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It wasn’t long before the fleet set out again. Brutos decided that with Maxwell not with them they might need some extra time out. Of course before leaving Brutos set out a whole list of rules that Max was to follow while most of the crew was gone. The shark man had even taken the time to write them out though the handwriting was horrible. If Max was honest up until then he was convinced that the Boss didn’t know how to write. 

-No leaving the house unaccompanied
-No talking to the Muckrakers
-No talking to anyone for that matter.
-No leaving the territory even accompanied.

The list seemed to go on forever with about a million other things Brutos had deemed Maxwell was not allowed to do though those four seemed to cover most of it. He was also left with a list of things he needed to do, most things boiling down to getting Brutos more money, and any useful information was to be passed to his “caretakers” so that they could take it to the proper channels. Maxwell was sure that Brutos had left a similarly large list with the few men he left behind to ‘watch’ Maxwell. Though the boy was sure they would only care to uphold it for the first week or so at least. Afterward they would get bored of watching the boy who talks to animals and would do off and do their own thing. 

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It took less than two days total for Paul and Hendricks to lose interest in Maxwell and go off to do their own things. Neither returned to the house the second night and Max couldn’t help but think that this was some kind of new record for the speed in which someone disobeyed Brutos. It made sense though, those two were the newest editions. Max wasn’t sure about how or why they joined, not totally, but he knew at least with Hendricks it hadn’t been a very pleasant experience. Was Brutos so sure that his crew was totally loyal to him and or afraid of him that even the newest members would follow his orders blindly, or was he losing his edge? Whatever the reason Max couldn’t help but be at least a little relieved the two of them had left him alone so quickly. It meant Max had at least 2 weeks to do…something…

If asked what Maxwell was doing he honestly wouldn’t have an answer. He only had a handful of Berri to his name and honestly he wasn’t sure what he had was really enough for, well, anything. Either way he bribed some of the local birds to keep a look out for his babysitters so that he wouldn’t get caught out and slipped into the streets of Pol Sticid, something he hadn’t done in a long time. Not alone at least.

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Elsewhere unbeknownst to the young brown haired boy Hendricks was meeting with an old associate, an enemy of Brutos and the Saw-Tooth Pirates. Money and information was quickly exchanged and the two parted ways. Hendricks knew if he lingered too long one of Maxwell’s little animal informants would catch wind of it and inform the boy. Even new, the older pirate was well aware that Maxwell got information from all over the island rather quickly, and discreetly. All he had to do was sow enough worry in the Muckrakers that the boy could just as easily get and sell information on them that might potentially cause trouble with The Grime King himself. This one stop was all it would take to get the word around and then the “Mighty Brutos” would lose the one thing that put him so far ahead of all the others in terms of information. What happened to the boy was none of his concern; he, much like many others on this island, simply wanted to get ahead. And Hendricks had his eye on “Riptide” Brutos’ cut of territory.