Ajax must have learned something useful, anything. He must have seen the terrorist group and gained some information on his own. He might have even talked to individual members. She regrets that she didn't have enough time to get more information about the Twin Moons from that corrupt guard captain, but she still needed to kill him quickly and flee the area.
If she had been too slow to do that, she would have been seen by the mass of guards that was coming to save him and, in the worst case, been followed by them back to Barden. She also wanted to hurry in order to make sure she could properly inform Barden and his group, including Prisca and Angelidis, that it was safe to leave and that they needed to do it right then and there without further delays.
If Ajax knows something that could help her understand even a small amount more about the Twin Moons, their motives, how they operate, etc, then she should seek it out. Shaula has resolved herself to get closure for Mrs Litun, for Bels, and even for the dozens of human supremacists who were killed so senselessly. Furthermore…
The sooner I talk to him… the sooner I can make sure that he doesn’t fall off the deep end. If he's traumatized by what he's seen today, he needs someone there with him, and I am not going to let him go through this experience alone. I love him and I always will, he's my best friend…
Shaula bites her bottom lip and takes a deep breath in an effort to steady her thoughts. She speaks carefully to Dzan and Sigvor about what she needs to know immediately.
"Sigvor, Dzan… did Ajax leave you two to deal with the terrorists by yourselves? I mean… where is he right now? Did he tell you anything before you separated from him?" Shaula asks, somewhat worried and with a slight twitch of disappointment in her eyes.
Sigvor notices her expression and realizes that she might be misunderstanding something. Dzan however answers what he knows off the top of his head.
"Yeah, he told us to deal with this group. But, you know… he actually seemed kinda scary when he asked us to do what he wanted." Dzan admits while laughing sheepishly.
"‘Scary'? Ajax?" Shaula giggles a bit at that incongruity. Ajax just cannot pull off “scary”. The times he’s tried, she could only cringe. Though Dzan doesn't seem to be joking to her.
"Yeah… It’s just, the way he talked, it really felt like he was telling us to do this or he wouldn't be 'happy'. It was almost as if he was a commander giving orders to his troops or something. Like he would make it his mission to make sure that we’re not happy if we didn’t obey, you know? It was honestly the first time I've ever seen him like that, he just seems so easy going normally. He didn't say any kind of threat out loud, but he was really intimidating."
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Dzan shakes his head in exasperation. Of course, in retrospect he understands why Ajax has gone that far to make his point, and if he was in Ajax's situation, he might have done the same thing. Ajax had even taken the brunt of the situation on his own shoulders and he looked very stressed while giving his “orders”.
He wasn't just dealing with one group of terrorists like Dzan and Sigvor were. He would be trying to fight two of them all by himself. Dzan smiles, thinking that the terrorists in those two buildings are probably already dead, while Shaula's expression turns to one of pure confusion.
"Wait, wait, what do you mean? Ajax, he… he forced you two here to kill these cultists without backing you two up? He just told you two to deal with it or he’d do something to you?" Shaula asks.
She wonders if Ajax had not only shut down in a state of trauma, but also tried to force Dzan and Sigvor to do his dirty work with intimidation. But, she doesn't believe he would do something like that, she reasons to herself that she must be missing something.
He would never do that. I know him, he would absolutely never do that.
Dzan and Sigvor also both look at her as if she’s said something completely perpendicular to the reality of the situation.
"What?" Dzan asks incredulously. "No, it's not like that, he had just told us to see how quickly the cultists move, you know, to make sure they don't do anything hasty. He really just wanted us to keep an eye on them and to do something if they acted in the way he feared.”
Sigvor nods along with what Dzan says. Shaula rubs her jaw in contemplation as Dzan continues.
“Of course, Sigvor and I were forced to intervene by ourselves without his help when that terrorist bitch took out her stupid knife and started carving up Mrs Litun's face. Ajax said he was going to come back, but he had a lot on his plate already. Actually, now that I think of it… he should be here by now, shouldn't he?"
Suddenly, Dzan's stomach sinks. He realizes that something isn't right, something that he should have realized earlier. Initially, Ajax had simply told the two of them to do "reconnaissance" and to wait for him. That was their main responsibility because Ajax had seemed like he was going to come right back.
A while had passed since he gave those instructions and the cultists in this building were already dead. Dzan, Sigvor and Shaula were even able to talk candidly about the situation after they were killed as well.
But, then, where is Ajax? He should be done with those other two buildings by now, right? I didn't hear any building collapse outside so he must have been able to do something, right? But, why didn't he show up to help us then? Is he… Is he in trouble?
While Dzan contemplates the worst, Shaula tries to process what Dzan had just said. She pins down an important phrase Dzan had just used.
"‘A lot on his plate’? What does that mean? What was Ajax doing, no, I mean, what is Ajax doing right now?" Shaula's heartbeat starts to hasten. Her jaw clenches tight as sweat pours down the side of her face. None of this is right to her. None of this feels right.