Richmond Express
11.16 PM
Art Kingsley rubbed sleep from his eyes, trying to keep himself awake. He wished he had been able to drink another coffee or five before he had climbed on board the Richmond express, but his bladder probably wouldn't have agreed. The journey hadn't been so bad, considering. The train had rattled it's slow but steady way through the last two days, belching out clouds of thick black smoke as it cut through fields and towns, heading towards the capital of the Confederate States of America. There had been plenty of slaves to be seen, black, white, and other. After all this state was founded on forced labour, and the ruling classes used em.
“You know, apparently the old CSA only had black slaves.” He remarked to the man beside him. Gustav Hoffman,, his partner, shrugged. “Seems stupid to create an underclass of only one race.” He answered. “A slave is a slave-doesn't matter what colour they are.” Kingsley snorted. “Stupid, if you ask me. Slavery is a dead-end-eventually they're gonna come gunning for you.” Hoffman didn't answer. Kingsley didn't mind-his partner wasn't one for superfluous conversation. He turned and looked back out the window as the train slowed. “Here we are.” He said quietly, almost to himself. “Richmond. Hope this ain't a wasted trip.”
Arthur Kingsley was a Private Investigator. From his office in San Francisco, he and Hoffman had spent the last six years building Bay City Investigations into a solid and dependable outfit that promised discreet and thorough service-for a price. So when two months ago an employee of the Miller family, one of the most powerful and wealthy clans in San Francisco, had come knocking, he had jumped at the chance. Julia Miller, the seventeen-year old daughter of the family, had been abducted from her family's palatial home one night. No ransom demands had been issued. Kingsley and Hoffman had taken the case. It had been a professional job, all right. A team of kidnappers had blasted their way into the house, killing several members of the Millers' private militia, and carried Julia Miller off. Their trail had been difficult to pick up, but finally one of Hoffman's contacts had revealed that a group of heavily-armed men transporting a teenage-sized package had booked a mercenary caravan from San Francisco to the terminus of the Confederate railway network.
The two PI's had followed them there, where a harried and unkempt railway official had told them (for a small bribe) that the men, plus a drugged up young girl, had hopped the express to Richmond. So Kingsley and Hoffman had bought themselves two tickets for the CS capital, hoping that Miller hadn't simply been sold in the vast slave markets.
Richmond's main train station was quiet that late at night, with only a handful of passengers disembarking from the train. Kingsley and Hoffman made their way out of the station and into the streets of the CS capital, heading for the motel recommended to them by one of the Confederate soldiers stationed outside the train station. Once in their rooms Hoffman bid his partner goodnight and headed off to bed. Kingsley took off his coat and fedora and picked up a copy of the Richmond Examiner left by the previous occupant.
XINHUA PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC DEFEATS WARLORD KRANG AT HUANG PASS!
The People's Liberation Army has won a significant victory over the greenskin barbarians at the Huang Pass, in the no man's land between the CSA and the XPR. Communist infantry stormed the pass, overcoming fierce resistance and slaughtering the foe. This victory comes at a time when the XPR has been flexing their muscles in the undeclared “Cold War” between the two states, and n doubt is a serious concern for the War Department. With the critical Potter Bill approaching, and the status of the vast slave population in our borders unsure, it bodes ill for the stability and safely of our nation...
Kingsley fell asleep before he could finish the article. Little did he know that the Potter Bill, and the events surrounding it, would sweep him and his partner along with it. If he'd known, he'd have stayed in San Francisco.
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