text: Yarren Brork worked at Canton Exports & Supplies in the Canton Industrial Area, which meant Johnny's appearance on the site—cameras or no—had a higher chance of making folks a little uneasy. He parked the truck at the far end of the lot and only waited for Lisa to join him before he stalked through the rows of other parked trucks and old sedans rusted and flaking from the saltwater and years spent driving on salted winter roads.
  
  "What does he do here again?" the bounty hunter muttered and leaned toward Lisa to be sure his voice didn't carry behind him toward the mics. Those damn cameras have me all jumpy. Who cares what I say?
  
  The agent darted him a sidelong glance but graciously picked up on his hesitation. "He's a shipment driver and has been at Canton Exports & Supplies for over twenty years."
  
  "All right. So a few decades of hard labor, livin' in a fallin' apart house in Dundalk, and he only now starts pickin' up blackmail as part of his daily routine?"
  
  She shrugged. "Maybe he's trying to pull himself up beyond his means."
  
  "With a senator's pockets. Might be." Johnny sniffed and headed around the side of the main building toward the sound of employee crews moving around, hard at work during what was still the beginning of a notably long shift. "Does that file say what Hugh was being blackmailed for?"
  
  "Brork's demands. They weren't all that specific." Lisa frowned at him. "Blackmail is blackmail, and when it's against a political figure with ties to the Bureau…"
  
  "Yeah, yeah. Real off-limits. I get it."
  
  They rounded the back of the building and stopped at the edge of the open work yard. The loading-bay doors were open, and the yard teemed with undisguised Kilomeas. There were half a dozen huge, muscular men among them who looked human, but the dwarf caught the glint of one man's eyes flashing silver when he glanced at the two partners.
  
  "Shifters, Johnny," Rex muttered and sniffed the air.
  
  "Six of ʼem," Luther added. "Maybe seven. Hey, how are we supposed to find one Kilomea in a whole horde of ʼem, huh? They all stink the same."
  
  "That's one reason I can talk and you can't." Johnny headed toward the workers hauling crates off the loading bays and stacking them in the backs of transport trucks.
  
  Lisa glanced at the hounds and shrugged. "I'm guessing that was aimed at you guys."
  
  "Lady, you have no idea." Rex trotted after his master and whipped his head from side to side as he entered the mass of workers.
  
  Luther sat and stared at Agent Breyer. "I know you can't hear us, but Johnny's got it all wrong. We can talk."
  
  "We should stick close, Luther. Come on."
  
  "Huh." The smaller hound stared after her as she made her way around the edge of the workers. "You sure you don't speak hound?"
  
  "I'm lookin' for Yarren Brork," Johnny said and raised his voice over the noise without technically shouting. "Is he in today?"
  
  "What's a dwarf doing here?" A Kilomea with a chunk of hair missing from his forearm stopped to study the bounty hunter. "You little guys are as strong as shit, I'll give you that. But most of these crates are half your size, man."
  
  A handful of workers chuckled as they continued with their loading and stacking.
  
  "I ain't here for a job," Johnny replied. "At least not doin' what you're doin'. Yarren works here, don't he?"
  
  "As far as I know." A shifter with his uniform button-up removed and tied around his waist hefted another crate in his arms and grunted. "He didn't come in today, though."
  
  "How come?"
  
  "Beats me."
  
  Johnny grunted and scanned the work yard. "Is the foreman in today?"
  
  The working magicals chuckled and didn't pause in their hauling, stacking, grunting, and sweating.
  
  Another Kilomea turned his head toward one of the open loading docks and bellowed, "Rocky! Got a dwarf out here asking for ya!"
  
  "And a pretty little extra." The shirtless shifter slowed on his path past Lisa and studied redheaded Stephanie with undisguised appreciation. "You lost, sweetheart?"
  
  She grinned at him. "Not at all, but you might be if you keep looking at me like that."
  
  The workers burst out laughing. "It looks like you're losing your touch, Omar."
  
  "Shit, son. I'd back away from that redhead real quick. Nothin' but trouble."
  
  "Feisty." The shifter winked at her and sniggered. "I like it."
  
  Boots thumped slowly across the closest loading dock, and Johnny looked up as a massive Kilomea descended. His eyeteeth were grotesquely crooked and a scar zigzagged from the top of his head down the side of his face before it hooked under his square, fur-covered jaw. The huge magical folded his arms, the same uniform button-up as his workers rolled halfway up his forearms. "What?"
  
  Johnny acknowledged him with a nod. "Are you Rocky?"
  
  "Yeah."
  
  "I'm lookin' for Yarren."
  
  A low growl escaped the forearm's throat and his shaggy fur ruffled in the warm, muggy breeze blowing across the work yard. "He called in today. Yesterday too. Personal issues."
  
  "Yeah, that's one way to put it."
  
  "Hey, aren't you that bounty hunter?" A shifter asked and pointed at Johnny before he hefted another crate. "The one with the show, yeah?"
  
  "Are you a fan?" the dwarf asked.
  
  "Not really."
  
  "Good."
  
  "It looks like he brought the whole damn crew with him, though." A Kilomea with thick black hair tied in a topknot nodded toward the side of the building. "Boss?"
  
  Rocky hopped off the end of the loading bay with a loud thump.
  
  Luther skittered away from the huge magical and snorted. "Jeez. Look where you're stepping, huh?"
  
  The foreman peered around the side of the building to see Cody and Dave inching toward the work yard, followed by the rest of the crew. He shook his head. "No cameras."
  
  "It's part of the show returning," Lisa said and stepped toward him. "You can request that we keep everyone's identity anonymous if you like. Blurred faces and everything—"
  
  "No cameras."
  
