Deductions and Discussions

Jack let the full weight of his words impact on Erik and Jadelere's minds as he tapped his fingers against the table rhythmically. Tap, tap, tap, again and again, as his eyes never left theirs. Something in the way Jack was looking at them gave Jadelere the impression that Jack was fnot entirely himself.

"What do you intend to do?" He asked after collecting his scattered thoughts. "Find the first victim, question them and figure out who is responsible for this?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Jack flashed a malicious smile. "That's exactly what I want to do."

"It shan't be easy." Sighed Erik as he held the bridge of his nose between two fingers. "Without even considering the difficulty involved in tracking down the first patient afflicted with a plague of this magnitude, any person or group of people that implemented a plan of this scale and of this nature is not someone to be taken lightly. It's guaranteed that they will react with force at any attempts at stopping them."

"And what would you have me do?" Jack's expression hardened as he flashed Erik a piercing stare. "Give up and let it go?"

"Sometimes, young master Hare, that's all we can do." Erik held Jack's stare and remained steadfast, even though he felt a strong chill coming from Jack's eyes. A part of him was worrying that Jack would explode with rage.

Finally, after a few moments that felt far longer than they actually were, Jack lowered his eyes and nodded softly. "Aye, you're right. But I just can't sit back and do nothing."

"Maybe it's for the best." Erik sat down and slumped his shoulders. "Sometimes we can only turn a blind eye and let others take action."

Jack banged his fists against the table, almost causing the bottle of spirit to topple over. He felt like he'd failed his family with his simplistic mindset; that if he had cultivated arduously instead of having fun living his new life, then he could simply waltz out to find the culprit and give them a taste of their own medicine without worrying about repercussions. Bur he was too weak.

That was what Erik had implied with his, that he was too weak to face an enemy capable of this. And Jack could only reluctantly agree!

What use was there with everything he was doing and accomplishing with his life if any random scheme by a truly powerful opponent could push him against the wall and force him to take the offense with his head between his legs? What was the point of cultivating a paragon of cultivation methods if he simply died to any random assassin as collateral damage, not even as the intended target?!

Jack was ashamed. Furious and ashamed.

He stood there with his fists tightly balled until it hurt, thinking and trying to find a solution to his problems. He couldn't just give up!

He thought back to his time on Earth, to when he'd worked as an assassin for the most powerful world leaders and the myriad of plans he'd had to draw up at their behest. Over and over again he went through the research he conducted before performing any assignment and tried to envision when and where he would have used a disease to carry out an assassination and what circumstances would force him to do so; but he simply couldn't come up with anything.

And then, he had an idea, a thought that changed everything.

"You're exactly right!" He exclaimed as he pointed at Erik with realisation written on his face. "Oh, I am an idiot! A big, dumb, idiot!"

Erik was stunted as he turned to face Jadelere only to notice that the accountant was just as visibly stumped as he was. In one moment Jack was depressed, and the next he was happily admitting his own idiocy. The change was so sudden and abrupt that Erik had to wonder whether the boy was suffering from a disease of the mind brought upon by over-exerting the qi in his dantian.

"Right about what, young master Hare?" He asked, somewhat worried about the answer he might receive.

"Don't you see? It's so obvious! Fucking damn me for not thinking of it sooner!" Jack was so excited that he banged the table once more.

"Calm down, Jack, you're acting like a young virgin that just found out her future husband is rich." Jadelere placed his hand on Jack's arm. "Breathe a bit and enlighten us."

Jack took a few calming deep breaths and then began with his explanation. "It's as Erik said, whoever did this is powerful. At the very least, their financial capability can be easily judged from this poison, which is something that necessarily required access to a formidable amount of resources and people capable of refining it into this poison." He held out the glass with the needle in it.

"That much is obvious."

"Aye." By this point jack had regained his calm demeanour. "But why would they waste so many resources just to kill a single person? It's true that by doing so they could avoid any suspicion coming their way, but there are an uncountable number of other, less expensive, methods and avenues they could explore to achieve the same result." He said as he gave a knowing glance to the other two which they didn't quite understand. "Not to mention the high risk of the poison spreading to other places if the intended target fled Groamburk; or the possibility that they possessed a life-saving medicine that could cure them."

"That is strange." Concurred Erik. "In other words, the intended target wasn't just one person?"

"Aye." Jack nodded sternly. "The plan to assassinate or murder a single person with a poison this easily spread is too full of holes, too unstable, too flimsy to be the result of someone capable of creating this."

"There's a chance they found this poison and used it without knowing its effects."

"That's highly unlikely." Jack countered Jadelere. "If you found a poison you didn't know what it did, would you use it?"

"No, I wouldn't." He agreed. "But that hardly extends to the rest of the population, now does it? There's no guarantee an idiot got his hands on it before he or she spread it by accident. Human stupidity is astonishing."

"What are the odds of that happening?"

"Slim to the extreme, but not impossible nor are similar events wholly unheard of." This time it was Erik to answer. He had his hand placed under his chin, considering the implications of the different interpretations of the facts. "Which would not warrant any further action on our behalf. It's worth considering young master Hare."

