Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Sokka: Detective ❯ The Carriage Caper ( Chapter 2 )

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Avatar: The Last Airbender: "The Carriage Caper"
By Gunwild

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Toph had been lodging for several days in Sokka’s new Baking Quarter office, sleeping on his spare mat and not really caring what her parents made of it. It served them right for trying to pull her back into the very society she’d gone out of her way to leave. You’d think after saving the Earth Kingdom and ending a century of warfare they’d respect her for herself, but no – she was still treated like a child who was expected to make nice at parties and act like she cared about hulusheng music.

Her host was better company, at least when he was kept busy. While outfitting himself for his new trade or sprucing up the place, Sokka would be his normal wily self, cracking wise and killing time with her like the old days. In the evenings, however, he would wind down, retreating into his easy chair to mope and stare at nothing, eventually fading into sleep.

At these times Toph would heave a sigh, throw a blanket over him and think to herself that if her friend didn’t catch a second case soon, he would drop back into the depression she’d recently found him in. For a little while he had been lively and positive, but it seemed like the worse he got the less interested he was in getting better.

It was just as the sun and Sokka’s humors were going down for the day that a great clamor came from the street. It wasn’t the sound of a fire brigade rushing to work or a cart tipping over, but rather the noise of dozens of sets of wooden wheels clacking on cobbles. One or two of these were to be expected because of the usual carriage traffic in the metropolis, but so many at once brought the entire street to its windows to stare.

At least twenty ostrich-horse cabs were parked outside, the drivers trying with mixed success to leave enough room for through-traffic. The men prodded their animals gently so that they stood on the sidewalk, or else bothered only with cleaning each other and not passersby. Sokka described the scene to his young assistant, who alerted him when she sensed a body hurriedly ascending their staircase. A moment later there entered a lanky young fellow with crop and uniform, bowing only slightly before launching into speech. “Are you Mister Sokka, the detective?”

“That’s my name,” he declared, puffing out his chest so that he looked like a large, preening bird himself. “And my job. What can I do for you?”

“Well it’s like this, sir,” the coachman said, not bothering to take a seat, “I represent…”

“The Trade Society of Drivers and Grooms, I’d imagine,” Sokka supplied. “And I understand if you’re in a hurry, since at this time of day you’ve gotta get the cabs back to the depot so the night drivers can go on shift. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway. Skip the formalities; just give me the facts of the case.”

“Very true, yes sir, I’ll do that, sir.” Glancing around as he took a place in the chair young man whipped off his leather hat. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware there was a lady in the room.”

“That’s no lady, it’s only Toph.”

“Hey!”

“Look,” Sokka went on with some irritation, “I said we’re not worried about you being polite.”

The young driver shook his head. “Oh, but I can’t be rude, Mister Sokka. The Company, you see, the Ba Sing Se Coach Company, is very strict about the conduct of its drivers. One slip-up and they dismiss you straightaway, they do.”

Sokka nodded sagely. Although large, accessible bending-propelled trains ran throughout the city, carriages were considered the more ‘civilized’ way to travel because they were private and clean – and of course, cost more money. Ba Sing Se Coach probably wanted to keep that prim image in people’s minds. “Well, if you can be both polite and quick, like you would with an emergency fare, that’d be fine.”

“Yes sir. Well, it’s this; the boys and I are a good Trade Society, watch each other’s backs, eh? We have to take care of each other when the Company is treating us wrong. This time, though, the Company is living up to its end of the bargain, as far as we can tell, but someone else is setting us up for trouble.”

Putting his feet up on his desk, Sokka donned his lens-carrying earpiece. He set his magnified gaze on the visitor. “So you don’t even know who’s troubling you… interesting…”

Toph leaned against the wall, not quite hiding her satisfied smile. Yes, this would do just fine.

“Yes sir. We’re being sent off, fired one by one, and it’s all because our carriages keep breaking down.”

“Do you think it’s sabotage?” Toph inquired. Sokka nodded, flipping his lens over. That seemed a likely enough explanation.

“No sir – uh, ma’am, no. It’s the maddest thing. All the breakdowns seem to be caused by the usual sort of wear and tear; an old axle or rust under the door hinges – one fellow’s whole front seat just fell off because the nails had come loose. But it’s impossible!”

