Catch and Release

Alcuin woke groggy and disoriented. He noticed that his sense of sight was obstructed by a blindfold. His taste buds were salivating up against a cloth rag stuffed into his mouth. He could tell he was fixed, against his will, in a chair of some make that was suspended at a declining angle backwards. His ankles were bound to the chair legs and his wrist were bound together behind the backrest. He could also feel leather straps around his midsection, thighs, and chest. They were tight and pinned him to the object, giving him almost no room for wiggling. His sense of smell was saturated with an overpowering aroma of incense used in common religious ceremonies. With his trained ears, he could hear that he was not alone. Based on the creeks of the wooden floorboards he counted another moving towards his front.

He was fighting a losing battle of remaining calm, as with each passing second of awareness of his predicament his emotions were getting louder and louder. How did he end up in this situation? The last thing he remembered was following up a lead given to him by Sgt. Carver. A "free" bounty tip out of the three she gave. It was the only mark that was actually in Ostiarium, which is why he pursued it before leaving town. He remembers picking the lock of the door to the room, entering silently into a room smelling of incense, and then all went to black. His head throbbed at just the right moment to make him realize, that he had been set up. Was Sgt. Carver in on it? Or was she an innocent that was conned to play a part? The moment he entered, there must have been a person hiding behind the door that struck a blow to the back of his head, rendering him unconscious.

Suddenly the blindfold was removed very carefully, as if they didn't want to harm a single eyelash. His eyes took a while to adjust to the darkened room. All the windows had curtains covering them. He realized that it was indeed the room he had just walked into as his professional observation skills glanced about to size up his environment. The man before him, meticulously folding the blindfold looked older, more on the sickly side, small in stature, and had a face carved up by trouble and experience. This man, was not the bounty.

He tested his bonds, screamed into the gag for help, to no avail. Was this the end?

-----

Malacost was expressionless as he sized up Alcuin. He remained silent for an eerie length of time, long after Alcuin finally gave up struggling. The failure of Malacost to get on with it was generating even more anxiety in Alcuin, as the bound man's survival-oriented brain was filling the space with disjunctions of thought about the horrors of what was going to happen next.

Malacost was after the same important bounties as Alcuin. Knowing this, he had orchestrated a series of events with Sgt. Carver that fooled her into being complicit in the plan to capture Alcuin. It made him feel powerful to know that Sgt. Carver was off enjoying the gold pieces she earned from Alcuin; however, that she didn't know that he was the one that set it all up to unfold as it did.

He was getting distracted. He had a guest and starring at their helplessness excited him, though he didn't show it.

Malacost spoke, his voice's tone was meek and scratchy, as if marred by sandpaper. The delivery was surprisingly cordial, dissociated with the grave situation. This scared Alcuin even more; the bound bounty hunter knew he was looking into the eyes of someone with a disturbing mental disorder.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Alcuin. I wanted to get your attention and now I have it." He smiled and his groomed mustached moved upward as well.

Malacost didn't give Alcuin as chance to talk, even though the bound man was trying to through the gag. He didn't care what Alcuin had to say, or listen to him trying to negotiate himself out of this situation.

"Think of our meeting as a conversation, but I am going to talk first and exclusively. You get the honor of listening. And if you do a good job, maybe we will laugh over this together as two professionals later. You interrupt my train of thought, and ... well ... use your imagination." His smile turned disingenuous and cruel, as if it really hoped Alcuin would choose the latter.

-----

Malacost went on to show Alcuin a series of objects he had set up all around the room. Alcuin had not noticed them yet because of the way his chair was leaning backwards making it easier to see the ceiling and not the floor, not to mention there were obviously bigger threats capturing his attention. But now that it was pointed out to him, he noted there were things all over. Things that would have been assumed to be normal objects in a person's room, he know discovered were part of an integrated system.

Malacost went over to what looked like the start of them, blocks very similar to dominos, and knocked the first one over. It started a chain reaction-type of events interacting with contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.

While the system was in process, Malacost was talking about something that seemed strangely unrelated to anything important. Alcuin was having a hard time listening as he was distracted by the chain of events between objects. He started to realize that when the events got to its final destination, something would happen. He began looking ahead of the setup to figure out the outcome. It was then he noticed that by the end his chair would probably fall backwards to the ground. He was internally panicking on what could possibly be behind him. He couldn't see.

Alcuin started fighting his bonds to be free; however, it wasn't helping. Malacost reminded him gently to pay attention.

Time was running out. Suddenly, he recognized that Malacost had asked him a question. It was the second time he was asked.

Malacost calmly inquired, "So what should you do when you catch a fish that is too small, please choose an option?" He held up, two pieces of parchment. One said 'KEEP'. The other said 'RELEASE'.

Alcuin was confused, disoriented, panicking internally. Without losing site of the chain of events he was able to incline his head to the correct word ... RELEASE.

Click, a final domino hit an object that released an object that was keeping his chair suspended. He started to fall but the chair was caught by Malacost.

Malacost smiled, "You were listening. Very good. As you can imagine, from one bounty hunter to another, I had to make you realize that you should stop pursuing those other bounties and leave them to me. Can you promise me that?"

Alcuin nodded. This was just one big scare tactic.

"Unfortunately you are not a small fish Alcuin." Malacost said out of respect and released the chair.

Alcuin fell backwards and as he painfully crashed into the ground, he felt a piercing blade rise from his chest cavity. He was impaled and died instantly.

Malacost, smiled in pleasure from the sight and smell of the blood mixing with the incense. He reveled in the look of Alcuin's face as the man's felt his oncoming doom, but was powerless to do anything about it.

-----

Malacost calmly exited the room. Making sure to leave no traces of himself. He needed to have another talk with Sgt. Carver. He had a few questions he knew she would be able to answer.