"Have you found something?"

Wood hadn't even realised how badly he'd zoned out until he heard Ali's curious voice. He shook his head to clear the memories and turned to where she was looking at him with concerned eyes. He'd told her he'd been here before, and she had no idea how accurate she was when she'd been joking about him still having all his limbs. The incident on Eskaar had been brutal. But then again, his service record was one long list of catastrophic mission after traumatic mission, most of which had been classified afterwards.

He'd only been an ensign when he'd last been on Eskaar. A simple guard assignment to protect a group of high profile diplomats. HQ hadn't been expecting trouble, but they'd been way off base. As one of the lower ranking members of the security team he'd been tasked with escorting the VIPs to safety. He had done so, but when he and his buddy had returned to evacuate the rest of their squad they were too late to save all of them from the shootout that had elapsed in the embassy building.

"No," he said, pulling his eyes away from what used to be a fancy archway. It had been where he'd found his captain bleeding out from half a dozen bullet wounds all those years ago. Yes, some groups still used projectile weapons even in this day and age.

There was a long pause as they held each other's gaze, appraising the other. "I'd only insult you if I told you that you didn't have to be here, wouldn't I?" She finally asked. He nodded curtly. "Just… don't force yourself into something you're not ready for."

She didn't say anything else, but turned with her scanner raised again as she continued to work. What else could she say? He knew that she'd done the same thing at the embassy on Earth, they'd been together at the Yerta one. They both had some idea on how bad this felt. This one had been the most catastrophic, though because there were less remains it didn't necessarily sink in at first. No-one had escaped with their lives as the embassy had been almost vapourised due to the ferocity of the attack. It wasn't so much rubble that littered the ruins but sand and dust which was all that was left of the elaborate stonework. As Wood glanced around at the surrounding city he couldn't help but think that Eskaar had some truly beautiful architecture. Somehow that served to make the ruins even more prominent.

As he took a step his boot crunched on top of one of the larger pieces of debris, it was barely a pebble. He crouched to pick it up, turning it over in his hands as he scanned it just on the off chance. He didn't know what he expected to find, but he was hardly surprised when it turned out to just be an ordinary chunk of sandstone. A spike of anger suddenly flared and he hurled it across the now open space, there was nothing for it to collide with, so it just skittered across the floor when it landed.

Ali turned back at the sound. "I…" He started, before trailing off and waving his hands angrily around him as he stood up again. "What's the point of it all? They're blowing up innocent people and we're left chasing their destruction! Why aren't we going after their leaders?"

"Because they've gone to ground and we need clues on where to look."

Wood glared at her, but Ali didn't flinch, she just held his gaze. "How can we have nothing? This is the third place they've attacked!"

"This isn't your fault," Ali tried to assure him, "S-Core dropped the ball on this, not you. If they hadn't fucked up we'd still have the tracking info from those weapons."

"Petra… She must've deactivated them."

"Maybe," Ali nodded, "but it's also possible that after I took over they played it safe with weapons from USEP. I would if I were in their shoes."

"Then why did you even do it?"

"Because it was better than letting the deal fall through," Ali admitted. "A chance was better than none at all."

"Which turned out to be none because they've got an S-Core operative on their side. Why haven't they recalled her?"

"We don't know that she turned," Ali started. Wood knew that she was trying to be diplomatic because they didn't have proof that Petra had turned. He knew she suspected Petra, but she couldn't bring herself to judge someone without all the facts. His frustration hated that she even tried to defend a possible turncoat.

"She almost got you killed!"

"But she didn't!"

"Because you got lucky… because you know your way around a bad situation. What if you hadn't done something so risky? What was her out?" Ali swallowed because she had no response, and he knew that. "We had no idea how to cover you… Why didn't you fight back sooner!?"

They'd argued so many times in the time they'd known each other that Wood knew Ali would normally stand tall and shout back at him. He expected it and he had even grown to like it. He had learnt that there was an advantage in examining both sides, even when he didn't want to. This time, however, she seemed to deflate as she offered her explanation. "I was trying to avoid an all out fight. I had hoped that Etsile's chip would be enough, I didn't think Touchard'd just kill any old USEP officer to make a point. Especially not one who'd sold him weapons. I miscalculated."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I thought you were going to die," he whispered. Ali took a step back in surprise and hurt. He had that little faith in her? "No," he promised as he realised how that had come out. "I've seen too many people die around me… I thought…. Well, it's the usual outcome."

"You are something of a bad luck charm," Ali teased, before cringing at how insensitive that was.

Instead it simply made him chuckle. "Is that better or worse than your dumb luck?"

Ali smiled. "Only one way to find out." Somehow that did make him feel better, it reminded him of why they had become friends. They each knew something of what the other carried. They understood.

The rest of their scans proved fruitless too. They hadn't expected anything different based on what was left. "Well, after what happened on Yerta they don't appear to be watching us this time," Wood remarked when Ali finally admitted there was nothing she could do to improve their chances at finding anything.