“I’m guessing you mean the frequency, not the failures.”

“Exactly, sir. You expect a carriage or two to give out every week, and they have to go to the wheeler’s as often as that, but every day now they’re falling to pieces and we haven’t the foggiest why. It’s been going on like this for almost a month.”

“Hm.” Sokka stood, looked down at the assembled coaches with his lens and raised his finger. “I notice that all your cabs are numbered. Does each driver get the same one every day?”

“No sir. We try to get the same ostrich-horses from the grooms so’s they know us and heed us, but the carriages we share. They’re all the same old make, anyway.”

“I can see that.” Sokka glanced over his shoulder. “One more thing. If the carriages break down through ‘wear and tear,’ doesn’t the company take the responsibility?”

“Yes sir. We aren’t even charged for the time. But…” the young fellow reddened slightly, “It’s the customers. If you break down on them sometimes they can be quite mean. And if one of the boys raises his voice back, he usually loses his job. That’s our real problem, Mister Sokka. These breakdowns are causing arguments, and arguments are getting us canned. The Company’s men are even giving us speeches, telling us to be more like the night shift drivers. They don’t have near as many breakdowns.”

“Ah.” Sokka snapped his fingers. “Very good. I’ll take the case.”

“That’s good, sir,” the cabby replied. “We’ve pooled our money and-”

“Whatever you’re thinking of giving me, cut it in half,” he said. “And only pay me once the work’s finished. I’m not going to start charging people if I can’t find results.”

The astounded young fellow bowed. “Thank you, sir! And a good night to both of you!” He seemed eager to escape before his good fortune changed, and in the street could soon be heard a cry of “He’s charging us half!” that was responded to with cheers. The cheers, naturally, spooked the ostrich-horses, which raised a ruckus for some five minutes before they were all herded off the thoroughfare and back towards their stables, leaving dusty tracks and feathers in their wake.

“That’s a weird one,” Toph declared, scratching her head right through her bun. “Their stuff’s breaking, but like it’s just worn out? Maybe they’re using it too hard.”

“I’m going to try to trust their professionalism,” permitted Sokka, “At least for now. Besides, I’ve already got one theory about this crime.”

She hopped up onto the desk, swinging her feet. “So it’s a crime, then? Not just shoddy workmanship or whatever?”

“Oh I think you’ll find it’s both, plucky assistant.” Sokka busied himself with cleaning his two-billed hat and finding his clay bubble pipe. He was obviously gearing up for adventure.

“Is there some criminal carpenter in the city, then?” She asked with excitement, imagining some sinister-looking soul with a saw intentionally churning out dangerous products. Giant bookcases that would fall on people, or chairs that broke your back, maybe. Now *that* was interesting.

“Oh, I doubt it. In fact I think the masterminds behind this scheme aren’t inside Ba Sing Se at all – but that’ll become obvious with a little time. What’s important is that we get right to the next stage of the investigation.”

“Which is what?” Toph raised her fists in anticipation. Maybe this time there would be a good throwdown, or at least a rough interrogation.

“Sleep.”

“*What?* That’s not exciting!”

“No, but it’s necessary if we wanna wake up around midnight. That’s when we’ll be able to begin our operation. It’s why I’ve got my stuff ready.”

Toph gradually began nodding. “Yeah, I get it… you think the night shift is behind this somehow.”

“Good, but you shouldn’t get your conclusions just by following me.” As he tucked the brim of his cap over his eyes to start resting, he grinned. “See if you can’t figure it out for yourself. It’ll be good for you.”

Although not pleased at being left out of Sokka’s theorizing, Toph was not about to ignore a challenge. She spent hours lying on her mat, going over the evidence again and again, trying to work out how it properly fit together. But all she got out of it was a feeling that once he had a case, Sokka might not need a plucky assistant at all.

---

“Up and at ‘em,” he said some hours later, bringing her out of unpleasant dreams. Toph rolled to her feet, yawning. “We’re heading out. Bring your best, because I think we’re gonna to need your special talent.”

The girl tried to hide how pleased she was at the opportunity to be helpful. “Which one? Burp-singing?”