"Fine, let's assume for the sake of argument that the proposition that this plague was the tragic result of an accident." Jack momentarily agreed. "First, the poison would have to have fallen in the hands of someone and then that person would still have to test the poison on someone else; then, the chain of causality would still require this to happen in Groamburk. The odds of this string of events actually occurring are infinitesimal, if not smaller. And even if we agreed with regards to the minute feasibility of such a strange set of phenomena coincidentally taking place right here and now, it is still imperative that we find the culprit because there is a chance they have an antidote." Jack gave Erik and Jadelere a warm smile. "But I appreciate the effort to dissuade me from taking action."

"You saw right through us." Bitterly chuckled Erik.

"It was elementary; but I want present you with an alternative scenario which I believe best explains this whole mess." Jack grabbed an empty goblet and filled it up with some of the spirit from the bottle. He wanted to use it to illustrate his point. "Let's imagine, for a moment, that this goblet represents the poison and the person carrying it. Now, let's imagine that this table is Groamburk; somebody necessarily had to bring it here."

"Stating the obvious won't get us anywhere." Grunted Jadelere in frustration.

"It's obvious, aye, but it raises questions. First, who brought it?" Jack raised his eyes to look at the other two. "The goblet didn't set itself on the table, someone had to have done it. From this, we can imagine two possible solutions, either the person who designed the poison sent someone to bring it, or someone stole it and brought it here."

"Why not assume it was the creator themselves who did it?" Pondered Jadelere.

"The one who made the poison definitely knows of its effects. I find it a dubious proposition at best that such an ambitious and scheming person would willingly put themselves at the forefront of danger and risk dying from the poison. By sending a proxy, they would get the desired results without any active involvement as well as eliminating any witnesses to their crime. A superb strategy." Answered Jack confidently. "And the second option is equally unlikely. If someone stole a poison of this calibre, they'd be hunted down with no efforts spared to capture them. Even if the thief somehow managed to get to Groamburk, they would be heavily injured or, at the very least, wouldn't want to risk staying here long enough to be captured."

"Maybe the thief managed to kill the pursuers."

"Uncle Jadelere, all three of us know whoever designed this poison to be powerful. If a thief managed to kill them, then they wouldn't have any need to use it in the first place! It would simply be a waste of time, efforts, and resources. Therefore, it's far more likely for it to be the first option."

Erik and Jadelere exchanged looks of surprise. "The logic is sound." Finally said Jadelere, conceding that he believed Jack's version of the facts. "But why here? Why Groamburk?"

"I hypothesise that there's also only two possibilities." Jack tipped over the goblet, soaking the table top in the process. "The first, which I don't believe, is that this is a trial run before using it somewhere else. In other words, Groamburk is just a guinea pig for the mastermind to pull something off in a bigger city. However, as I've mentioned, it's unlikely given that any number of things could go wrong: someone could escape and send word of the plague to the nearby regions, which would mean a heightening in alertness and ultimately reduce the efficiency of the poison; or a cure could be developed." He used a cloth to place a barrier around the spirit and soak it up, stopping its spread and even wiping some of the spirit clean off. "Plus, it's a waste of resources. Creating a poison like this can't be an easy feat; why waste it in a small city like this one?"

"I see." Erik had his hand under his chin and seemed in deep thought. "And the second?"

"That Groamburk is their target."

"But why?"

"We cannot know that at this point." Sighed Jack. "There's not enough evidence to point us in the right direction. That being said, I'm certain that if we find the person who brought it we'll be able to find out a lot more."

"But where would we even begin to look?" Jadelere raised his hands up in exasperation.

"The city records of people who accessed the city in the period of time between four and five weeks ago."

Both Erik and Jadelere gasped with amazement at the realisation. Groamburk kept detailed records of every person that went through the city and it would be extremely easy to track down anyone who arrived between those dates. Considering the season, there wouldn't be too many. It was an easy endeavour to pull off.

"That still doesn't justify the danger, though." Sighed Erik.

"No, it does." This time it was Jadelere who responded. "As much as I hate to admit this, I have to agree with Jack."

"Prithee, why is that?" Erik was annoyed that he'd lost Jadelere's support and his expression highlighted this.

"If it's someone who got sent here as a proxy then there's a good chance they will be grateful to us when we find them because they will hate their employer to the bone. Or, even if they aren't, or they're already dead, there will be a huge amount of information on their persona. At the very least, we will find the original strain of the poison which we could then use to develop a cure." Explained Jadelere as he nodded to Jack a few times. "As to the person or people behind this, if Jack's right and they have an ulterior motive to do this, they won't seek repercussions just because the poison is countered. Instead, they'll expose themselves and try to carry out their plan more openly, which will ultimately give us more options to counter their moves. Isn't that right, Jack?"

"Exactly." Jack smiled and put his hand on Jadelere's shoulder. "The alternative is we do nothing and wait for the poison to decimate the city."

For a moment, Erik shook his head and closed his eyes as if he was praying. Then, he agreed with a sigh. "Very well, let's do this."