Philip wasn’t very happy with his situation. He had made the best of things of course. It’s just that he didn’t trust Kali at all. They were allies of convenience. But that would end the moment they were out of danger and far from here. Or, as soon as she thought she had a way out.

Which he had no way of knowing. That was his current issue. Yes he was ‘safe’. At least from everyone else. But he couldn’t know what Kali was planning. He had made himself useful to her to guarantee she continued to view him as an ally, but he knew that wouldn’t last. They had started out as enemies, so it was only natural that they would revert back to enemies at some point.

Today she was supposed to do the shuttle thing to make him appear dead, so he wouldn’t have so much heat on his ass. It wasn’t a great plan, but at least it would make them think he was far from here as she would trigger the shuttle on the other side of the ship. A bit basic but, as long as the [Admiral] wasn’t here, it was clear there wasn’t anyone smart in charge.

Well, [Admiral] wasn’t his exact class, it was a fairly unique one, like [Admiral Of Blood And Steel] or something. Well maybe not something so violent, or was he? It’s not like they went around telling everyone his class. He just had a reputation of making things go very wrong. Or very right if you were on his side.

He shivered as he thought about it, still hidden in the closet. Philip had been lucky as they had done one room search, but the people searching clearly didn’t want to and did a really shitty job, which just was so typical it almost made him mad. But it was hard to be mad at them when their incompetence saved him a lot of trouble.

Philip had only been hiding for two days now, but it had been enough for his more paranoid side to think about things. Also it made sense, he had nothing to do but to think about everything that could go wrong. He only had as much information as Kali gave him. The sleepless nights didn’t help his paranoid mind either, cramped up like he was.

He had been so happy with his plan to make her do the dangerous stuff of going out and putting a plan into motion to get them out. But if he was in her shoes? He would lie through his teeth and plan for a solo exit as it was simply less risky and easier. So he knew she was up to the same. Well, she tried to reassure him and say things like, ‘but what about the other slaves’, probably a simple ploy to make him lower his guard. No one really cared about slaves anyway.

So he didn’t have that many options. In truth he needed a way to get out there himself. He did have an idea. He hadn’t shaved for two days. It was too short to transform his face for sure, but what if he shaved his head? That would probably throw people who knew him off?

Having nothing to do, he decided he might as well shave his head and compare it to the wanted picture. Worst case he would have to wait for his beard to grow out more, best case? He would be out and about. Plus in theory the suicide shuttle stunt would take the edge off the guards, if it worked.

But what if she didn’t do anything at all? All the more reason for him to get out there and see things for himself. He simply couldn’t trust anything she said. His position was too vulnerable. Smart if Kali was trustworthy, something he should have realized earlier probably wasn’t the case.

Of course he only had suspicions, but he knew how to read people. He was just that good.

Philip started listening intently with his ear to the closet door. He hadn’t heard any sounds, but he had been in thought, so he wasn’t sure how safe it was. Plus, he had hidden himself in the upper part of the closet, where no one looked.

Genius hiding spot, if only it wasn’t so annoying getting up and down. Still, he slowly made his way down, trying to be silent just in case, then opened the closet door very slightly to peek. No sound and no one. But of course, Philip couldn’t get fooled so easily. What if someone was silently waiting?

He was so smart it even scared him sometimes. Still, he was going to outwait this silent guard, just in case. Better safe than sorry, and he wasn’t in a hurry.

Suddenly his patience was rewarded! Of course it was. Someone made a lot of sound in front of the door. The door soon opened but he couldn’t see who it was from here, so he tensed up and stopped breathing. Silent as the empty space outside.

He listened intently as he heard the rather light footsteps walk around the room. The person was either rather light, or trying to be sneaky. Probably sneaky! He knew he had the upper hand here.

The footsteps were just walking around aimlessly at first, but soon they went straight for the closet, but he was ready. Balling up his fists in anticipation, Philip took a deep slow breath.