“That’s a good one too, but I mean seeing through the ground. Anyway, let’s move.” As they departed through the front door, Sokka grabbed a note that had been jammed in the mailbox. He twisted it carelessly open, squinting at it by the lamplight while assuming a position leaning against a wall. Evidently they weren’t in as much of a hurry as Toph had thought.

“Hm. It’s from Katara. Seems she wants to meet with me at my ‘earliest convenience.’”

“That could be important. ‘Earliest convenience’ sounds nicer than it usually is.”

“I’ll say. I think she’s mad at me. She wrote it while gripping the brush really hard, so the letters are kind of jagged. Maybe I’ll take her some soap as a peace offering.”

“Soap?”

“Well, there’s a smudge down here. Her left thumb got ink on it, and that’s a real hassle to get off. You know, I never thought of it before, but this detective stuff, it can really be helpful in regular life. I’m making a lot less dumb decisions lately.”

Toph tapped her foot and rolled her unseeing eyes. “Did we come out here for you to play with paper, or are we going to work on the case?”

“We are. In fact, I’m going to guess that what we’re looking for is coming around the corner right now.”

Having been presaged by a rattle and creak, a coach did indeed come into Sokka’s view, his fortune giving him cause to smirk. It was a Company cab identical to the ones from earlier, down to the dull green paintjob and number stenciled on the side. Toph raised a hand, thinking they were to hail it, but Sokka grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the building’s alley, running until they were completely out of sight of the street.

“Can you still feel where the carriage is?” he asked, peeking out and spying it as it passed. “We need to follow it without being seen. Think you’re up to that?”

Toph pointed to her own face. “Heh. I could do it with my eyes closed.” To demonstrate, she did this, cracked her toes in the dirt and pointed straight through a building at where she knew the carriage to be situated. “These feet don’t lie.”

“Well then,” said Sokka, beginning to stalk through the alley and smirking still more fiercely, “I guess the game is afoot.”

“I hate you.”

They moved in short sprints across empty streets, while stalking slowly through the labyrinth of passages between buildings. Only when the line of sight between themselves and their quarry was obscured did they dare to enter the open, but even then Sokka always snuck a cautious look ahead.

“So you *do* think the night shift is up to something,” whispered Toph. “I knew it.”

Not bothering to confirm her speculation, Sokka looked about them, seemingly trying to find his bearings. “Which way is it turning?”

Although she didn’t like being ignored, his assistant pointed.

“Hm. That’s more inward turns than outward. But we’ll be reaching the wall, soon, so…” Sokka trailed off as he resumed dashing parallel to the cab, Toph jogging along in his wake. “Yes. Yeah, I see it now. We’re lucky; this is definitely one of the ones we’re looking for. It’s headed for the southern gate.”

After only a few minutes, each of them detected the cab rolling though the archway out of the city, and Sokka held up his hand, counting under his breath. When he was satisfied that enough time had passed, he calmly strode into the street and started walking towards the gate himself. Toph followed.

“It’s guarded,” he noted, “But since this gate is already inside the city limits it’s just one soldier watching us. Only the outer siege door is locked, and I don’t think they’ll be going that far…” at first he talked as though only to himself, but he spoke to Toph when the time came for instructions. “We’re going to walk way behind it so that we don’t get noticed, but if it turns off the road or something while there’s no good view, I want you to tell me, okay?”

“No problem, I guess. But why is it coming out here? It can’t be for a fare. There’s nothing but farms past the gate.”

“Exactly. Don’t worry, I think the whole thing’s going to become obvious in just a short while. Right here, I can see it turning off onto a field. Get down, we’re going to have to duck out of sight. I can tell you what happens.”

The pair of them crouch-walked through the corner of a wheat field until they had reached the edge of a tilled one; Sokka got on his belly and Toph knelt, keeping a hand on the earth as lookout. “It’s getting farther off. I can’t make it out. What’s the deal?”

“There’s a shed not too far from the farmhouse. The doors are already open, and there’s candlelight inside. They’re expected.” Amusement was in his voice. “I’ve gotta admit, this is an excellent plan.”

“Yours or theirs?”

“They both have their good points. But even though theirs is criminal, it’s probably better. Not original, but effective.” Sokka rested his chin in his hands. His voice made it sound like he was thoroughly entertained. “It’ll probably be a few minutes.”