  The bounty hunter smirked. "I'm right there with you, brother. Get back to the lot."
  
  Cody stepped forward and turned to pan the camera.
  
  "Man, you got shit in your human ears?" Rocky stormed toward the cameraman with another growl.
  
  Cody stepped back but didn't stop filming.
  
  "You want us to step in Johnny?" Rex asked.
  
  "Yeah, we'll chase off anyone. I'll get the big guy. He almost squashed me."
  
  "Naw, let ʼem work it out." Johnny folded his arms and tried not to grin.
  
  "This is private property," Rocky roared, "and I don't give a shit about your home videos. Keep moving."
  
  Howie uttered a piercing whistle. "Everyone out front!"
  
  Phil stared at Rocky with wide eyes, then gestured around him toward the work yard full of magicals without any illusion at all. "Do you know how many shots there are of businesses with nothing but magicals working out of—ow! Jesus, what are you doing?"
  
  Howie yanked the man by the ear and turned toward the front of the building. "It's either my hand on your ear or your arm ripped out of its socket, Phil. Would you prefer the other option?"
  
  "Ah-ah-ah!" The director shrieked as Johnny's old friend yanked him away.
  
  Then, Howie banged his cane against the chain-link fence lining the driveway behind the building. "Let's go, people. We can catch Johnny on his way out."
  
  Cody kept filming but almost dropped the camera when Rocky lurched toward him again and pounded a fist into his other hand. The man tucked his equipment protectively under his arm and turned to scatter with the rest of the crew.
  
  "Pain in my ass," the foreman growled. "All of ʼem."
  
  The dwarf nodded. "On a different day, I reckon you and I would get along just fine."
  
  Rocky grunted and turned toward him. "Why are you lookin' for Yarren?"
  
  The bounty hunter spread his arms as if to indicate that the answer was obvious. "Bounty. I'm tryin' to do my job like the rest of y'all. He's been out for two days?"
  
  The Kilomea's tongue flicked against one of his crookedly protruding teeth. "Yep. He hasn't called off a shift in ten years so I assumed it was something important. What did he do?"
  
  "Trying to change his circumstances, I reckon."
  
  "There's nothing wrong with his circumstances."
  
  "Did he say anything about why he took the personal days?" Lisa asked and stepped toward them. "Any sign that something was off before he called in yesterday?"
  
  Rocky turned toward her and studied her in an offhand way. "You practicing to play a cop role in that movie of yours?"
  
  She lowered her head and pressed her lips together to suppress a smart quip. "I'm simply curious."
  
  "Who are you?"
  
  "My assistant." Johnny cleared his throat and raised a hand to warn Lisa to hold off. "But she's on the right track with the questions."
  
  Rocky growled. "He's a good worker and never complains about a shift or a heavy load. Always shows up to clock in and stays late if he has to. But times are hard."
  
  "How's that?"
  
  "If you can't tell by looking around, dwarf, you're not gonna find it." The Kilomea hawked and spat at the chain-link fence.
  
  "Whoa!" Luther darted toward the slimy projectile but stopped short when Johnny snapped his fingers.
  
  "Do you have any idea where we might find him?"
  
  "Someone's paying you to take him in for something, huh?"
  
  "I'm tryin' to do my job."
  
  "Yeah." Rocky shook his head and turned to stride toward the loading bays. "I got nothing else to say."
  
  Johnny wrinkled his nose and shrugged. "Then we're done here. Fellas." He nodded at the magical workers who had watched the exchange between the bounty hunter and their foreman. Some of them nodded in return. A few cast crooked smiles and winks at the redheaded Stephanie, but most simply returned to their work.
  
  Lisa followed him down the drive toward the front parking lot. "You didn't try very hard to get more information."
  
  He shrugged. "Yarren's boss ain't gonna give him up just like that if he has no reason to doubt the guy. And I ain't fixin' to take on a squad of hairy bastards and half a dozen shifters so they can tell me they don't know where he is. These are workin' folks, darlin'. They ain't done nothin' wrong as far as I can tell."
  
  "I agree with you there." She looked over her shoulder, but the open yard behind the building was now out of view. "But something doesn't feel quite right."
  
  "Because those fellas ain't fixin' to turn in one of their own?"
  
  "No. Because the foreman said Brork hasn't called in or missed a shift in ten years. So the guy's been visiting Senator Hugh on his own time after work to make his threats."
  
  "Maybe it's somethin' of a weekend hobby, then."
  
  "Sure." She frowned. "But blackmailing a senator repeatedly takes considerable guts, time, and planning. Not to mention the fact that Hugh's statement in the case file said Brork's been after him for weeks. And the guy starts missing work only now?"
  
  "It might be he's startin' to crack down a little harder. So we showed up at the right time."
  
  When they reached the lot, Phil clapped and twirled a finger in the air for the film crew to get everything in their next shot.
  
  Rex growled when one of the team moved toward them. "You heard the old guy, two-legs. Fifteen feet."
  
  Luther went straight up to Cody and snarled, which made the cameraman step back quickly despite the fact that he kept rolling with the camera centered on Johnny and Lisa. "Hey, Johnny. Did we get upgraded to bodyguard status? I'll chase him anyway. Just say the word."
  
  The dwarf forced himself to not look at either of the two cameras closing in on him and Agent Breyer as they returned to the rental truck.
  
  "The bounty's not at home and not at work," Phil shouted and jogged in a wide circle around the cameras and mics and low-growling hounds. "Where will you look for him next?"
  
  Johnny stopped beside the truck, jerked the driver's door open, and grunted. "You'll have to keep up and find out."