The closet door opened up and he threw a punch straight at his assailant. His punch missed completely and instead of a huge man here to attack him stood Kali, with a dumbstruck expression on her face.

“What are you doing?” She asked with the kind of tone that made him feel stupid. How women did that he would never understand.

“A better question would be why are you sneaking around in our room?” He said as he walked out and raised an eyebrow at her. It was his way of trying to make her feel stupid, but he wasn’t sure he had gained the upper hand in their hidden game, which frustrated him.

“I thought you might be sleeping. You know it’s… late.” She said and he smelled a faint odor of alcohol on her breath. Hah! She was hiding stuff from him. He knew it. Dammit he knew it. He needed to play this smart.

“What are you hiding?” Maybe that wasn’t the smartest of the questions ever, but it put pressure on her, as he implied he knew she was withholding things… yeah. Even his self reassurance was cracking when around Kali. He hated it.

“What are you on about now? The girls wanted to have some drinks to get to know each other better. Well I say girls but it was clearly Lika’s idea and Erika just tagged along.” She mumbled.

“Look I was just going to check on you before sleeping. Debrief tomorrow or something, but you clearly need a debrief now.” She said as she took in his tense and aggressive stance.

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“I know it’s hard to relax for you as you are stuck here.” She sighed as she continued. So she admitted she knew she had him cornered. Was this a veiled threat that he had to know his place? Stay here or else? He wasn’t going to play her games.

“Yeah you’re right. It’s hard being stuck here all day.” He said. People loved it when you told them they were right. He would play her like a fiddle and sneak out on his own. He still wasn’t one hundred percent sure she was trying to pull a sneaky one on him, but it was at least ninety nine percent. But Philip was a cautious man.

“Look, if you want you can sleep in the bed tonight, and I’ll sleep in front of the door. So if anyone tries to come in I’ll block the door, and you’ll get some nice sleep. What do you think?” She said with a tired smile. Was she trying to make sure he owed her?

“It’s fine, there is nothing to worry about. I’m a hardened veteran of many fights, you see, so sleeping in a closet a bit is completely fine.” He lied. His eyes were dropping. He hadn’t slept this little since… ever. Honestly he was tempted to accept but his pride wouldn’t let him. A closet wouldn’t defeat him. Oh no. He was stronger than that.

Still, his eyes kept drifting to that nice bed, and Kali seemed to notice. She was currently very bad at hiding her thoughts and he could read her like an open book. Her face changed from frowning to smiling as she saw through him. Or maybe she assumed something else was the reason he said no.

“Oh, you do want to sleep in the bed.” She said her thoughts out loud.

“Sometimes I don’t understand you. Your mouth says these things, but your body, your body is telling me yeeaaah!” She sing-songed the end, clearly delirious.

Without even really asking him, she was already gently pushing him towards the bed, and he could do naught to resist! It was too tempting. Honestly even his very much above average intellect was taking a hit. His thoughts felt a tad confused. Barely.

“Alright, alright woman. I’ll sleep here, if you insist.” He said happily. Of course, put like that, he didn’t owe her anything, it was more like he was making her a favor instead. His genius knew no bounds. He turned around to her before he hit the bed.

“Did you do it?” He suddenly asked, remembering what was supposed to happen today. She visibly sobered up at the question.

“Yeah, no one saw me. I don’t know what they believe, or the result. Couldn’t exactly stand around and look.” She looked a bit nervous.

“Did something happen?” It was clear as day she was hiding something.

“It’s just that I passed several guards rushing to the place. They really thought you had been there, but I mean, I crossed path with two different groups, and in one of them, someone looked at me.” She simply said.

“Well, what’s the problem?” He didn’t get it.

“It was a look full of suspicion alright? It felt like he knew I was up to no good.” She said, clearly unsure of herself.

Well, it didn’t surprise him that she wasn’t very good at infiltration. Maybe she had been found out already? Wait, maybe they had followed her here.

“Did anyone follow you here?” He started looking around for an intruder even though it was impossible he had missed someone else just walking in the room.

