Read Pariah #1: New Arrival: Perils of Azure City for Free Online

operate, and Gallowgate has plenty of places for them to do that.'
    She frowned, 'If you only know where one of those places is, then that's one direction, not two.'
    'No, no, I wasn't finished. The other place I can point you to is an easy one. You heard of club Surrender? Right in the heart of the Honeypot district? That joint, and probably most of the establishments down that way, is heavily connected with Underhaven. Nothing confirmed, but I'd stake a lot on Underhaven operating out of that club. It’s probably where a lot of your girls go missing.'
    Pariah gave a predatory smile from beneath her hood, 'Excellent. Now, where is this storage site?'
    Crowley got up from his seat and gave her a careful look, something approaching concern written over his face. 'Look… These guys... With all the influence and funding they have, not to mention experience, they've gotten quite good at what they do. They get into your head, you know? Under your skin. All the girls that they kept holed up in that place... They didn't even want to leave, do you get what I'm saying?'
    'You're saying they've developed methods to manipulate women, I get it,' she said, waving her hand dismissively, 'And I’m saying that they are disgusting monsters who should be visited and dealt with immediately. So tell me, Crow, where am I headed?'
    *****
    Later...
     
    Pariah sat perched atop the corner of a rooftop overlooking the former depot. The black and green of her tight bodysuit reflected little light and combined with the shrouding black of her cloak, she was all but invisible. It was a good spot to survey the area, and she had been sat there scanning the building opposite for the past thirty minutes. Her eyes scoured the building, drinking in every detail and taking note of the slightest sign of activity.
    It was obvious, really. She felt a twinge of embarrassment that she hadn't spotted this sooner. She hadn't thought to look at places like this; she hadn't expected this kind of audacity.
    In better times it had been a postal depot for a private courier service. Much of the post that flowed through Gallowgate had once passed through here as a central hub. As the situation in the 'gate worsened the private firm had pulled out and left their depot to public service. Even then the US postal service retired the depot in favour of streamlining their operations to a mega-hub down in the Glades. The increasingly unfriendly nature of the site only hastened their decision.
    So it had been left, with seemingly no plan in place to recycle the building into something useful. Or, she considered carefully, perhaps it had been bought by a new private owner and no questions were asked. She made a mental note to check up on that in the morning - a paper trail would be most helpful.
    Any notion that the place was abandoned or unused was dispelled with even a cursory glance. Each window had been taped over from within, preventing any visibility in or out of the building, and two vans sat idle in the loading bay around the side of the depot. More telling still, two burly men in casual clothes had stood sentinel outside the main entrance the whole time Pariah had been watching. It was difficult to make out in the light but she was confident that they were both concealing weapon holsters under their jackets.
    She supposed it might have been ironic how the depot had been converted into a sinister parody of what it had once been. They could load and unload whatever they wanted from their vans right into the seclusion of the depot's loading bays, and they had built-in storage to easily hold whatever passed through. It was a perfect set up, and it sickened her to think how coldly corporate the whole thing was.
    After surveying the scene for long enough, she was satisfied that Crowley's information was accurate and she felt rising anticipation that she had finally found her quarry. Crowley had told her to expect at least a dozen men inside, perhaps as many as twenty. Each would