Every meeting with Tifnar seemed more stressful than the last, and Sollvar felt lucky to get away without being physically assaulted. Lucky but drained. He’d seen similar looks on others who’d recently received Tifnar’s attention. Those awaiting such meetings lacked the uneasy relief.
His office was too close to Tifnar's for comfort, and it took barely a minute to get back there. Irnskar was waiting, lounging in a chair. He looked more or less recovered from the fight, showing few lingering effects.
'Any news?' asked Irnskar.
'Why haven't we got anything? Why are we wasting time on irrelevancies? He may just as well get someone else on this.'
'Still overseeing things with vigour?'
Sollvar nodded, sitting. 'He appears to have devoted his attention to it exclusively. Some waiting to see him have been there a while.'
'And he set it up quickly,' said Irnskar, his voice growing a touch hushed.
Sollvar did likewise. 'Ensuring he was situated to oversee it.'
'And as soon as we find something he switches from overseeing to control.'
They exchanged glances, and Sollvar saw they'd reached the same conclusion days ago, even if they hadn't felt safe saying so out loud.
'We'll have to be careful looking into him,' said Sollvar.
'I can be careful. You didn't know I was looking into you when we started working together, did you?'
'I have little to hide.'
'It was a bit boring. Inconsiderately so, really.'
'Sorry about that,' said Sollvar.
He'd started to wonder whether he should have looked into Irnskar, but the man had nearly died defending him. That bought a fair amount of trust. Not that he had a clue how to go about it anyway.
'Did the shipping company lead anywhere?' asked Sollvar.
'Nowhere productive. We’ve been through everything from the office. Anything useful must have been destroyed a while back, along with the man who ran the place. There were a couple of leads, but I doubt we’ll find anyone specifically involved. At most they'd be intermediaries, unaware who they really work for. It seems to have been comprehensively cleaned up.'
'Do we know what they were mining?'
'I had some men go and nose around the mine. Looks to be precious gems.'
'Not arvinim,' said Sollvar, deflating. That at least would have made sense of the effort which had gone into the clean up. And would have provided a link to the Society which would mean this could be related to what they should be investigating. An increasingly tenuous hope, especially since the mine had been closed down at least a week before the theft.
'Afraid not.'
Sollvar nodded. 'I've started quietly looking into which Alliance members had anything to do with the experimental farms in the area. It'll take time to do without drawing attention, but I trust the people I've assigned. Anything else?'
'One of the new guards is acting suspicious, paying too much attention to what's going on. I figured he might be a spy for Tifnar, so I'm having him watched.'
'We're not just getting paranoid, are we?' asked Sollvar. 'Is he just suspicious because he's new, and doesn't know what he's doing?'
'Possibly. But a measured dose of paranoia never hurts, especially since we've already had one lot of people try to kill us.'
Sollvar nodded reluctant agreement. It felt wrong to be so cautious this deep in the heart of the Alliance, but he agreed with the prudence. 'We'll try and make sure he gets left behind when the investigation is relocated.'
'Relocated?' asked Irnskar.
'Tifnar's orders: we're to move to Volthus. His absence at the tournament finals would be noted, and while he'll leave most of the investigators here he wants us closer to hand.'
'Do we get free tickets to the finals?' asked Irnskar.
'I get complimentary ones. My wife never enjoyed the Tournament, though.'
Irnskar smiled. 'Fortunately, I do.'
'That's assuming Tifnar allows us the time to attend.'
'If not we could always sell them. I know people who can handle it.'