Unta dropped the injured off at a completely unremarkable-looking building, said a few quick words to someone inside, then got back behind the wheel.

“Damn messy business,” he grumbled as they started leaving the city proper behind. “Can only have happened because someone was followed. Someone who was kicking up dirt. And I was doing most of the kicking. It’s entirely possible this is my fault.”

Vanaka halfway felt someone ought to say something reassuring, but it seemed the more seasoned people present ought to be handling that, and Reylo and Kiris held their tongues. So Vanaka did the same.

There wasn’t enough lighting outside for her to see much of anything, and while the interior of the car was quite roomy with just the four of them in the back it wasn’t terribly comfortable. Nor was there much in the way of distractions. She rather wished Erine was here, so they could at least hold hands.

“How is your arm?” Kiris asked after a bit of this uncomfortable silence.

“It tickles,” she replied without thinking.

“Tickles?” the woman repeated.

It tickled, as her tissue always did when knitting itself back together with that very unusual rapidity that was her birthright. But though the wound was already reduced to little more than a scrape the blood caking her sleeve remained.

“I am fine,” she assured the Chanei and moved the arm as evidence.

“If you say so.”

“Time to get equipped, I think,” Unta said. “Reylo: Under your seat.”

The man found a lever that let him tilt the seat backwards, exposing a hatch. From underneath it he started taking weapons and body armour, passing them on one by one to Kiris, who tilted her own seat out of the way and laid the objects out on the floor.

“It’s a backup stash,” Unta explained. “So I know it’s not impressive, but it’ll do us.”

There weren’t enough chest pieces to go around, but Losan’s jacket had armour weave on the inside: the thin, expensive kind. What Vanaka was handed was a good deal heavier and less elegant, but it wasn’t as if weight was a problem for her.

Losan helped her fit the ugly, dark grey piece around her torso and adjust the straps. She didn’t really care for having her arms fully exposed and vulnerable, but the piece did come with a set of pauldrons that Losan adjusted until they wouldn’t hamper her much. Next was a skirt of sorts that attached to the torso piece and would provide some cover for her thighs. Vanaka experimented with moving around in the admittedly limited space available to her.

She felt faintly ridiculous, like a child playing soldier at a costume event, especially in light of how outwardly calm and focused everyone else was.

Unta’s little treasure chest also had guns. Proper guns, for killing, rather than disabling; two plasma pistols and two compact rifles. But it also included a rather odd-looking stunner. It was larger than typical civilian models and had the look of having been custom modified.

“Do you have a gun of your own?” Losan asked Unta. The man replied by tapping a compartment above the driver’s seat. “Alright, then how do we divide these?” he asked the rest of them.

“You have the air of having been trained,” Kiris told him. “It seems you ought to have a rifle.”

No one objected, and so Losan took the weapon.

“I’m fine with just a pistol,” Reylo said, and took one of the smaller weapons.

Vanak found herself once again locking eyes with Kiris. She then looked down at the available weapons and felt the pit in her stomach change in some way she didn’t know what to make of. She picked up one of the pistols. It felt heavy. She knew it wasn’t, but that was how it felt. It also felt dirty, and dangerous, which of course it was. Like a sleeping viper.

She was silent, and so was everyone else as they waited for her to say something. It only lasted a few seconds, but in that time Vanaka felt she learned something about herself.

“No,” she said softly and put it back down. She then took the stunner instead.

“I will take the rifle, then,” Kiris said.

“Is anyone going to take that second pistol?” Reylo asked. When no one spoke up he took it.

Losan went over Vanaka’s weapon with her, and Reylo explained that the stunner would fire more rapidly than typical models. Losan then turned his attention to the rifle, and Vanaka watched the other two load and go over their own weapons.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“You two have done your share of fighting, haven’t you?” she asked.

“Oh, plenty,” Reylo said. “Usually at an advantage, admittedly.”

“Surprise is a significant advantage,” Losan pointed out.

“True.”

“I have had to defend myself,” Kiris said. “I am not some commando, but I have met people worse than this rinky-dink outfit.”

“I know you didn’t sign up for this, but have you fought at all?” Reylo asked Vanaka.

“Yes, as of just earlier,” she replied with a bit of self-deprecation. “And... I sort of helped out in a really bloody fight once. Three years ago.”