Toph tried, but didn’t think she could puzzle it out. So a night shift driver had taken a cab outside of the city center, and to a farm. Now he’d taken it into a shed. What was happening in there that would make the vehicle break down on the day shift drivers? Were they stealing parts from it? No, because the breakdowns hadn’t been overt sabotage. Was there something inside being sold? That didn’t account for the failures either. What did Sokka know that she didn’t?

“Okay, Toph, we’re going to start walking back towards the city now.”

“What? I thought this was surveillance?”

“It is, and I just spied our ride back. Come on. It’ll be perfect.”

They began the trek, but it was barely a minute before the familiar noise of an ostrich-horse came from behind them; Sokka waved an arm and called out. The carriage stopped next to them. “Where to?”

“The Baking Quarter,” Sokka said gleefully. “We’ll just sit in the back here, my friend’s tuckered out.”

The carriage groaned when they got on, even though it was designed to carry several people at once. After they got underway, Sokka edged closer to his friend, leaning over to whisper in her ear. “Notice anything, Toph?”

“The ride is kind of bouncy. The carriage feels old. Plus it’s slow – the driver’s going easy on it.”

“What else?”

It wasn’t easy, but by focusing on one thing at a time, she found another item out of place. “There’s rust,” she whispered back. “Just a little, on the metal plate back here under our feet. I’ve never felt that on one of these rides before. And it feels like it’s been brushed recently, really hard.”

“Right. I’ll spot you one, too, that you wouldn’t know about; the number seven on the side is fresh-painted. It’s the same number as we saw going out of the city but…”

Toph punched her own palm. “It’s not the same carriage!” For a second she was concerned that the driver had heard, but he continued pulling on the reins placidly. “So that means-”

“Yeah. The real carriage seven is back in that barn, probably being painted some other color already so it can be taken out of town without attracting suspicion. This, what we’re in right now, has got to be an old personal carriage they cleaned off and painted. The drivers have been taking them out there under cover of darkness and swapping them, then going easy on them so they break down only during the day. The Company pays for them, the drivers collect a commission and nobody’s the wiser.”

“Of course – it’s an old model, and lots of people use them. If they paint them in advance with the Company colors all they need to do is add the number. And the daytime drivers never notice because they switch carriages all the time.”

“The case is solved, Toph,” said Sokka with a chuckle. “The theory wasn’t hard to come up with. I mean, if a carriage is breaking down because it seems old, then it probably is old, right? The rest was only finding out where and how they made the swap. Hey, there’s another coming down the road in the other direction from us – they probably keep switching them out one at a time all night long. In the morning we’ll let the Trade Society guys know about it. I think they’ll want to be the ones to tell management themselves.”

--

Indeed, the young fellows were quite pleased for the opportunity – and even more pleased when a fast investigation by the City Police found that almost half of the nighttime drivers of the Ba Sing Se Coach Company had been seen driving their coaches out the southern gate regularly for the past month. To their vacated positions, several of the day drivers who had recently lost their jobs were appointed, although all on probation for their behavior during the incidents. After crowding the street again to gather up and voice their thanks, Sokka further cut back their fee, though with the caveat that their Trade Association would need to supply him with free rides from time to time on business-related matters. They agreed, and their scrawny leader was just in the process of patting him on the back and offering him a position as an honorary coachman, complete with hat, when the bell on the stairs rang. It was scarcely five seconds before Sokka’s recently-fixed door was flung open harshly, and his sister Katara stormed in, hands clenching and unclenching like she wished she were strangling something.

The driver beat a hasty (though still courteous) retreat. Sokka tried to think what could land him in such hot water – hopefully the metaphorical kind. “Uh, hi, Katara!”

“No ‘uh hi Katara!’” she yelled, pounding a hand onto his desk. “What is it you think you’re doing here?!”

“Solving… crimes?”

Even though she was younger than Sokka, he still had a healthy respect for Katara’s temper, and for as often as Toph had called her ‘Sugar Queen’ she knew that this waterbending master was nobody to get mad. “He’s just helping people.”

