Infiltration

“Our governor?”, asked Gav.

“Yes! The guy over there holding this particularly unhappy looking woman in his arm.”, Archie said as he passed the binoculars to Gav.

“She really does look like she would prefer to be somewhere else.”

“Let me take another look!”, I said before taking the binoculars another time.

“The guy with the suit and the bowler hat?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Nobody is going to believe this.”, said Archie.

“Corrupt politicians? Really surprising.”, I replied sarcastically.

“We have to tell everybody.”

“You said it yourself. Nobody is going to believe this.”

“Then we need proof!”

“And how do we get it? Just walking there and search their dirty laundry? Also they will just claim that every document we might find and take with us is a fake.”

Silence fell upon us. We came here to find out about the situation and manpower but we hadn’t expected our situation to be this bad. With the governor involved the whole situation would get more difficult. He wouldn’t be able to do anything official against us and our plans, but he would find reasons to make things more difficult for us with the means he had. The only possibility was to make him too busy to get involved into our situation until we had buried Troef under enough dirt and soil for him to never be found again. The thought was less than encouraging. Back at home I’d just take a photo and that’s it. But unless he stood still for a whole minute that wouldn’t be possible here.

“I’ve got an idea. You wait here. In case something goes wrong, leave. Try to find out how many of them there are and then leave. I will do the same.”, I said and stood up.

I handed Gav my sheriff star and most of my guns and ammunition. I took one revolver and put it into the pocket inside my left sleeve. The weight of course made it visible that I was carrying something in there, but on the other hand, having a gun with you wasn’t unusual around here. Now I looked, although rather exotic, like a normal person. I went to our horses and started to lead one of them towards the city. Arriving without a horse would raise suspicion. There was nothing around here within a few hours of walking.

“What do you think you are doing?”, Archie asked.

“They don’t know my face. I will act like I barely speak the language and see if they welcome guests or not.”

“What if you get caught as well?!”

“Well then it was an honor to meet you. I won’t let myself be used as a lever.”

“But…!”, started Archie but Gav held him back.

“He is right. We need to find out about the situation.”

“Don’t wait for me. I can’t tell when there will be a situation that allows me to leave even if they don’t lock me up.”

“Farewell, Sheriff!”, said Gav and saluted.

I decided to give it another try and sat on the horse.

“Come on, Fella. Don’t make me look bad now.”, I said while gently patting the horse on its flank.

To everybody’s surprise the horse started to move without causing any problems.

Satisfied with the result I began riding towards the village.

Gav and Archie looked at me, not fully understanding what had gotten into me and then took position on our former place.

A few minutes went by until I reached the entrance to the village.

“Stop right there! Who are you?!”, said a grimly looking man, at the other end of a shotgun.

“A traveler!”, I replied.

“A traveler? One with some money I suppose?”

“Of course, of course.!”, I agreed.

“Come closer.”, he demanded.

I passed the line of light that cut through the night and now got fully into sight.

“How do you even look?!”, asked the guard.

“Good looking, no?”, I ask.

“Don’t you see that this guy barely speaks our language?”, asked another guard who noticed our exchange and approached us.

“He responds to what I say.”, answered the first guard with a shrug.

“What’s your business here?”, asked the second guard.

“Taking break.”, I replied.

They didn’t even think about questioning if I was just acting to not speak their language even if my act felt horrible to me.

“Let him pass.”, commanded the second guard and I continued my way.

My first stop was the saloon. It would be difficult to find any reliable evidence regarding the governor situation, so I decided to let this slide unless I’d find a perfect chance.

There were about seven people on the street who looked like they belonged to Troef’s gang and four more who were turning around a little too often to Look comfortable with the current situation.

I tied my horse to a pole that had been positioned in front of the saloon for exactly this purpose and entered.

The trope demanded that I entered and suddenly everybody had to stop what they were doing and look at me in silence. What actually happened, was that nobody noticed me.

The saloon was bursting with people. At least twenty of them looking like they belonged to Troef. Another ten or fifteen were quite well dressed, likely politicians or people who had a decent amount of money. Upstairs were the usual rooms, some to rent and some to be used with the women that came with them.

I decided to be a good guest to keep up my ‘disguise’ and gather some information by just listening. Asking people out would be a risky thing to do. Usually people got caught if they did something like this.

The counter was full with people sitting, their faces held over a glass of what looked like whiskey and deep in their thoughts or inebriation.

I placed a coin on the counter and in return received a glass of the same liquid everybody else consumed.

Back at home, in my old world, I enjoyed a nice drink from time to time. The liquid they sold here was nothing alike. The spirit ran down my throat and seemed to close it off entirely. There was no taste but what it lacked in taste, was only added to the burning inside my throat. Drinking this stuff was nothing about taste or enjoyment, but just about getting drunk in hope of forgetting something afterwards.

I quickly finished it to not raise any attention and decided it would be easier for me to gather intel if I joined one of the gambling rounds.

There was an empty place on one of the tables and I sat down without taking a look at who was sitting there.

“I join?”, I asked in my faked manner.

“You have money?”, replied one of the people.

It was only now that I had a look at who was sitting at this table. There were five people. First of all of course me, then one guy who looked quite similar to the second guard that had let me enter the town, somebody in a grey suit who looked quite uncomfortable with the situation itself, likely because he lost plenty of money already, the person Archie had identified as the governor and a person I had seen on pictures before.

Troef himself.