They use the town festival to wander around a lot.  Zod doesn’t fully trust Toll,  at least not with the super secret stuff  but they found some parchment and had a skull session with the shopkeeper

Chapters 28-29

–Chapter 28–

They waited for a while until the barracks lights went out, and waited a little more. Eventually JOSEPHUS’s minions came out and headed into town. Interestingly, so did Toll. The chase was on.

The minions were being predictable in their direction towards Market Avenue, and Zod was following at a close distance. There was still enough of a crowd on both River and Main for all of them to blend in.

Zod had to stop short since Toll had pulled into the power bank and took Zod’s usual spot. Zod resigned themselves to a bench across First Street

After the minions predictably made their way to the door, Toll kept watch on the door and Zod kept watch on Toll. After what seemed like a game of “who will rust first” Toll rolled out and headed to the door. Zod moved into the power bank to get a better view. In their favor, it seemed like Toll was investigating the place and not trying to enter.

Zod watched as Toll went up Second Street and presumably back to the barracks. Zod headed up Main to see if they could spot Toll in the crowd, which he was, except they turned up Main towards North Gate and out of town. Zod definitely had a hunch but needed to know where they were going.

They were thankful for that oil pen as they crept along the shadows behind until Toll turned off onto the Ring Road, and could be heard entering the clearing the bots camped in. Zod crept into the hideout they’d used before and dared use the RF whistle band that they had agreed on.

“Toll,” Zod whispered, “are you there?”

“Yeah,” they replied, “that was one heck of a party.”

“Not my kind of thing, so I just wandered around and watched. How come you’re here and not at the barracks?”

Toll retorted, “it’s festival night so I had some time before my absence was noticed. They only recalled us this morning and I didn’t have a way to get a message.”

“Good point. We should find someplace closer to your barracks. Even if it seems to be ground zero.”

“How about we meet at that power bank at First and Market tomorrow. That also seems to be ground zero.”

Zod wasn’t terribly excited about the idea, but had to accept that there weren’t any better places, at least for now.

“That’s fine,” Zod replied. When’s your shift change so I can be there?”

“Six O’clock but I think we’ll be over at South Gate for a few days. It’s definitely closer than North.

“Anyway, Zod asked, “ have you anything new?”

“Well, those two butlers are definitely in league with JOSEPHUS and the other two are still unknowns. I’ve been doing all the scouting myself”

“And,” Toll added, “I’ve investigated that door you mentioned. I peeked in the mail slot, and there’s definitely a staircase behind it, and an old creaky one at that. I think the auto-butlers make such short appearances because their wheel can’t handle them.”

“Thwackers?, Zod asked

“I guess it’s okay for them. The foyer isn’t much wider than the door is. You?”

“I got my hand on the draft legislation long enough to scan it. But I suspect the auto-butler carrying it is working for either JOSEPHUS or a lobbyist. I’d guess FANDANGO_MP wants to keep their hands as clean as possible for now.”

Zod added, “It’s more or less what I thought. Despite not knowing what SEMPRINI is, they know that controlling it somehow controls us. The legislation would largely create a fake commission to find the source and regulate the sale in the region.

‘Now what,” asked Toll.

They electronically banged their proverbial brains hoping a logic circuit fell into place. Zod couldn’t think of anything at all. Time to step back and put all the events into sequence seemed to be the only thing to do. Zod said as much to Toll.

“I agree,” said Toll, “Let’s meet back at the power bank tomorrow, I don’t think anything will happen in 24 hours.

At least I hope not.” Zod suggested, “if you can keep an eye on First Street and hopefully the alley, that could be useful. They’re apparently looking for me now. I’ll go and watch Market and we haven’t checked out the Sketchy Antique Shops well enough.”

“Sounds like a plan. “Toll signed off, “same time tomorrow then.”

Zod nodded.

Knowing the size of the foyer behind that door was at least one more data point. It meant that whatever was going on there happened on the second story of the building, which meant there was probably not much heavy equipment going up there, unless there was a back door somewhere. The several alleys on the other side of the block were slightly less narrow but a lot more grimy. Zod marked the location on the angle compared to the rest of the street in both directions for when they went down South Wall to the Sketch Antique Shops again.

But for now, they watched, and wondered where they should grind off to for the night. South Gate was a real option from here, but they couldn’t be sure that the rogue Thwackers hadn’t set up camp. The only other possibilities were grimy unknown alleys or the Sketch Antiques and that would take a minor miracle.

–Chapter 29–

The festival was ending and the crowds were dispersing. It was a late hour and there were jobs to do in the morning. Zod reflected that it would have been nice to be there, and blissfully ignorant with the whole thing being Someone Else’s Problem.

But they weren’t, and they were nearly being hunted with nobody on their side except a Road Thumper they’d never met and hoped was being honest.

