equals and I knew this was no ordinary verman I was dealing with.
'My name is Gnasher,' he said. 'And you're Matthew Richter.'
He held out his slender rodent hand for me to shake and I did so. When I let go he used his claws to rapidly scratch the fur under his chin and I saw several fleas fall to the ground.
'It's no wonder you know my name,' I said, doing my best not to think about how many fleas Gnasher had remaining. 'Keket made sure to announce my arrival loudly enough.'
'True. The warden loves to stir up trouble down here. She gets off on watching the various little dramas that take place among the general population. Brawls, assassinations, gang wars… The bloodier the spectacle, the more she likes it.' Gnasher pointed to one of the flying skulls floating off in the distance. 'That's an Overwatcher. They're Keket's eyes and ears. Whatever they see and hear, she does too.'
'I'm surprised we gave them the slip so easily, then,' I said.
'There might not be many places to hide down here, but there are a lot of people. That helps. But I've got something that helps even more.'
'What's that?'
Gnasher grinned, displaying a mouthful of long, narrow, flat-edged rat teeth. 'A subcutaneous implant that renders me invisible to the Overwatchers' sensors. As long as you stay close to me, they won't be able to detect you either.' He gave another of his snuffling laughs.
I frowned. 'That kind of tech doesn't sound like standard issue for prisoners.'
Gnasher's grin widened. 'It's not, but then, I'm not a prisoner. And I knew who you were and that you were coming long before Keket made her announcement. In fact, I was waiting for you.'
'Who are you? You don't act like any verman I've ever met. And why did you help me? Not that I'm ungrateful, but this doesn't strike me as the kind of place where altruism ranks high on the list of survival skills.'
Another laugh. ' That's an understatement! No altruism on my part. It's payback. You saved the life of one of our people at Sinsation, when Overkill failed to steal Scream Queen's voice.'
I remembered the verman waiter who would've gotten skewered by one of Overkill's weapons if I hadn't stepped in and intercepted it.
Gnasher went on.
'Most people in the city wouldn't have bothered to save him, wouldn't have even seen him as someone worth saving. But not you. You saw his life as valuable enough to risk your own to protect it.'
'Look, I was glad to keep the waiter from getting shish-kabobbed, but don't make me out to be something I'm not. I'm a zombie. I don't feel pain. It's no big deal for me to take a wound to protect someone.'
'Maybe so but you still saved his life and for that we owe you. And we always pay our debts, Matthew. Al ways. Besides, Skully has spoken highly of you over the years and we trust his judgment.'
Skully is a friend of mine, a bar owner with ties to the Dominari, Nekropolis's version of the Mafia. Despite being on different sides of the law we've always gotten along well and he's helped me out with cases on more than one occasion.
A suspicion was beginning to form in my mind.
'So you work for the Dominari too?'
Gnasher let out another snufflelaugh and scratched behind one of his ears. ' For the Dominari! Don't you get it? We vermen are the Dominari!'
Gnasher went on to tell me more about the true nature of the Dominari, and while at first I found his story unbelievable, the more I thought about it all, the more sense it made. I'd lived and worked in Nekropolis for years and I dealt with the city's criminal element on a regular basis. But while I'd met plenty of people who one way or another worked for the Dominari, I'd never actually encountered a member of that criminal organization in person. The Dominari did its business in secret and kept the identities of its members well concealed. Not even Skully would tell me anything about the people he worked for. I'd always imagined the Dominari as a combination crime cartel and spy agency, with hidden headquarters located somewhere in the Sprawl. But the one thing I'd never considered was that the Dominari might be hiding in plain sight.
'My people came to Nekropolis during the Descension with the other Darkfolk, and as the city began to develop, we realized there was opportunity for us here. You see, my kind has always been pragmatic, willing to do things that others find distasteful in order to survive and thrive. Where others see mounds of trash, we see discarded resources to be recovered and made use of. Where others see nothing but rotting carrion, we see food going to waste. And when the Darkfolk began to build their city's infrastructure, complete with laws and legitimate businesses, we knew a shadow economy would inevitably develop. In this respect, the Darkfolk are no different than humans. Crime is a fact of life and if there was going to be crime in our new home my people decided not only would we take advantage of it, we'd run it. And so the Dominari was born. The Darkfolk already looked down upon us as lower lifeforms, so we used that as camouflage, acting docile and hiring ourselves out cheap as manual laborers and servants. We quickly infiltrated every level of society, allowing us access to all manner of information, for we made ourselves such a common part of everyday life – just another bit of background scenery – that few people noticed us, and even fewer guarded their tongues in our presence. Positioned as we were, we were able to take advantage of every business opportunity that came our way and over the years the Dominari grew strong. If there was a criminal enterprise in the city that we didn't own outright, we took a cut of the profits. We became rich as any Darklord – richer, even – and in our own way, just as powerful.'
Gnasher's revelation completely changed my view of Nekropolis and as I struggled to process what he'd told me a thought occurred to me.
'Why haven't the Darklords done anything to stop you? Why hasn't Dis? Surely they must know the truth about you.'
Gnasher grinned. 'We've made ourselves such an integral part of how the city works, that if you destroyed us, Nekropolis's entire economy would collapse. Dis and the Darklords learned about us long ago, but they view us as a necessary evil and as long as we don't interfere with their personal business they leave us alone for the most part. From time to time they make token strikes at us to placate their subjects and make them think something is being done to curtail crime in the city, but afterward everything returns to normal.'
I shook my head in amazement. Gnasher was right: in many the ways the Darkfolk aren't so different from humanity.
'So what are you doing here in Tenebrus?' I asked. 'I'd think your people would've seen to it that you were never arrested, let alone convicted.'
Gnashed snuffled again. 'I'm not a prisoner. I am a Secundar, a high rank among my people. Only Primark is higher. I have the great honor of serving as the Dominari's liaison to Tenebrus. We can't prevent every captured criminal from being incarcerated, so we make sure to keep the lines of communication open between Tenebrus and the outside world. That way our associates' knowledge and skills don't go to waste. We despise waste.'
It's no secret that organized crime figures and gang leaders back on Earth are still able to run their organizations from inside prison and it seemed the Dominari were doing the same here – only they'd moved one of their own into Tenebrus to do the job.
'I carry messages back and forth as well as delivering alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, pure blood and fresh meat for our people inside. No weapons, though. Keket is aware of my presence here, and while she allows me a great deal of freedom, she'd never permit me to bring in weapons that might be used against her guards – or more importantly, against her.'
'Back and forth… You mean you can get out whenever you want? Keket told me that no one has ever escaped Tenebrus!'
Gnasher grinned. 'I told you, I'm not a prisoner, so technically I can't escape. From time to time we're allowed to take some of our people out for a furlough, provided we return them. So again, no escapes.'
For the first time since Quillion cast me down to Tenebrus, I began to feel a ray of hope.
'So you can get me out.'
Gnasher spread his hands. 'Maybe yes, maybe no. Intervening to keep you from getting torn apart by an old enemy is one thing. You save one of us and we owed you. And as long as you remain with me, you will be safe. No one in Tenebrus would dare touch anyone under my protection. But that's as much as we'll do to repay our debt to you. If you want more from us, we'll need to negotiate.'
'I should have guessed as much. After all, everything is business with the Dominari, isn't it?'