“Just don’t freeze,” Reylo said. “Just stay focused, mind your line of fire, and use cover. You don’t exactly need to carry this thing. Just do your part in the barrage. These aren’t seasoned warriors either. A quick, hard assault will probably panic them.”

“Right.”

Vanaka spent a few more seconds familiarising herself with the safety and the trigger on the stunner, then stuck it into straps on the chest piece. Somehow she felt even more foolish.

Losan finished with his rifle and returned to his seat. Vanaka joined him and leaned into her ansoti in silence. She still longed to just hold someone’s hand, but he was fully absorbed in his warrior persona for now. She could of course tell him to, but that would rather defeat the whole point.

“You did good,” he told her quietly in his halting Vylak. “In the fight. You handled a chaotic situation, you used your training, but could still react to unexpected factors. You did good.”

“Well, you are a good trainer,” she told him.

“I am just glad I do not have to compare to that Warden you keep pining for.”

That got a smile out of her, and she was glad for even that very brief pause to the nervousness. Then after a little while of letting her thoughts twist and turn whichever way they wanted, she sighed and got up. She clambered into the front and plopped down next to Unta.

“How are you?” the Kapadian asked. “Really? That is a significant amount of blood.”

“It is just surface bleeding,” she told him. “Look... can we speak privately?” she whispered.

He turned her way, examined her for a bit, then fiddled with the dashboard.

“I’m putting on some music!” he announced to the others in the car. “Might as well!”

The speakers began blaring something dreadful and percussion-heavy, but Vanaka took it.

“Look, I try to mind my pride,” she said to him, now that their words had some muffling. “But I feel I have done well in digging up this information for your cell.”

“You have,” he admitted. “Assuming it all proves accurate.”

“She did not lie to me, I can promise you that,” Vanaka said. “Look, I-”

“You are going to ask me for something,” he said. “Just do it.”

She hesitated, and wished she’d prepared her words ahead of this.

“Discretion, that is all,” she then said.

“Discretion? The Chainbreakers are all about that, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Externally, yes,” Vanaka said. “Internally, the cells communicate through news, messages and rumours.”

“So?” he said. “I thought you wanted a reputation.”

“I do. I... want a reputation for being a useful and reliable Helper. But please, keep details of whatever comes a secret.”

He beheld her in silence, and Vanaka thought he looked a little amused.

“Your secret,” he said. “Or is it plural? Are you just a friendly, unassuming bag of secrets?”

“I have secrets, yes,” she replied. “And it is important that things stay that way.”

He did something with his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth that she decided was a sort of facial shrug.

“You are headed into danger with us, when you obviously don’t want to. You could just as easily go back to your hotel room and soak in the tub. That matters. Watching my tongue in return seems like a pretty minor price.”

“Can you keep the other two silent as well?” Vanaka asked.

“I don’t know Kiris all that well, but I can talk to them, sure.”

“Thank you, Unta.”

He nodded sharply, then focused forward. Vanaka again sat down next to Losan

The rest of the drive felt agonisingly slow, and yet by the time they arrived it all felt like it was happening too quickly.

Why are emotions such a pain?

Storage 8 was a barely-visible squashed hulk of a building, on a rocky plain dotted with nothing but similar sites, spread out wide. Unta took them past the length of it, then continued on past the storage in a straight line.

“Right, I have a plan,” he said. “Vanaka, you said the cameras are on the outside?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll just skip them entirely. The main entrance looks flimsy. I’m going to ram us right through. Quick, sharp shock. Everyone buckle tightly but be ready to hop out shooting as fast as you can. This car is tough but it’s not armoured against plasma. Reylo, you and I go out on the left side, the rest of you go out right.”

Oh, dear.

Losan unbuckled and moved himself closer to the right-side door, then buckled back in. Vanaka looked over at Kiris. The woman took a series of steadying breaths as Unta sent the car into a U-turn. He then accelerated, building momentum, and dear oh dear did Vanaka not feel ready for this.

She drew her stunner and kept a tight grip on it. The other hand she clenched around the seat harness, as the storage started to fill her view as if she were falling from a great height.

Line of fire, she reminded herself. Cover.

“Here it comes!” Unta shouted, and with that his heavy car smashed through a large, thin metal door with a great bang. He hit the brakes hard and the vehicle screeched to a stop almost as violent as the entrance. Vanaka released her harness before momentum had fully let go of her and she was pushed into the seat in front.