Moving from the Underworld to the Overworld when the borders opened again would be a sound business decision for a group like this; a whole new market is now available to them, full of people with very deep pockets and far too much free time. The Underworld is small potatoes when compared to that, and it's the perfect time for a very enterprising person to take advantage of the situation.
Infrastructure in the Underworld is too disjointed to ever have a full census of the people who live there, and the Overworld hasn't had access long enough to get a full count organized and successfully implemented. The citizens underground are desperate for a way to lift themselves out of over a decade of poverty. That makes it very easy for someone to disappear down below and for no one to even realize they're gone, and even if they did show up in the Overworld-- living or not-- there are no records to identify them by. Find the vulnerable, take them somewhere unfamiliar so that even if they did manage to get away, they don't know where to go or who can help them. No money, no paperwork. Vastly exploitable.
"They aren't operating out of Boulder Town proper, but they must be close," Pela says. "Most of the victims that we know of are from there. We have some confirmed disappearances from the Vagrant Camp, but they aren't the majority."
"Wildfire has already searched through Rivet Town and found no traces of them," Oleg adds.
Sampo leans against the wall while they talk, just... absorbing. Thinking. If he were a man with even fewer morals than he already has, how would he make money off of abject suffering? Kidnapping is a noisy business, so it makes sense to remove the victims to a location well away from anyone who would help them. That rules out Boulder Town-- too many people, too much Wildfire presence. You wouldn't want to go out too close to the Robot Settlement either, not when Svarog's there to keep track of things. He's insular, but he doesn't suffer anything that would be a threat. That leaves--
"You won't find anything in Rivet Town if you send anyone from Wildfire in," he says, his head tipped back to rest against the wall, looking up towards the ceiling. Not really looking at the ceiling, it's just somewhere to point his eyes while he thinks. "I'd bet my last credit they've already got at least one person in your group, probably more. By the time you set foot in Rivet, they're all looo-ong gone."
That's what he would do-- have a few people in Wildfire as an early warning system. Any time Wildfire plans on getting too close, a little birdie sings and they pack everything up and disappear before any of Nat's people can even catch a glimpse. Make sure it's more than just one guy-- two's good, three's better, so long as they work well together-- so that even if one person gets caught or has suspicion thrown on them, there's a backup already in place.
"If I were running this racket, Rivet's the place I would pick. It's close enough to Boulder that you have access to your supply. It's already been cleared out and not a lot of people go up there, and the ones that do are usually going alone. The monsters are just even more reason for no one to go poking around too much. And if you want to get back to the surface, you don't have to go back to Boulder Town. There are ways."
no subject
Infrastructure in the Underworld is too disjointed to ever have a full census of the people who live there, and the Overworld hasn't had access long enough to get a full count organized and successfully implemented. The citizens underground are desperate for a way to lift themselves out of over a decade of poverty. That makes it very easy for someone to disappear down below and for no one to even realize they're gone, and even if they did show up in the Overworld-- living or not-- there are no records to identify them by. Find the vulnerable, take them somewhere unfamiliar so that even if they did manage to get away, they don't know where to go or who can help them. No money, no paperwork. Vastly exploitable.
"They aren't operating out of Boulder Town proper, but they must be close," Pela says. "Most of the victims that we know of are from there. We have some confirmed disappearances from the Vagrant Camp, but they aren't the majority."
"Wildfire has already searched through Rivet Town and found no traces of them," Oleg adds.
Sampo leans against the wall while they talk, just... absorbing. Thinking. If he were a man with even fewer morals than he already has, how would he make money off of abject suffering? Kidnapping is a noisy business, so it makes sense to remove the victims to a location well away from anyone who would help them. That rules out Boulder Town-- too many people, too much Wildfire presence. You wouldn't want to go out too close to the Robot Settlement either, not when Svarog's there to keep track of things. He's insular, but he doesn't suffer anything that would be a threat. That leaves--
"You won't find anything in Rivet Town if you send anyone from Wildfire in," he says, his head tipped back to rest against the wall, looking up towards the ceiling. Not really looking at the ceiling, it's just somewhere to point his eyes while he thinks. "I'd bet my last credit they've already got at least one person in your group, probably more. By the time you set foot in Rivet, they're all looo-ong gone."
That's what he would do-- have a few people in Wildfire as an early warning system. Any time Wildfire plans on getting too close, a little birdie sings and they pack everything up and disappear before any of Nat's people can even catch a glimpse. Make sure it's more than just one guy-- two's good, three's better, so long as they work well together-- so that even if one person gets caught or has suspicion thrown on them, there's a backup already in place.
"If I were running this racket, Rivet's the place I would pick. It's close enough to Boulder that you have access to your supply. It's already been cleared out and not a lot of people go up there, and the ones that do are usually going alone. The monsters are just even more reason for no one to go poking around too much. And if you want to get back to the surface, you don't have to go back to Boulder Town. There are ways."