"Where are the others?" I asked, stepping in. "And where’s all the fighting?"
"Taken care of," he said, glancing at me briefly. "I sent Elda to escort them out, as well as drag their unconscious friends away."
"And you only sent Braz to help me?"
"No." He shook his head. "He went to help you of his own volition."
I frowned. So he still doesn’t trust me, huh? Not that it mattered to me— beyond possibly endangering my life. It was something I probably had to bring up to Ginah later, but for now, I focused on the task at hand.
"And this is the last of the enuim in this area?"
"That we know of." He stopped pouring the oil over the crates of drugs. It wasn’t just the enuim, but a mixture of it— or at least, that was what I saw earlier. Now, it was just the enuim.
"You know," I said, deciding not to comment on that. "I was told the enuim made you listen to others. Think less clearly, and more like a child following their parents’ words."
He took out a lighter, producing a small flame. "That is correct."
"So why did that thug keep coming at me even when I kept telling him to stop and leave with his life?" I folded my arms.
Without warning, Kai casually tossed the lighter into the oil, and fire plumed out. Then it started burning the wooden crates and barrels, quickly spreading across the room. He started walking off, as I followed behind him.
"As a member of the Elise, he probably had been warned there might be an attack in this area. He would not want you to take away his free supply of it, and the enuim is addictive. It makes you want more of it. Whereas it simply makes you more open to suggestions by others. So your suggestions lost out to his wants— or what he views as needs."
The fire continued to spread at our backs, slowly engulfing the rest of the room. The walls, however, were made of stone and concrete. It was not nearly a large enough fire to destroy the entire factory, or even a section of it.
We were an hour outside of Luke. The amount of time it would have taken any city guards or reinforcements from the Elise was far too long. And it was not like we were trying to burn the entire building down.
It was in hopes that the Elise would have the factory resume its daily business to maintain an air of normalcy, so the workers would not be out of jobs. After all, an entire factory shutting down after a minor arson in only three of their rooms would arouse suspicion. Sure, they had the underground of the city mostly under their control, but this was the Capital city of Laxis. Even if the King fled years ago, law enforcement officials still existed. They were not fully corrupt just yet.
We returned to the cove a few hours later; there were very few complications besides treating the people we injured too grievously. We did not bring back any captives— Ginah’s Crew could barely sustain itself, let alone dozens of additional prisoners. Plus, they did not want to torture anyone for information.
It was… odd.
I would have expected them to do that, but they didn’t do it out of their own choice and not any objections I raised. In fact, I was not too sure whether I’d have raised any objections in the first place. I would be vehemently opposed any form of unnecessary torture, but if it was absolutely necessary, I began to feel more uncertain.
Perhaps I’d have opposed it, or perhaps I would not.
Luckily for me, it was not a bridge I had to cross since these were noble pirates. It was relieving knowing that I wasn’t working with evil people. Morally ambiguous? Sure. But I had been thorough, and I was certain none of the pirates were secretly evil like Victor was.
Key word being ‘pirates’, I thought, as I caught a glimpse of Lisa in the crowd.
Jack had not come with us, and instead accompanied his partner who had also just returned from a separate mission; we had come back after midnight, so there were very few people around.
The duo had not been exactly acting suspicious, and they were in fact helping out where they could. Lisa was always in charge of the intel and the logistics of the two, so she would gather information in the city to help us plan our attacks like she did today while we were out. In fact, our recent attack at the textile factory was based on Lisa’s help.
I was not sure how I felt about that fact since I wasn’t able to follow her on many of those information gathering trips; I could not tell if she was scheming against us, or actually aiding us. But still, if she wanted to betray us to the Elise, she could’ve done it many times by laying a trap— like when Ginah, myself, Kai, and Braz all coordinated a hit on one of the Elise’s smuggling ships for the enuim. Yet she did not.
Actions spoke louder than words: Lisa was a liar, but so far she did not seem to be a traitor. And why should she betray Ginah’s Crew or Jack? Ginah’s Crew had been one of her allies for years, while Jack was her partner from the very beginning— and that was not mentioning her own personal relationship with him.
However, all those were reasons for Jack or Ginah to trust her. I
