of by the new government. They were a couple of innocent victims being ground under the heel of uncaring tyrants, and their voices were loud enough that everyone in the establishment heard what they were saying. That, of course, was when the 'stranger' stepped forward to agree with what they'd said."

"The 'stranger' being the third of their group, of course," Driff said angrily, this time beating Edmin to the comment. "Don't tell me that the people listening believed them."

"Apparently the people listening were seriously concerned," ldresia confirmed, but she herself looked a good deal less than disturbed. I still don't believe the good luck I had in picking people as watchers, but apparently the inside person did the same thing in every instance. He or she announced that the three 'victims' must be leaving out some important details, because no one else seemed to be having anything like the same trouble. Then he or she turned to the rest of the patrons in the place, and asked if they'd had anything like the same trouble or knew of anyone who had. That was when the listeners realized that no one else had had the same trouble."

"How did the three 'victims' take being interfered with?" Issini asked, a small frown creasing her brow. "They couldn't have been happy to have their little act ruined."

"They weren't happy, but there wasn't much they could do," Idresia replied with a headshake. "A hothead from one of the groups seemed to be ready to beat up our man who interrupted whatever they were trying, but luckily there were off-duty members of the guard present. When the guard members got to their feet and stepped forward, the hothead changed his mind and simply stalked out of the tavern. Our man left by the tavern's back door, just in case the hothead was waiting outside for him."

"I believe I know what they were trying, but I have a question first," Edmin said, his expression thoughtful. "Did the groups return then to where they came from, or did they make another attempt elsewhere?"

"Actually, they did try their acts a second time," Idresia confirmed, looking at Edmin curiously. "My people switched places, so the groups weren't interfered with by the same man or woman. But they were interfered with again, so none of them tried a third time. They were so frustrated that they simply went back where they came from, probably to report and ask for new instructions. So now tell us, what do you think they were after?"

"In my opinion, they were trying to make people believe that the new government isn't as helpful and benign as everyone now thinks," Edmin said, looking around at all of them. "Noll has most likely decided to spread rumors that will circulate throughout the entire city, rumors calculated to cause unrest and doubt. Once the rumors and accusations have spread far enough, he undoubtedly plans to have rabble-rousers go out and fire up the populace to the point where they can be led in attack against some important point, like the palace. His own people will be hidden among the innocent, directing the attack without anyone being aware of it. Once the important point is taken, it will be his men who hold it."

"And that's something we can't let happen," Driff said, agreeing completely with what Edmin had told them. "There would have been trouble stopping a frenzied mob even with the help of Highs, but without them... If we don't want innocent people on all sides getting hurt, we have to stop Noll's plan as quickly and thoroughly as we can..."