Chapter 98: To Hunt A Snake Mission

James heard him, but he didn't show it. Alex was such a naïve and idiot youth, with impulsive nature and a good heart. It was easier, much easier, to deal with him, as he couldn't hide anything, even from his enemies.

James moved at the lead, with the three of them marching behind. Islinda, who was trying to fit in her new role, hastened her steps, to catch up with James.

"I feel you are somehow stressed and nervous," she started her new role by saying that. James just turned to glance shortly at her before he joked:

"Make sure Alex doesn't hear you out, or his little mind might think of something that doesn't exist."

Despite not to, she chuckled, as she glanced over her shoulder towards Alex. "He has a simple mind, and you didn't reply to me. don't you trust me?"

"I know you can't betray me, and yes, I have a lot of things going on in my mind right now," James sighed before replying vaguely like this.

"Won't you tell me about them?" she asked, in some eagerness she couldn't control. She was raised to be a ruling queen, an imperial princess, in a mighty empire, so her nature was always eager for troubles and how to solve them. She was just raised to be such a person.

James glanced at her for a brief moment, as he felt her honest eagerness not only to know but also to help. He knew her opinion would matter a lot, especially from someone who was raised to deal with such complicated and life threatening conditions.

"There is a traitor, or a group of them, who works for the people who tried to kill all of you, the ones I saved you from."

This time, her eager childish face changed, and a mix of fear's pallor and anger's flush fluctuated over her pretty face. She held her two small hand tightly together, while maintaining her tone while asking:

"Who is he?"

"We don't know, but Dora and Rigo are ahead of us, trying to look for him or them."

Islinda went silent for a moment, realizing how dangerous this situation could be, before asking:

"Are you sure they are here?"

James glanced at her silently, before saying the short story of Charles to her. Once finished, she was more confused, as what she heard didn't confirm or reject the idea. She couldn't take a decision, and at this moment, her life training had shown its worth right now.

"If we don't know the truth, then we have to act based on all the worst scenarios. Luckily we have only one bad scenario here, and thus we can act based on it."

James looked at her, admiring her self confidence. He also thought the same, and so he sent those two ahead of him, to find the traitor.

"Is Dora one of ours?" she suddenly asked. James didn't reply at once, as he had some conflicted emotions regarding her, but eventually he replied, with his mind not heart:

"She is just an ally."

He wasn't belittling her, but putting her in the fittest position she deserved. She wasn't working under his command; like the rest of them now, making her be the only one alien to him. an ally was a good choice, and this reply made his mind think of another possibility; what if she didn't become an ally? What would happen?

And this made him think about the worst case scenario; yet again alone and silent without showing anything on the surface.

"That means if she had a better deal, she might betray us, right?"

James just nodded, as he had the same idea as well.

"We need to have our own backup then, after all this ship is hers and we are a minority," she said, thinking loudly with him.

"Don't be worried about that," James smiled, vaguely, "the ship is ours, and my army is made up of droids," he added.

Her beautifully small eyes got rounded when she heard his words. she didn't expect this clumsy young arrogant man to be such resourceful. Having a droid army, taking control of the cruiser, these weren't just flukes of luck, but planning and strategically right decisions were taken at the appropriate time.

It seemed that Rigo was something, she muttered to herself, as she didn't believe James would be able to pull such feats alone.

"How well is this traitor hidden?" she asked.

"Pretty well I guess," he said, "I don't think we can easily find him," he added, expressing his own doubts.

Islinda's face beamed with trust as she announced:

"Let me plan this operation, and I promise I will get him."

James noticed her confidence, and he was sure she was speaking out of experience not arrogance, but he refused to put her in such a hard test from the beginning, not to depend his life on her without any previous testing.

"Let's be fair, you alone will take longer in doing it, so I suggest you take Rigo and let him help you," he said.

"Sure, I need his help, and also the help of Dora. Is she really a princess?"

Out of the blue, she asked this question, which startled James.

"They call her a princess, but she has no land to rule, no throne she belonged to," he replied.

"Then why is she called a princess?" she asked.

"I don't know," James shrugged, "you can ask her when we reach the deck," he added.

They were now exiting from the prison, and a one hour journey to the deck was waiting for them. they moved out, while Islinda was busy thinking and formulating a plan to catch the traitor. She knew how hard it was to catch a snake, especially one decided to hide and not appear.

Cautious traitors were the worst, as they might wait as long as it needed until they directed their attack towards you, and their attacks were fatal or at least very traumatizing.

There was a simple, yet risky and hard to pull, plan to get such traitors. She decided to implement it, but she needed to refine the final details before offering it up to James. She intended to make this plan, this operation, as her credential helped to gain James' trust.

Someone as cautious as James, with mind like him, would never trust her completely, not simply like this. She didn't want but to acquire his help, to return to her empire again, and to do that she must be trusted, highly valued, or else he wouldn't put her priorities in his mind at all.

She needed half an hour before she finished her plan, which she hurriedly explained to James by saying:

"The best way to catch a snake is to feign weakness, let him come near you, confident in his ability to bite and finish you off. The moment you draw it out, the moment of its demise. We will do this, as we will feign weakness, conflict between each other, and finally when this traitor finds us weak, he will move, with absolute confidence, and then we can catch him off guard."

James listened carefully to her, as she had a good point here, but he didn't know how to feign this weakness. So he asked:

"How do you plan to push him out?"

"We will cause an internal strife between us," she said, as she smiled an innocent smile that didn't suit what she was talking about.

James just glanced at her, without expressing his approval. Causing an internal rift between themselves at this time would add many variables, plus they would lose everything if a single mistake was made.

She noticed his hesitation, and she understood the reason behind it, so she added:

"The conflict will only be for the show, but we will be truly one."

He continued to be silent, which made her sigh. She knew what he was afraid of, so she proposed:

"If you don't trust her this much, then you can let Rigo be with her."

"That's not possible," he blurted out, "if Rigo was with her, then that genius would suspect our act," he argued.

It was her turn to be silent, as she knew very well that he had a point here. they were dealing with a very cautious, very smart person. Any speck of suspect would arouse his vigilance, making him refrain from showing up.

"then let one of your men be with her, undercover," she said, "we need someone beside her, someone you trust," she added, as she knew James wouldn't consider this plan for fear of Dora.

The worst case scenario was the move of the traitor towards her, using this faked conflict, and seducing her to join him. If that happened, then the only loser here would be James, and this would end up in a major conflict inside the cruiser, where all would lose.

James wouldn't surrender his life to Dora's hands like this, so he refrained from agreeing on the plan.