Well, I tried asking Amber after she calmed down why she reacted that way and her only answer was to tell me not to worry about it and hugged me again.
I figured that she was being embarrassed so I decided to ask her about it some other time.
Instead, I had something else I wanted to ask her.
As we were heading back to our ship, I turned to her, “Hey… Just asking… Does the term P-105-N1C mean anything to you?”
I was suddenly grabbed by the arm and pulled into an alleyway where she pushed me up against the wall before slamming her palm on said wall.
Oh my… So this is the famed wall slam I have heard about? But why is she suddenly doing that? If you wanna kiss, just say so.
She leaned towards me and I almost leaned in too when she whispered, “Where did you hear of that?”
I paused, recognising the slight quiver in her voice as one of fear, something that I have heard before back when she was hurt by that Voidshade guy.
I looked up at her and the same fear was reflected in her eyes as well, but it did not look like she was worried for herself but more like she was worried about me instead.
“Is… Is there something wrong about it?” I asked.
“No, just…” She paused and sucked in a breath. “Just… Please tell me where you heard of it, Tera… Please?”
“Ummm… The box that those thugs took from the military? It apparently contains that…”
“Wait… They have that thing? Right here in this station?”
I blinked at her, “I… I guess so? What is it?”
Instead of answering my question, she hung her head low and started shaking her head, “No… No, no… Not this… How many do they want?”
I touched her arm, “Amber? What’s wrong? What is it?”
She looked into my eyes and her lips pursed, “Tera… That thing… That thing in that box… It should not exist. I… I need to destroy it. I’m sorry.”
She pulled away and turned to leave but I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.
“Stop right there. What do you think you’re doing?”
“I… As I said, Tera… I need to destroy that thing before they transport it away from this station…”
“Won’t you tell me what it even is at least?”
“... I… I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t? Do you mean you don’t trust me?”
She shook her head quickly, “No! No! That’s… I just… I just can’t, Tera! I want to tell you, but I really can’t! Please believe me!”
She sounded really desperate when she said that.
Maybe she signed some kind of NDA or something? But I guess she must have been involved in that thing somehow…
I sighed, “Fine. How are we doing this?”
She jerked back in surprise, “What… What do you mean, Tera?”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“You said you want to destroy it right? I assume you have a plan and you’re not just going to rush towards the soldiers guarding it and try to blow it up in front of them, are you?”
“I… I…”
“Oh geez, you didn’t have a plan at all huh? You didn’t think about how this would affect me at all, did you?”
She poked her fingers together, “So… Sorry…”
I feel a little bad for saying this but meek Amber is pretty cute too.
I patted her head, “It’s fine. We’re in this together now aren’t we? Did you think I would let you go off on your own while I just fly away like nothing happened?”
“N… No…”
“Good, because I won’t. So what I know is that a couple of soldiers came to take it from the warehouse in a delivery van. I found that they would be transporting it somewhere else from here. Got any idea on how to track it down?”
She thought about it for a moment, “If… They are planning to transport it off station, they would most likely head for the docking bay and use an unmarked ship to fly it out.”
“Not the battleship?”
Amber shook her head, “The battleship is stationed here and won’t leave the station’s orbit unless another one comes along to take their place. They will need to use another ship for that.”
“I’m guessing that this thing is some top secret stuff and very important to the military?”
“Umm… It’s not that important I would say but certainly top secret…”
And I wonder how Amber knows about it?
Hmmm… Maybe she's a former military personnel who quit and became a Mercenary instead? I guess that might explain why she dislikes them so much since she was one of them.
Of course, I chose not to question it and just went along.
“Alright, then I suggest we head there and look for the delivery van. But no doubt there would be more military personnel there guarding it and I suspect they would be increasing the security on it after they already had it stolen once. I’m surprised those thugs even managed to nab it off those guys in the first place.”
“The pirate raid… They needed all military personnel on board to deal with it… So I assume that decreased the security on the crate and those guys took the opportunity to strike and steal what they could.”
“And all they got was that box huh. Not worth it at all. That brings us back to the question of how we’re going to deal with the security around the box though? You’re not actually going to charge right in there and go guns blazing, are you?”
Amber hesitated and I gave her a pointed look, “Riiiiight?”
“That thought… Might have came to me…”
I scowled at her, “Then perish that thought. I do not wish for you to become a criminal. Not that whatever we’re doing isn’t criminal already but at least don’t get caught…”
“Ugh… But how else are we supposed to get our hands on it? It’s not like they’ll ever let it out of their sights for us to sneak in and grab it, right?”
“Yes, but that is still not a reason for you to jump in there like that. Let’s just find where it is first and maybe we could find an opportunity to deal with it. Alright?”
Amber opened her mouth to say something when footsteps came from around the corner.
She immediately leaned in and started kissing me passionately, catching me off guard.
My first instinct was to kiss her back and I did so for a good second or two before I peeked at the side.
Some random guy turned the corner and looked rather surprised to find us there before his face changed into a scowl.
“Fucking normies…” He muttered, walking past us quickly and trying his best not to look in our direction.
Only when he was gone did Amber pull back, her face flushed.
I grinned at her, “What are you blushing for? It’s not like this is the first time you’ve kissed me in public.”
“Ugh… Seriously Tera… If we actually pull this off… We are going to stay in bed for a day and a night.”
“Sounds more like it is a reward for you than it is for me. Joking, joking. Ahem… So shall we head to the docking bay?”
She nodded and we headed towards our destination.
Unfortunately for us, the place was huge so it was impossible for us to keep an eye on the entire platform to be on the lookout for the van.
“Any idea what ship they might use?” I asked.
Amber thought for a moment, “The ship would require decent protection to fight back against most threats that a normal ship might face but also fast and stealthy enough that it won’t be found by most scanners… I would say they might be using a B Class ship to transport it at most, assuming that there is only one of the crates…”
“Let’s just search the docking area for B Class ships first, alright? If they are using a bigger ship, it’ll be easier for--”
I stopped myself when I saw a rather familiar van drive past, giving me a glimpse of a rather familiar man seated at the driver’s seat as well.
Woah shit… Are we that lucky?
“There, Amber. The van that just drove past us.”
She immediately swivelled around to stare at the van in question, both of us watching it head towards a particular light freighter parked at one of the docking bays.
The occupants of the van then got out and I immediately recognised that they were the soldiers I had met inside the warehouse who received the locked crate from me.
Even as we watched, they opened the back doors of the van before they slowly pulled out the crate in question from the back of the vehicle and transported it to the ship itself.
There it is…
Now what?