“That’s the problem!” she announced, as though her meaning were already obvious. Sokka’s visible lack of comprehension cued her to expound a bit. “Solving crimes. Helping people. Does that sound like the job of anybody else you know?”

Sokka tried to reach back into his brain’s darkest corners for an answer. “Um… Wolfbatman?”

“This isn’t a picture-story, Sokka! It’s real life, and in real life the police are supposed to do this kind of thing. Do you even know how hard Aang and I worked to reform the Dai Li once we got here? To make sure they weren’t corrupt, or abusing their power like they used to? People are just starting to trust the authorities here again, and you shouldn’t stand in the way of the law.”

“Katara,” he said with a knitted brow, “I don’t think you’re being fair.”

“Fair?” she gave him a withering look, one with some pity thrown in like she felt he was just misunderstanding the situation. “Is it fair to charge people for something the police are supposed to do for free?”

“I barely charge them,” he returned, “and those law enforcement types can’t do *everything* they’re supposed to. They can’t be everywhere, can they?”

Katara raised her chin. “They can *try!*”

“Sorry,” he said with seriousness he rarely displayed, “But that sounds a lot like another police state.”

Although she wasn’t the type to admit defeat based on a single, opinion-driven statement, this was enough to give Katara pause. She needed a second before she could shake it off, and then threw up her hands, turning away. “I can’t get through to you. But I mean it, I want you to give up this detective thing or start working with the city government. Maybe Toph can talk some sense into you; she’s from the Earth Kingdom.”

Toph only shrugged towards Katara’s hopeful look. “The only earth I owe anything to is what’s under my feet. Sorry, I’m not gonna try to tell him what to do. The whole reason I’m here is basically because I’m tired of doing what my family wants. We’ve all gotta find our own path.”

“Well if you – *either* of you – set one foot off of the real, legal path…” Katara opened the door to go, “… then I’m going to get you shut down. I’m sorry. I hope next time I visit it’s under better circumstances.”

They listened to her go, and only after she was completely out of earshot did Toph say “You know, she can be really mean sometimes.”

“She’s not mean,” Sokka breathed, “She just… likes it when people see things her way. I think, without using those exact words, she just said she was worried about us.”

“I getcha.” Toph nodded sagely. It was just like Katara to be so concerned she upset herself. “So your plan to show her we’re doing something good is… what? To solve mysteries and get useless favors instead of money?”

“Useless?” Sokka picked up the leather cap that was the trophy of his latest adventure. It was a short-billed eight-panel hat, the sturdy kind with the wooden band inside that was the fashion these days among working boys. “I hardly think so. You know what we’ve accomplished. Think about it.”

She did. Sokka had accepted free travel as payment from this client. From the last ones, free tea. There was some idea behind that. “You expect to use these favors to solve other cases, don’t you? And that’ll lead to more favors, which’ll help you solve more cases…”

“Knew you’d figure it out. Here, have a reward.” With a practiced flick of his wrist Sokka tossed the cap at her such that it landed on top of her head; Toph reached up to pull it off, but found that it was a size that fit snugly over her hair bun. She fixed it into place with the front tilted up, since shading her eyes was of no concern. “See, this detective thing is fun. But more than that, you might’ve noticed how it helps my mood. So I’ve decided I might as well be good at it. The best, if possible.”

“So what?” Toph asked, raising one eyebrow and swinging her feet up into her seat. “You’re going to get serious on me or something?”

“Well, I’ll put it to you like this,” Sokka said, pouring a bit of fresh sudsy water into his pipe, “I’ve played Pai Sho with a friend of ours a few times, and he’s taught me it’s the big matches, the ones played on giant thousand-square boards that are the most rewarding. Sure you could just run through a ten-square match for fun, but it’s the long game, the one with approaches and strategizing that turns out to be the most enjoyable. Even if you don’t plan on winning every step of the way.”

She circled her finger in the air. “That’s going to be your new game? You versus this whole city?”

“*Us* versus *mystery,* Toph.” He happily clenched the pipe between his teeth and put his own feet up on his desk. “When you get right down to it, that’s the only game there is.”

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Written by Gunwild
Created by Bryan Konietzko & Michael Dante DiMartino
This fanfiction not produced for profit
Avatar: The Last Airbender and related indicia are the property of Nickelodeon