“No, and I made sure not to come straight back.” She said. Good girl. Maybe she had lost them. Or maybe he was just very tired and they were panicking for nothing. No, any tiny mistake could be their death. They had to be careful.

They? He really was tired! He had to be careful. It could be his death. Whatever, he was honestly too tired right now to care too much. With the promise of a good night's sleep, he could hardly think about anything else right now.

“Listen, I think we better sleep now, and talk more tomorrow. I mean you are half drunk, we are not being productive right now.” He admonished her.

“Yeah, you are making sense, for once. Alright.” She then proceeded to make a pile of cloth to lie down on. Sheesh, talk about not having any self respect.

He himself simply went to bed, he had a hard time relaxing. Looking at Kali, making sure no one could sneak in, until sleep took him despite his best efforts to stay safe.

**************************************

Philip woke up the next morning and stretched. Nothing like a good night’s sleep to get your head on straight! He felt like Kali probably hadn’t been found out yesterday. The guards on this ship were so far from competent he just knew they would be too stupid to notice anything.

Still, apparently they had managed to send out that shuttle with his mana-card, meaning they either knew he was still around, or blown to bits in space. But it made him nervous to not know the result.

Like she had gone ahead with the plan, with no way of knowing how it had gone. What if they hadn’t shot it down? Or they had found it empty and knew it was a ploy?

Looking over at Kali sleeping, he couldn’t help but notice how un-feminin she was in this moment. Mouth half open and snoring like a beast.

Such a shame for she had a very cute face and beautiful hair. She would be beautiful if she stopped frowning and looking all aggressive all the time.

Getting up, he stood in front of the sink with a mirror on it. His wanted poster was still there, floating. He had the right idea yesterday. He should shave his head, let his beard grow out. Maybe he could sneak around the ship that way.

Of course it would be harder for him, as he was a human man, and that was exactly what they were looking for. They might even stop him to interrogate him with truth crystals or what not. Apparently even Kali had gotten questioned. Luckily the questions were so vague, you could interpret them in a certain way making what you said totally true, even if you clearly didn’t say what they wanted you to say.

If Kali could make it, so could he. How hard could it be?

He took out a shaving tool, put in a small mana crystal and started shaving off his head. His hair hadn’t been long, but it clearly made a difference when there was nothing left. His hair continued to fall around him as he finished shaving off all his hair.

“What the hell?” He heard Kali yell out in surprise as she saw him. Ah, she was finally awake. Clearly surprised by his genius this early in the morning.

“What are you doing?” She asked in a more hushed tone as she got closer. He had finished shaving and was inspecting his new look in the mirror. He was still recognizable, but it was harder. His eyes were still the same. But well, not like he could change that!

“Look, I can’t continue looking like that.” He pointed to the wanted picture floating there, with the ‘Wanted’ text in red slowly rotating around the picture.

“No, that’s true. You know this is pretty smart. It might actually work. But something is missing.” She said pensively as she looked at his reflection.

“Oh yeah?” He said, not believing for one second she could come up with something to help.

“Mhmm, let me just find them.” She said as she started to go through drawers. Instead of just looking like a normal sane person, she kept pulling stuff out onto the ground, and then continued onto the next drawer.

He had news for her. He would not be the one to clean that mess up. No way.

Just as he was about to make a snarky remark, she made a sound signaling her victory over her hidden target. Keeping it behind her back, she turned around and walked up to him with a huge grin on her face.

Dumbstruck by her crazy antics, he didn’t react when she put something on his face, backed off, and said ‘Perfect’. Instead, he turned around to look in the mirror once more.

“Hmm.” He didn’t want to admit that she was right. It really was perfect. It even gave him style. He was like another person completely. It would be even better when his beard would grow out a bit more.

The yellow tinted glasses would look tacky on some people, but they fit him perfectly. They had that look that made people think you were into physical activities. It almost looked like his arms were more defined!

With this, he knew he was ready to get out there and get things done! Behind him, he didn’t see Kali holding in her laughter at his completely awesome new look.