"They're smart enough to not risk us finding a second one of their hideouts."

"Are the bad guys getting smarter or are we getting stupider?" Wood joked.

Ali laughed. "After the amount of times I've hit my head… I wouldn't necessarily rule out the latter," she sighed. "No one is this good. Three bombings and no mistakes?"

Wood knew that look. "You have a theory."

"No," Ali admitted, "it's not even a hunch. Just… something."

"You think we've missed something?"

Ali nodded as her frown deepened. She took a few steps in different directions before finally stopped atop the top most step that was left - the third to be precise - of the foyer's staircase. She surveyed the destruction around them. "Right, you want to bomb this place - like totally and utterly obliterate it from the map whilst leaving the surrounding buildings - how do you do it?"

Wood raised an eyebrow at her. "Where are you going with this?"

"You know weapons, I know science. Between us we should be the most dangerous two people in the sector. If we can't pull this off without leaving a trace, neither can they."

Her logic was a bit scattered due to her frustrated, desperate anger, but he saw her point. He looked around as he tried to remember the security protocols that had been in operation when he had been briefly posted here. He knew that after that attack they had upgraded them based on the reports and investigations. He had some knowledge of those too. "Do we assume it's a suicide mission?"

Ali considered that. "Let's assume so for now, it is the easiest way to avoid leaving a trace."

"Then you infiltrate the maintenance crews and use the building's own systems against them. Release the right compound or mixture of gases via the atmospheric controls before setting off an explosion by overloading the electronics."

Ali flicked her scanner on again as she checked her readings. "I feel like someone would notice these compounds if they were in the air systems," she admitted, "and wouldn't that explosion take out the neighbourhood?"

Wood shrugged. "Not if you get the mix right."

"How good would you have to be to get it right?" Ali questioned and Wood motioned for her to pass him the scanner. She offered it to him and he glanced over the explosive compounds she'd detected.

"For those… damn good," he said as he passed it back.

"Okay, so they're not Wood good… what's the next level down?"

"Ali good?" Ali glared at him for that. "What? You have a flair for epic rather than functional," he retorted.

"Well, given that they went for functional I think we can rule out my methods."

"Or we reign you in," Wood corrected, and for a moment he was sure he saw a flicker of something akin to stunned embarrassment wash over her face before it was gone in the same instant. He decided it was best to ignore that. "That probably means picking out key areas to target, structural weaknesses, flammable or pressurised points… the things that could set off a chain reaction using the building's own resources and systems."

Ali frowned as she thought. The urge to smooth her frown flitted into his mind before he quickly stamped it back down. Until she started chewing on her lip as her eyes flitted about as she turned to look over what was left of the building. "There'd be more debris… it wouldn't be vapourised."

"What?" He blinked stupidly and he didn't think he could've made it anymore obvious that he'd had his hand in the proverbial cookie jar.

Ali's eyes narrowed before she shook her head as if she'd had a thought that didn't make sense. "Using the building against itself would result in more debris than we're seeing," she repeated. "You wouldn't be able to get enough points for the explosion without adding more traditional explosive packages."

"Bombs, you mean."

"Depends on your definition of bomb," Ali shrugged, "it doesn't necessarily need it's own detonator, it just has to be explosive." Wood glared at her. "What?"

"This is the wrong time for semantics."

"This is the wrong time to get sidetracked." Ali retorted. Wood had to give her that one. The pair of them surveyed the scene again as they both considered how they'd blow the place sky high. Suddenly Ali stopped dead as if she'd just had an epiphany, when Wood asked her what she was thinking she just shushed him as she quickly tapped away on her scanner. Instead he wandered over to her as if he could glean anything from what she was doing. Suddenly she cheered and jumped in her own excitement. "We're idiots!" She declared happily. He had no idea what she was talking about, and it must have shown on his face because she held out her scanner to him as if it explained everything. "It's just a stoichiometry problem."

"You made that word up."

Ali rolled her eyes. "Basic chemistry, Wood, it's all about balancing what goes in with what comes out -"

"Isn't that conservation of mass?"

"Literally, yes!" She agreed as if she couldn't understand why he'd accused her of making the word up. He just about managed to force the smile to stay off his face. Her enthusiastic relief was infectious despite their situation. Instead giving her his firmest get-to-the-point look. "There's only so many ways you can mix these things to get this," she explained with a wave to their surroundings. "I only know of one method that fits everything, and it involves this." She added holding out the schematics on the scanner.

Realisation lit up Wood's face as he also recognised the designs. "Remote activation or confirmation."

"And Eskaar has a full comms net, there's no way they won't have a record of that signal." Ali's grin almost split her face in relief as they got their first break. He couldn't help but mirror it before scooping her up in a hug. She laughed and it occurred to him that he hadn't heard her that free and happy in a long time. "Okay, you can put me down now. We have a comms tower to get to."