"So now," I said, extrapolating from what I had just learned. "The country is in an economic crisis. That’s why people are turning towards crime." It was also the reason why the donations to Jay’s orphanage dried up around this time. The timeframe lined up with how things had to have gone down.
"Right," Lisa confirmed. "That’s why people turned to piracy. That’s what happened with Ginah’s father. 15 years ago, he was the most feared pirate around Luke. But Ginah didn’t like how her father did things. She didn’t like how cruel and terrible he was, so she killed him."
"Just like that?" I asked, blinking.
"Just like that." She nodded. "You have to understand, Ginah was trained to be a natural born killer since she was a little girl. And when she beat her father in combat and killed him, she reformed his original group, calling them Ginah’s Crew."
"But wouldn’t some of them be unhappy about that?"
"They would," Lisa said. "And they were." She gestured out the porthole, towards the people outside going about their day. "What you see out there is not even a tenth of the original group. Many of them mutinied, but Ginah won. And now, she’s formed a crew of people she can help. People who trust her."
I slowly let the information sink in, trying to glean any sort of inconsistency with what was said; I could not find any, so I decided to go for a different approach.
"And what’s your relationship with them?" I asked. "Allies out necessity since you both dislike the Elise?"
"I guess?" The young woman paused for a moment to think. She glanced up at the ceiling, placing her index finger right at the tip of her chin. "We’ve always had a fairly good relationship with Ginah’s Crew. We’ve done a few jobs for them in the past. But it was only when the Elise showed did we start working closer together. Then they were driven out a few months back, and… well, you know how Jack and I have been ever since."
I narrowed my eyes. "Interesting, so you always were enemies of the Elise? As in, you never liked them?"
"Not really, no. And we weren’t enemies, per se. We just didn’t work jobs for them because we disagreed with their business practices."
"That’s really interesting," I repeated myself. I walked around my room, lowering a hand down to my waist. "You know, that’s almost a different story than what you initially told me a few days ago?"
Lisa’s eyes widened as she immediately paled. "Wait, no— what do you mean?"
I studied the young woman as her eyes darted between meeting my eyes and the dagger sheathed on my belt. "You told me that Jack refused to work with the Elise because he was… a speciesist. Not because of anything they did in specific, like diffusing the enuim among the populace. In fact, I found your tone and language about them back a few nights ago to be quite favorable. That’s quite the drastic change, don’t you think?"
There were many varying possibilities here. I did not like most of them, but I wasn’t about to slit her throat just because of this one inconsistency. However, if I did not get a satisfying explanation, I was going to have to speak with Gennady about this, and we would then reconsider our arrangements with Ginah.
She waved her hands placatingly. "Calm down, Melas. That was just…" she trailed off as I tapped a finger impatiently on my dagger’s hilt.
"What is it?" I asked. "Are you paid off by the Elise then? Was that an attempt on Jack’s life which you failed? Or was the Elise looking for some petty revenge against Gennady because he beat up a bunch of their men the other week by accident?" I listed out all the possibilities, but Lisa quickly denied it all.
"No!" she exclaimed. "I swear I didn’t do anything! I’m just…" She chewed on her lip as she was still hesitating.
"Out with it," I nearly snapped.
"I just like money, okay?" Lisa spoke hurriedly. She balled her hands into a fist, and continued speaking through gritted teeth. "I don’t care about all these stupid principles everyone has. It’s just as you said yesterday: we’re already breaking the law aren’t we? Why does it matter if we smuggle the enuim or if we smuggle something else? It’s all the same, isn’t it?"
"No it isn’t," I said simply. "But that doesn’t matter. I just have to know: will you betray us?"
"I won’t!" Lisa took a step back, and lowered her head. A pink shade came over her cheeks as she spoke softly, almost in a whisper. "I will never betray Jack. I became his partner for a reason, after all. He’s just so stubborn sometimes, but I wouldn’t go against him. If I wanted to, I’d have done that months ago."
I cocked a brow, but I decided not to press her any further; I had learned what I wanted, and I would prefer not to pass any sort of judgement now. I needed to discuss this with Gennady first, then maybe pass it on to Ginah— just so she could watch her back. Lisa’s explanation made sense, and her feelings appeared genuine, but I still did not fully trust her.
"Fine," I said. "I believe you. But you do realize that lying to me hasn’t won you any points, right? If Ginah or Jack get upset that I won’t help them in fighting the Elise, I’ll point their ire in your direction."
"I know." Her brows arched darkly on her forehead. "Just… please don’t tell Jack about how I feel. I’m not ready for him to know just yet."
I folded my arms.
