To Be A Warrior

Chapter 72: Only Have Eyes For You

"Oh, right. Of course," Amelia says. "That's why Jones was transporting those high-tech hazmat suits with UV protection. You remember, Five? That crate we had to deliver?"

"You mean the one that you broke open and caused us to lose and then when retrieving it, Jones nearly killed us?" I deadpan.

"Oh, leave the past in the past," She dismisses casually, and I roll my eyes. "Anyway, I thought he'd done some trade deal with Brent. Bugger, this is annoying."

"Well, you were the one who tried to convince us something was dodgy with Sage, Amelia," Sam says.

"I was expecting he's coldly ambitious and frightening people by playing on their past with the Last Riders, rather than he's a terrorist mastermind."

I take a glance over at Peter, who looks rather irked by that comment. I grab his wrist, as a way of comfort. I really do hope we're wrong about this, at least with Sage, but with how things look, I doubt it.

"This is a lot less useful and profitable," She continues, before sighing. "I supposed you know Sage is meeting with the head of senior settlements right now? He was doing so well bringing back free trade."

"That's why we called you here at Abel, Ms. Spens," Janine explains, her lips pursed. "We must reveal what we know about Colonel Sage, but if we try to capture him by force-"

"Yes. Nom nom with the zombie pill, and there go the settlement heads. I see. Why don't you just set off a proximity alert? Brent's donated some version of his system to the war effort, hasn't he?"

Peter quickly shakes his head, even though Amelia can't see it. "We can't do that. Proximity alerts are for genuine emergencies only."

"This is a genuine emergency."

His shoulders scrunch up in annoyance, but he doesn't say anything. I can tell he wants to, but I suppose he's holding back because of what I said earlier. He may think we want this, but we don't. This hurts everybody! But if it's true, Sage has to be stopped.

"We could report a small horde," Janine suggests.

"And Sage would go to the nearest tactical alert or whatever it is, and you could arrest him there. Better than doing it around Eagle Fang and the Psychoanalysts Enclave anyway. The Analysts are terrifying."

"Not to mention doing it in front of everyone else could ruin the entire conference," I add, looking down at my feet when Peter gives me a raised brow. "I mean, arresting the guy we all were about to announce as head of the V-Type resistance for suspicion of having to do with bringing back the Last Riders? Abel backed him up, remember? If we did that, no settlement would ever trust us again, and the only reason we got everything to go well today was because of the fact that we got New Oban to side with us. Doing this in secret is our best option."

Sam makes an unsure noise in my headset. "Well, like-I mean, setting off the zombie alert? I... We've heard of the boy who cried wolf, right?"

"One the other hand, Mr. Yao, as Runner Five well knows, sometimes only bad choices are available."

I blink in confusion. Is Janine talking about the fungus farm?

I shake my head. It's too much work to try to figure out what she might be referring too.

I hear an alarm go off.

"What the-" Sam chokes, and then the coms shack door opens.

"Sorry, that would be me," Nicole's voice comes in. "You were taking too long to hack the system, so I did it using this old laptop. I've pulled the alarm. You guys might want to get to that tactical station at the edge of the wood in time."