Being able to cross off the most obvious suspect on a list was never a waste of time, in Ivan’s estimation, because it freed the mind to move on and give consideration to other possibilities.
At least, that was the theory. He had to admit that he’d wanted it to be Nicholas Brown, attorney at law, who was responsible for the beast attacks. Tribe had been caught flat-footed, attacked without warning. He, Ivan, was responsible for preventing that. If it had turned out that the culprit was somebody he’d warned Mama against and been shouted down on, that would have done much to quell the feeling of disquiet the whole affair had engendered within him.
Still, he did have other resources to bring to bear and other leads to follow. He would confine his investigation to the east side; there was no sense breaking one of the big rules twice in the same day if he could avoid it. Mama had given him tacit permission to go west, as she’d known he intended to speak to the lawyer and hadn’t said anything… but there was no sense in pushing his luck.
He met first with the agents that were not officially his agents, the men and women who could move through the upper-class market places and businesses of the west side without attracting attention. Because he didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, his instructions were vague… but of course, they couldn’t tell why his instructions were vague this time as opposed to all the other times that they were.
After that, he met with his own agents, the eastern security forces. The attacks were not senseless. Somebody had benefited from them. A smaller tribe meant more space for others. He wanted everybody who was squatting in tribe’s usual haunts questioned. He wanted everybody who was applying to join scrutinized, no matter who vouched for them.
Finally, he went looking for an unnoticeable. This task was exactly as hard as it sounded.
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OOK!
Yay! Tribe update! *dances*
I’m not as convinced as Ivan seems to be that Nick has nothing to do with the attacks. It’s possible that he didn’t do anything consciously, but I can’t help wondering if he’s somehow unconsciously created a thought form or something…
Sweet Khersis Dei!!! Tribe has been updated!!! w00t!!!!
Yarp!
and now the message boards i planned for linky are down for unschedualed emergency relocation and whatnot….
i promice linky sooner or later.
Wow, you’ve been busy today!
:::does a little dance in honor of Tribe updating:::
I love the snappy dialogue and tongue-in-cheek literary commentary, but sometimes it’s nice to have a solid chunk of narration like this to sink one’s teeth into. Thanks AE!
Oh my god it’s like Christmas and Easter and my birthday all rolled into one.
more tribe. woot.
hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
Yeah tribe update
D
>>
Yay, tribe updating… sorry it took so long for me to notice it. i’ve not been reading my daily things lately, because of work…
Well, this is a pleasant surprise. TRIBE!!!
Next to last paragraph, third line, “hunts” looks like it should be “haunts”.
will we ever get an update?
I agree that an update would be WONDERFUL! For some reason the story of Tribe is exceedingly fascinating to me. Though I do love all your work; you have a real talent.
I just got around to reading through the archive of this one. I like it a lot! I hope we can have another.
“He wanted everybody who was squatting in tribe’s usual hunts questioned.”
tribe’s usual *haunts*
Love this story as much as anything Miss Lexy writes. I just picked up reading this one last week and read through the archives already. Now I’m left hungering for more! I guess until the next one I can always satisfy my craving by digging into 3 Seas and Void Dogs. Haven’t read them yet! =)
iee!!! wandered from ToMU, spent the past few days reading *slowly* through the archives –hoping to delay the inevitable (>_
Thanks Alexandra I am reading all of your stuff and appreciate the updates!
I suppose we should take the fact that the typo hasn’t even been altered in the last couple months since it was pointed out to mean the author no longer even reads Tribe comments, let alone finds the time to write the next installment.
*Sigh* I miss Tribe.
Awwww….Darnit. I just got this far, and now there is no conclusion to Arc 4. This is very upsetting
I ran out of Tales of MU More Tales of MU picked up Tribe and NOW ITS DEAD IN THE WATER!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! You can not leave me with nothing!!!!
“Being able to cross off .. ” Tribe from my favourites is no longer difficult to do at all.
AE has gone flakey and has given up on us.