Chapter 93: Killing Charles

"Be ready, another group up ahead," Charles said before adding, "How big is this place? I thought it was small, as being a special place and that stuff."

"It's special, so it was built in circles rounding around each other, so it's big, very big," Dora simply replied.

"It's a labyrinth then, right?" Rigo asked.

" Some sort of, but it's not the sort where you get lost, it was designed so any intruder would lose time before he could get in and out," she said.

"Rigo," James simply ordered, as Rigo darted as usual towards the front. This team wasn't luckier than the last, or the one before, and this kept going on for a while. this place was really huge, and they would take hours to just cover it.

After the tenth team got crushed by them, James started to feel some worry, as he asked:

"Do you recognize any of them?"

Dora looked at the tattered bodies of them for a while, before she shook her head:

"Sorry, not a clue."

"That means they don't belong to any group under you, right?" James asked again, trying to confirm something.

"As far as I know, these clothes aren't related to any group," Dora said, as she understood James' meaning.

"They could easily change clothes," Charles simply said, as he smelled James' sniffing, doubting stench.

"But why would they do that?" James asked, as he confronted Charles, "what group you came here with?" he directly asked.

"I told you," Charles said, faking helplessness, "I just was eavesdropping, and couldn't tell their identities as I didn't see them."

"But you saw those who came on the same cruiser as you," James wasn't ready to let him go, "Tell me, what group they were?" he asked, with a stern face that held no room for evasion.

"Ok," Charles sighed, "I came with the Telotanda's one of the cruisers, a little cruiser," he said, in a helpless tone like he was doing something wrong here.

His tone, his behavior made everyone doubt him, as they all looked towards him with questioning eyes. "Why are you giving me this glance? I'm not lying, I swear I came in this cruiser, and whoever was scheming against you, he must be one of them."

Dora's face didn't flinch, however James asked;

"Do you know this group?"

She sighed, as she nodded before saying:

"A trouble maker group, who dreamt long ago of leading this rebellious move and gaining an empire under their name."

"Known troublemakers like them, that's not a surprise what they intended to do," James muttered softly, as he decided to play along with Charles. Just as Dora was about to say something, as she looked somehow distressed, James glanced at her in a meaningful way, before he said:

"Let's keep going, we still have a long way ahead of us."

Dora just nodded, as she understood what he was planning. James didn't buy Charles' words, as selecting an obvious target for treason was something foolish.

Though all evidence pointed to them, based on Charles' testimony, it wasn't logical at all. James knew whoever was behind all this, he or she must be someone very cunning, not stupid enough to show up his face like this in public, announcing himself as a target practice for any treason.

And whoever that force might be, it must have some arrangements with this snake up ahead. So far, James wanted to take Rigo on the side, and ask him about everything related to Charles, his history with Rigo and his old emperor.

However Rigo just refused more than once to speak, citing the inadequacy of the place to share some critical info like this. James couldn't do anything but to sigh, he hoped Rigo knew what he was doing.

The path afterwards was smooth, with roughly anything to stand on their way. All the guarding teams kept checking on the way and were exterminated by the routine collaboration between Rigo and them, being Rigo the main attacker they had.

After four more hours, they managed finally to reach the end of this strange maze, where they spotted a large space, with a beautiful bond in the middle of it with its silver white waters.

On the sides of this place, there were many doors, lined one by one, in a strange order that added some elegance to the place, like it was part of the decoration here.

"We are here," Dora whispered. The team then moved slowly, approaching the place, as they spotted many of their enemies, gathered around one door, trying to open it.

There were a group of a hundred, much more than what James had in mind.

"What should we do now?" Dora whispered, "Should we attack them?" she said.

"No," Rigo said, " I think it's safer to wait for them to get the prisoner and then attack them," he suggested.

"Wrong," Charles said, "if they got their hand on him, they would kill him and get what they want, then leave here," he warned.

"They can't bypass us here," Rigo stubbornly said.

"But this isn't the only way out," Charles said, winking with his left eye.

They understood his meaning, as when they got what they wanted, they would activate the safety function here and leave.

"They could also activate the safety once we attack them, and so we would all be dead and they would have their target," Rigo said.

"Can you disable the safety?" James suddenly asked.

"I can't," Dora muttered.

"I can," Rigo said, as he entered into a moment of silence, attracting everyone's focus over him, before he opened his eyes again, "it's done."

"How did you do it?" Dora, astonishingly asked, as she knew there was no way to do that.

"It's a secret of mine," Rigo simply replied.

"Just say you hacked the ship," Charles rudely said, in a tone that meant to mock Rigo.

"You did what?" Dora spoke, with some aggressiveness in her tone.

"It's just a safety measure," James was the one to speak up.

"Safety from whom? Me?" she angrily said.

"Safety from those endangering you," James said, as he threw a glance over Charles, a glance was easily picked by Dora. She took successive breaths, trying to calm herself down. This was her cruiser, one of the rarest of this kind, and she wouldn't let anyone steal it from her, even if this person was James.

As for James, he felt more threat coming from Charles, as he knew he hacked the cruiser by Rigo. Was this just on spot conclusion, or did he know more?

James leaned to the former, as if this swindler knew all their plans, then he wouldn't hesitate to add more fuel to the fire. That made James cool off for a bit, as the last thing he needed right now was to start a fight with Dora, his current biggest ally, the one who controlled this ship and all these forces, even only in name.

"As we neutralize their advantage, using the hacking abilities of our dear Rigo, why don't we start attacking them now?" Charles said, stressing again on what Rigo and James did behind Dora's back.

"If we did that, we wouldn't be able to kill all of them fast enough," James said, refusing this idea from Charles. He had made up his mind, any idea from that crook meant bad things for them, so they needed to consider everything first, cautiously especially when given from Charles.

"Really? Have any brilliant idea in that mind of yours?" he sarcastically said," do you plan to hack their bodies and render them paralyzed?" he said, as his grin was so wide, from ear to ear.

James didn't reply, as he retreated, grabbing Dora's hand and Eli to the back, while Rigo stood between them and Charles.

"What are you doing?" Charles suddenly felt some panic, as this arrangement was worrying to anyone.

"Don't be afraid," Rigo ruthlessly said, in a cold tone, "You have the biggest honor in acting as a decoy," he said, as he took out a few dark balls and put them on the ground, before he started to retreat too.

"Don't you da…" Charles said in an anger, as he was about to dart towards them, but his words choked in his throat, as Rigo activated the life thread again, and this time he intended not to inactivate it, and no one behind him planned to ask him to do so.

Charles, was schemed to fall, right in this place, acting as a lowest decoy ever, to attract others by his screams. He was destined to die right here, this shameful death, without any friend or a lover, or even a comrade.

Lived dirty, died alone, that was the simple story of this treacherous man.

"Let's retreat as far as possible," James said, taking the two girls away, while Rigo followed suit from far, leaving Charles twitching restlessly on the ground, screaming in agony and severe pain, doing his job as a decoy marvelously, unwillingly, without any option in it.