Chapter 65 - Fumbling In the Dark

"Blake. What a coincidence meeting you here." It was clear to her from his tone that this was anything but a coincidence. Even without the tone, the idea that Markus, of all people, was in a café that Blake frequented was ridiculous.

She frequented the café because she knew the owners were friendly to Faunus. This meant that the "better sort" typically avoided this place. Blake would have had a hard time deciding who was less likely to be here, Weiss or him.

"Markus. This is one of the last places I would expect to find you," she said almost questioningly.

She sat down across from him. Her natural curiosity insisted that she discovered why exactly he would track her down.

"You look better," he said as they received their respective drinks.

Blake furrowed her brow slightly, momentarily confused as to what he meant by that. Her confusion cleared when she remember he had last seen her.

"Yeah, I started taking things more slowly after some advice from Yang."

"Yang? I wouldn't think of her as the one to advise people to 'take it slow'," he said.

It seemed to be an attempt by him to keep the conversation light. As Blake looked at him, he seemed to look well, worse. He had dark rings and deep bags under his eyes. The eyes themselves were slightly bloodshot yet they held a fierce energy. Blake recognised the symptoms of that which she was all too well acquainted to. And Blake had a sneaking suspicion why he was sleep deprived.

"Markus. What is this about?" she asked bluntly.

"I presume that you have continued in your 'activities' despite the fact that a certain 'criminal mastermind' has been apprehended."

"Of course," she said. Blake was not entirely sure why he was asking but she did not like where she thought this was headed.

"Recently, I have been searching for any information I could find about a certain organization." Blake understood what he was saying. As they were in a relatively public place, talking about terrorist organizations would not be the best idea. Still, it sounded all too familiar.

"Did you find anything?" she ventured.

"Nothing actionable. That's why I came to you."

"I haven't gotten anything concrete yet either. If I had, you would have known," she said defeatedly.

Markus exhaled and sat back. Evidently both of them had hit dead ends. Scratch that, it wasn't that they had hit dead ends, worse than that, they had utterly failed to find the trail.

"There was one thing I got, a name."

Blake was immediately panicking internally.

"Adam Taurus. Supposedly a person of importance in this organization. Is that helpful?"

"Why do you think that I would know him?", said Blake far too quickly and far too defensively. She realised her mistake. She had attempted to prepare a response to his predicted question and had accidentally incriminated herself. The question was a ridiculous one anyway. She used to in the White Fang. It was only natural that one would assume she knew things.

Blake realised that she was a really bad liar. A major inconvenience for someone with many secrets. A potentially deadly one.

Markus, merely raised his eyebrow at this. Blake, somewhat flustered, tried to use some on Yang's rhetoric against him. He was doing what she had done: obsessing over the White Fang.

"You don't look so good."

"What?" Markus seemed genuinely taken aback by this. Evidently he had not noticed his condition.

"You know, the whole dark rings around bloodshot eyes thing. It's not healthy."

"I never really noticed. Besides, I'm used to it."

"Sleep deprivation isn't healthy; you'll wear yourself out."

"So what, you want me to 'slow down'? Time is not a luxury I possess."

"It's not a luxury, it's a necessity," Blake recited.

"That's true." His agreement threw her off. Just as it was intended to. "And it must therefore be used to maximum effectiveness. Sleeping does not progress my goals. Don't worry about me Blake, I can take care of myself. Now," he said, leaning forward and steepling his fingers, "who is Adam Taurus?"

"You and Pyrrha fought him," said Blake finally, "He was my mentor, a long time ago. And before you ask, no I don't know where he is."

"I see," said Markus, sounding very tired all of a sudden. Blake was slightly concerned as he was typically a very reserved person.

Abruptly, he stood. "Very well, I will keep you updated if I find anything. I expect you to do the same."

"Of course," said Blake reflexively.

"It's been a pleasure," he said before leaving. Blake exhaled and sank deeper into her seat. That had been an utter failure on multiple levels.

For the second time in as many days, the Courier was feeling the pain of a total defeat, something which he did not feel often. He had nothing. Absolutely nothing. No way to find the White Fang, not a even a way to find a way to find the White Fang. All that basically meant that was that he did not have a snowball's chance in hell of finding out even the remotest inkling of their plans or who was holding the reigns. So, in the meantime, he was reduced to preparing for an unspecified threat at an unspecified time.

There was at least one good thing that had happened. Well, two, more accurately. According to the scroll tab on his Pip-boy, he had two messages. One from the Think Tank, and one from Pyrrha. He opened the one from the Think Tank first. Finally, some good news. It was the schematics for the artillery.

The device was a thing of beauty. The Courier was almost equally impressed with the Think Tank's ability to so quickly adapt to the technology of the Scroll. He sent off orders for a decent amount of the components of the weapons to be built and then assembled at a different location by a fully automated assembly line. Unfortunately the strategic positioning of the launchers would necessitate the involvement of humans. He would just give the idea that they were being moved to locations for sale to Atlas. In the specifications, he ensured that the electronics would be attuned to the frequency of his laser detonator.

The actual design of the launcher was a testament to the brilliant madness that was the Think Tank. It was essentially the back of the standard mobile rocket artillery of the pre-war military, except shaped conically. The barrels that held the various missiles formed a huge cone shape that blinked with numerous lights and wires connecting them. These "pods" were reloaded by a robot that was attached. The Courier ensured that there was a more than sufficient stockpile of ammunition with each of the weapons. It was a tactical weapon, incapable of a rate of fire comparable to that of gun artillery. Instead, it delivered a singular devastating salvo on a precision target.

The missiles themselves had been designed by the Think Tank. They were a veritable bouquet of death, flavored in napalm, white phosphorous, and various kinds of Dust. The presence of the first two made the Courier hesitant to use it on human (or Faunus) targets, especially with any of his team present. Both of those were a nasty way to go.

The Courier made a mental note to create some simple gun artillery for helping to contain the Grimm threat. He could distribute that, and potentially create a more advanced model that he would keep hidden until it was necessary. If the war that's going to break out was between kingdoms, he wanted to make sure only his side got them. He sent the order to the Think Tank.

Create self propelled howitzer. Must be non nuclear. With it, he sent a stolen schematic for the German Panzerhaubitze 2000 as an example of what he was looking for. Knowing the Think Tank, they would likely try to one-up it. He could handle the simpler version.

Of course, then the Courier had to deal with his social obligations. And therefore, after sending orders to manufacture rocket artillery and hide them throughout the world, he read Pyrrha's message.