CHAPTER 11: Smuggling Illegal Drugs (1)

Alex walked out of the med bay with a pained look on his face, he then paused and looked at the night sky.

'Isn't a hundred points to heal my stomach too expensive?'

Freestone Academy works on a point system, that means that if a student wanted to buy anything they would use points. Students use points to buy tickets for the train, all the food they eat are also paid for with points, and some special places that a student can not enter with points.

Points are earned in many ways, for example the higher a student is in their class rankings the more points they will get.

Freestone does give a boon to students by giving them hundred and twenty points free every month, so even if a student is incredibly weak, if they manage they will be able to make the points last for a month.

Another way to get points is to buy them using real money, there is a place in the Underworld where money is exchanged for points. This method it's done under the table as it is not officially approved by the academy.

Alex sighed and pulled a bottle from his pocket, he looked at the blue pills inside and contemplated taking one.

'Taking one is okay right? It's not a big deal?'

I hesitated for a moment before I put the bottle back in my pocket. 'Later, right now it's time to head over to the warehouse. This is gonna be an interesting night.'

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I opened the carriage door and stepped onto the ground.

"You're late."

Alistair stood by the gate of the transportation company.

I grunted and dismissively waved my hand. "I'm here now aren't I?"

Alistair looked at his XOC and shook his head. "We're ten minutes behind schedule."

I walked through the gate and followed Alistair to the loading dock.

 "Is the route for the delivery still the same?"

"Yes," Replied Alistair.

"Who's today's coachman?" I asked after a bit of thought.

Alistair sighed and answered slowly.

"Like we agreed it's Randy."

I pinched my forehead in frustration.

"Why don't we just get rid of him, I'm starting to think he's not worth the stress."

"You know why he's necessary, he's the only person apart from Agustin, you and I that's Ranked. We need him to act as muscle for us."

"But he's starting to get out of control," My voice began increasing in sharpness. "Never shows up on time, selling diom on the side, if we can't trust him then I think it's time for him to leave."

Alistair paused and looked me in the eye. "You know we can't risk firing him, that's literally the point, we can't have him go to the cops."

I smiled lightly then answered coolly. "Who said I was going to fire him? I'll just have him disappear, never to be seen again."

By this time we had almost reached the loading dock, and looking ahead I saw a tarp covered wagon that was harnessed to two draft horses.

Alistair sighed and shook his head.

"Sometimes how brutal you are scares me." Alistair and I stepped onto the dock. "Anyway let's talk about this later, we've got some deliveries to make right now."

"Hey boss." Lazily drawled a voice from deeper in the loading bay.

"Randy." I calmly said.

Randy stepped onto the loading dock, it was then that I saw him clearly under the moonlight.

Randy was a muscle bound forty something ish man, with brown shaggy hair, and who also had a scar that ran from his left eyebrow down to his chin.

"Randy, are all the crates loaded?" Asked Alistair.

Randy nodded his head and jerked his head backward. "Yeah they are, cleaned the whole place out. No more crates back there."

I stepped back and pulled back the tarp covering the wagon before peering inside, after a few seconds I turned back to look at Randy.

"Looks to me like there are a few missing crates of diom."

Randy shrugged his shoulders.

"Is that so?" He then jumped off the loading dock and climbed onto the box seat of the wagon. "Like I said, I kept all the crates in the wagon."

My eyebrows twitched and I was about to step forward, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking back I saw Alistair shaking his head at me.

I then sighed, and climbed into the wagon. Alistair seemed lost in thought as he followed me inside.

Once Alistair entered the wagon Randy jerked the reins and the horses began pulling the wagon away from the loading dock.

"Wait, isn't Agustin coming?" I asked in surprise.

Alistair shook his head.

"No, he said he has to study today so he can't come."

I raised an eyebrow. "Agustin? Study? The day he does that I'll know the world is ending."

"Yeah," Alistair said in agreement. "I didn't believe it either but if he doesn't want to come what can we do about it."

I thought back on Agustin's behavior with stuff that has to do with diom and the Underworld. I then turned back to Alistair with a serious look on my face.

"I think it's time we talk about Agustin."

"What's there to talk about?" Replied Alistair calmly.

The wagon went through the gates and turned down the street.

"You know as well as I do that he doesn't agree or approve of us transporting diom."

"As long as he doesn't impede us in any way then I don't see an issue," Alistair shrugged his shoulders. "Besides he's in the top two hundred of our class so it wouldn't be smart to kick him out. We already don't have close to enough fighting power."

I sighed and decided to drop the topic for now.

"I'll drop it for now…. anyway it's been so hectic lately that I forgot to ask, but when we were robbed why did you tell me not to fight back?"

Alistair turned and stared at the roof of a building the wagon just passed by.

"Simple really, first I want to see how far he was willing to go. Did he only want to warn us or did he lose all sense of reason and decided to get us locked up? That's why I let them enter the carriage. And like I expected they only planted diom, which wasn't enough to get us in real trouble."

I nodded my head in understanding.

"So it was only a warning."

"Exactly." Replied Alistair. "He's telling us not to try breaking away from him."

 Alistair tapped the wagon and continued speaking. "And anyway I don't think we could have taken them."

I looked at Alistair in surprise.

"Really?"

Alistair nodded his head in confirmation. "Yes, I didn't even know one of them as behind me until I felt a knife at my throat. That makes me think that either the person was a First Tier or very close to one."

I leaned back and looked dazedly at the passing buildings.

'This close to death.' I thought in shock. 'This makes me realize how weak I really am. If I hadn't listened to Alistair's warning I might be dead right now. Even if they weren't First Tiers I wouldn't be a match for someone as skilled as what Alistair described.'

"ALEX!" 

I jerked up and looked at Alistair in confusion. "Yes, what?"

Alistair touched his glasses and looked at me with concern.

"Are you ok? You seem distracted. Even when I saw you in class this morning you seemed strange, like you were distracted."

I sighed and looked at Alistair with tired eyes. "I just haven't slept in a few days."

Alistair peered at me through his glasses. "And that's enough for you to be this distracted? Ranked can go with sleeping for days on end, just when was the last time you slept?"

I thought back on the past few days and shook my head. "Maybe four or five days, I can't really remember."

"So why have you been awake for that long?" Asked Alistair. 

I shrugged my shoulders and looking over Alistair's shoulder glanced pointedly at Randy. 

Alistair turned around and after he realized I was looking at Randy he turned gave me a knowing look.

He then moved closer until he was right next to me.

"Can you talk now?" Asked Alistair with a whisper.

I nodded my head then began speaking in so low a voice that it was almost inaudible.

"I've just been busy for the past few days," I saw that Alistair was about to protest to that answer so I raised my hand to stop him. "I was going to rest yesterday, but I was attacked last night."

I then proceeded to explain all that had happened the previous night.

Alistair raised an eyebrow after I finished my story. "And all this happened on FI68?"

I nodded my head in confirmation.

"FI68." A thoughtful look passed across Alistair's face. "That's strange."

I nodded my head in agreement. "Exactly, it's strange enough that I was attacked in Freestone, but for it to happen on the island where the students ranked from one hundred to two hundred have their dorms, that's the weirdest thing."

I then thought for a few seconds before I turned to look back Alistair.

"Could 'he' have sent an assassin?" I asked nervously.