Chapter 37: Should

"But… But why there?" Rin asked through hyperventilating breaths. "You know where it is, Fal. You saved me from there. Why do you need me to go back?"

"You know the place far better than I do," Fal said, "If we go there, and there's any clue to be found as to where Clan Pren has moved onto after that raid, you're the one that's going to be most likely to find it. We need a guide, Rin, and you're the only one we've got."

We may have been from different species but I was fast learning that the look of devastation was the same no matter what planet you were born on. Rin's head was hung low, her breaths came in slow shaky sobs, and she seemed to have lost all of her energy.

But slowly. With each of those shaky breaths. It was as if a complete transformation was taking place.

She was becoming stronger with each inhale, blowing out her worries with every exhale.

"Fine," she said after a few moments, her voice cold and hard, "Let's get this over with."

We couldn't just leave the bar out of the front entrance the way we came in, of course. We'd already been attacked once out there and there was nothing to say that another potential assassin hadn't been called to take the first one's post when they had failed their job. Instead, Rin led us out through the back of the bar into a dingy little alleyway.

For such a high tech mega building it surprised me how many little hideaways and cuts to different locations there were. It was as if someone had taken an entire city, with all its little rat runs and alternate routes, and had simply shoved it into an entire building. I'd been expecting elevators and robotic guides, not winding staircases into the depths of the beast.

It was a wonder that no one ever got lost in places like this.

<I'm sure people do all the time,> BB said ominously, <Who knows, maybe you'll be next.>

I tried to keep the childish grin off my face at BB's taunting. It wouldn't do to start cackling over a joke my AI had told when we were on such a serious mission. Akash and Pax were in danger, and if we didn't get to them there probably wouldn't be a Prespian City to make silly jokes about.

<It feels like we're just jumping from one fight to the next at the moment,> BB said, <It's not meant to be like this for a new Initiate into the guard. You were meant to take part in the tournament like everyone else. If you got through that, your new Squadron Leader was supposed to train you in properly using your manna. But look at you, going on dangerous missions already. It doesn't feel right.>

It didn't feel right at all, BB wasn't wrong about that. My thoughts drifted back to the potential of there being a traitor in our midst. What if that traitor had been Squadron Leader Belana all along?

"Hey, Fal, what do you make of the Squadron Leader?" I asked from my position at the rear of our group.

"He's a good man…" She replied, "Why do you ask?"

"When I interrogated the assassin from before, he said that Clan Pren had been working as an intermediary for someone else. That Pren were only giving him the details of he hit, and that his bullets were actually meant for us, not for Rin," I said. "There had to only have been a limited number of people who knew we were taking this mission. So who hired the Clan to hire the assassin?"

"What're you saying, Jacob?"

"I'm wondering if there's a traitor in our midst, and if there is, who that traitor might be."

She snorted, "You can't think that the squadron leader would actually be some sort of Null Space Invader sympathizer."

"I'm not thinking anything at the moment, I'm just letting my mind wander. At this point, anyone's a suspect, even you and Yr'Arl."

"I would never betray my colleagues," Yr'Arl said haughtily. I hoped I hadn't offended him, I was just trying to make a point.

Before we could continue the conversation the alleyway opened up into a wider area.

It was clear that we had reached some kind of industrial district. Heavy pipes lined the high ceiling above us, and the distant clunk of boxes that were being moved around. Perhaps we were in some kind of warehouse? Even a hyper-advanced civilization such as the one I had now become a part of would need somewhere to store their food and supplies.

"As you know, Fal, Clan Pren tends to base themselves around more... legitimate business. I was held here, underneath this shipping company. They had hollowed out the metal from the superstructure and created a large under-base with the business above operating as a front," Rin explained.

"After we discovered the Pren base we blocked the entrance off and allowed the business above to keep functioning. We did, however, block off the entrance to the Pren base underneath. No one should have accessed it since our team rescued Rin and the other kids that were trapped there," Fal followed. "We'll just need to find the yard leader to explain the situation."

As we made our way into the docks it was the word 'should' that stuck with me. There had already been a lot of situations that should or shouldn't have occurred since I ended up on this world.

There shouldn't have been a Null Space Invader trying to bring the shields down.

The gravity-driven tidal defences should have been perfect.

Lara shouldn't have died.

I was fast learning that people saying things should happen one way probably meant that they'd actually end up happening another entirely. With the luck we'd been having, whatever the Guard had used to block up the Pren base all those years ago had likely been cracked open long before we even arrived.