The best option seemed to be the grimy alleys that were the opposite side of the industrial area along the South Wall where gave way to the human walk-ups along the wall proper. The power bank had left them fully charged so it was just a matter of a dark space to power down and reflect on the day, and was there a lot of it to reflect on.

They quickly checked out the alley that should be opposite the door the humans were using, and in the shadows there was what appeared to be a service elevator. Zod wondered why they weren’t using that. The auto-butlers could get upstairs that way after all. Perhaps it was too conspicuous with the industrial building turned into blighted humans’ flats across the street.

A rumbling brought their sensors to peak status. They didn’t dare peek but it was definitely from the alley and elevator beyond that door Zod was so interested in. As the rumbling faded, Zod did extend their wing mirror to see if the coast was clear, and thankfully with the obnoxious hour the street was deserted. Emboldened, they searched the alley for any more hints, but all they found were a few scraps of parchment and a couple of cogs. Zod stashed the parchment for later. Now was not the time for analyzing bits of random parchment when they might be discovered at any moment.

Zod opted to retreat to the alley they had spent the night and analyze the papers they had just scavenged from the alley floor. The Antique Shops would have to wait for a little while.

The papers turned out to be something indeed, and Zod couldn’t imagine any of them to be so foolhardy to drop such a thing. It turned out to be a fragment of work instructions, hinting at the abduction of Desil and leaning into finding the source of SEMPRINI from them. Any idea of legislation was so minor that it couldn’t be worth much, at least not now. They knew finding the source was integral to herding the quiet list of fence-sitters into shape. So the work they were doing with FANDANGO_MP must have been preliminary and waiting for the time to strike.

But, it was time to move out. A Sentient hiding in a doorway when the humans across the street woke up would raise a lot of flags if they weren’t expected to be there. They may not have known the actual comings and goings of bots, but would report anything if asked. Zod opted to make a break for the Sketch Antique Shops before the locals arose to see if they could have any further luck at the Shops given what they knew.

As they neared the corner by the shops, the flats got a bit seedy, which was fine because everyone wanted to be left alone just like Zod did.

Thankfully the shops were just opening for the day to serve customers that needed to stop on their way to wherever, and indeed there were already some people browsing around. Zod purposely ignored them and went straight for the shop that they’d bought the SEMPRINI from.

The shopkeeper made sure that Zod knew that they really didn’t want to see them, but Zod took a big chance and forged ahead anyway.

After exchanging pleasantries, they started with their knowledge that Desil was being held nearby in an industrial building on Market Avenue, and that they were being pressed for any information about SEMPRINI after they weren’t able to find Desil’s notebooks. Zod talked about the draft legislation to control SEMPRINI and with that the Sentients, and that Sentients were involved in this scheme. SEMPRINI was being mined somewhere North of town, and that humans don’t know that despite their Sentient spies on the team that maintained North Road. JOSEPHUS was the ringleader, and JACKJACK was his main human minion. Zod did not, however, mention that he had Desil’s notebook.

The shopkeeper paused for a good while while they processed all of that.

With a sigh, they said, “Zod, I’m Harald, and I know a little about SEMPRINI. It’s smuggled into town to me and and as far as I can tell is like you’ve found, it has something to do with Sentients. I don’t know much more about it other than only a handful of humans and Sentients occasionally come through trying to purchase it.”

“Is it always the same ones? Do they have liveries?” Zod asked.

“There’s Delis, of course,” Harald replied, “and a tiny man that refers to themselves as Errol. Beyond that, there are sketchy humans and Sentients. They don’t get the time of day.”

“So some of them come repeatedly?”

“There is sometimes a cagey one with the livery you had the first time, but mostly a few foul-smelling Sentients with generic livery like what you’re wearing now doing terrible jobs at trying to be convincing enough to sell it to them. I feign ignorance, of course.”

Zod probed further, particularly about the bot in the dam livery. There was a smell of foul air around it. Particularly since their boss WALTER had been implicated in the plot.

“The dam worker,” Zod asked, “do you remember anything about them? Did they have any identifiable markings?”

“They never identified themselves, but they had a scrape all the way down their right arm”

“By the way,” Harald added, “I’d minimize my time South Wall were I you. I’ve seen some shady people and bots running around near the doorway you’ve described.

“Thanks heaps,” Zod said,” I’m not sure where to head from here, but I guess I know where not to head, at least for now.”

Zod couldn’t place the scar right away, but it did seem familiar. In any case, they should be easy enough to recognize them by that when the time came.

And they really weren’t sure where to go next. There was too much time before meeting Toll again, and Zod hadn’t figured out what to say yet. The best option was to find a quiet place where they could spend more time with Desil’s notebook.

A few stalls up along East Road proved to be an empty one that still had its curtains and appointments. It was an ideal place to read, and perhaps catch anyone headed to the Sketch Shops while they were at it.

Zod had to keep their lights off, of course, depending instead on his low-light vision circuits to do the heavy lifting and scanning while they read on.