Chapter 96: Volunteer Preparations II

This was bad. Basically worst case scenario if Lus was being honest. The entire mission was going to be scrubbed, and Captain Tave might actually kill him for ruining it. Why did she have to be here of all places? How did she find him? It just didn't make sense.

All he knew for sure was that he had to get out of there. As awkward as it was given he'd only just entered the room, Lus turned around and left. Movement from behind warned that Varyna was doing the same, but he couldn't bring himself to run just yet. That would be too obvious, and she hadn't called after him just yet which meant that she might be trying to do this quietly given she was a dirty officer and all.

Lus had only made it a few yards back down the corridor before a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to a stop.

"Mr. Adventurer/Chef/Idiot," Varyna said.

"Officer," Lusac said tightly. "Whatever are you doing here? I didn't know COPS sent volunteers to care for the nefitis victims. That's very big of them."

Her lips twitched in frustration, and her eyes darted around the corridor, as if she was checking to see if there was anyone nearby. Probably didn't want the other officers to know she'd caught her prize.

"Look here, boy–"

"Boy? You're too young to be calling me that," he protested.

"Shut up." Varyna rolled her eyes. "Where's the USB?"

"I still don't know what you're talking about." Lus had enough [Common Sense] to not openly admit to owning a Demon, regardless of what his stats claimed.

"Don't play this game with me. Just hand it over, and we'll call it even, okay? I won't go spoiling your mission, though I can't imagine what in the galaxy you want down on Sliaryt."

"What do the COPS need with it?"

"Shut. Up."

He furled his eyebrows. It almost seemed like she was upset he was using the organization's name. Was it possible his stalker had finally been discovered and kicked out for the rat that she was?

Her fingers dug into his shoulder as her blue eyes stared into his soul. "Where is Leviathan?"

Before he could once again deny having ever even heard the name, Dlt entered the hallway.

"Hello Lucas. Hello Veronia. How are you both doing?" The Kremel smiled, either intentionally playing dumb to the fact that they were arguing or simply too busy with her own work to have noticed to begin with.

"Good. Just catching up with Lucas here," Varyna said.

Or was it… Veronia?

No. Lus was sure it had been Varyna last time he met her.

But why a different name… unless she too was undercover?

A smile briefly crossed his face. "Yeah. Just catching up. I can't believe I got to see my dearest Veronia again."

"Good, good. I'll see you both tomorrow at orientation then."

"See you then," they both said in unison before turning to glare at each other.

"Officer Rhine, you seemed to have lied about your name," Lusac said once Dlt was out of ear shot and he'd confirmed no one else was nearby.

"I told you to shut up. Don't use my real name," she whispered back.

"It's clear that we both have our own purposes with this volunteer thing that don't involve each other. I purpose a deal," Lus continued.

"I'm listening." She released the death grip on her shoulders to cross her arms, making it clear that it had better be a good deal.

"I won't go ruining your cover if you don't go ruining mine. If one of us goes down, then we both go down."

Her face twitched. Clearly she didn't like the idea of letting him go so easily, but luckily the situation was such that he didn't see how she had any other choice if she wanted to keep this 'Veronia' cover up, and that was good news for him.

"Fine. But don't think that this is the end of things between us. I'm going to get Leviathan from you. Mark my words." Varyna jabbed a finger into his chest, hard. "Watch your back, Runner."

"Lucas," he corrected her with a teasing smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I was hoping to relax a little for the rest of the evening. After all, we have a big day tomorrow."

He went back to the lounge, and Varyna followed after, though admittedly with an air of frustration. The other volunteers were basically just as they left them before, and Lus chose to head to a group watching a hyperball matchup.

"Who are we cheering for?" he asked as he plopped down on a couch.

Annoyingly enough, Varyna joined him in this section, sitting down on the seat directly across from him, her eyes drilling into him.

"The Quoshian Wailers," the man nearest to him responded. He was older, probably in his forties with bits of gray showing in his black hair. "I'm Sanur by the way."

"Lucas." They shook hands.

"And your friend?" Sanur nodded to the black cloud that was Varyna.

"Veronia," she said tersely.

"Pleased to meet you both." The man slid back into his seat, cheering as the Wailers scored.

"I'm Frang," one of the women piped up. "And this is my sister, Amgas."

They were both fairly young, probably only in her thirties, and shared nearly identical appearances with fiery red hair, freckles, and brilliant green eyes. Frang wore her hair in a braid while Amgas kept hers in a ponytail, but if it wasn't for that, Lus wasn't sure he'd have been able to tell them apart.

"We're cheering for the Heliosian Blockades," Amgas mentioned, her eyes glued to the screen.

"It seems you're outnumbered Sanur, so count me with the Wailers tonight," Lus announced.

The man smiled and patted his knee. "Good boy."

Lus chose to engross himself in watching the screen and making comments solely related to the game, doing everything he could to not watch Varyna. Didn't she realize how awkward she was being? And why watch him this close? It wasn't like he could up and leave easily.

This did pose a problem for when he got down to the planet. If she continued to watch him this closely, it might prove difficult to sneak away and borrow a crawler for his real mission, but he decided to remain optimistic that their volunteer tasks would be too distracting for her to always have her eyes on him.

But if she wanted to waste the evening watching him enjoy himself, he wasn't going to raise a fuss over it. She could make herself miserable if she wanted to, and that wasn't any of his business.

A few more people trickled into the room as the evening wore on, and after a couple of hours, a crew of golems brought in dinner for everyone.

It wasn't anything spectacular, and Lusac knew he'd made far better food himself, but it was something to eat that didn't work his own sweat, so he enjoyed it regardless of the lack of flavors. At least it wasn't the burnt mush Lbrvr always made for breakfast.

The groups mixed up after dinner, and Lus found himself with a different set of Humans watching some soap opera on one of the holoscreens. It definitely wasn't his style, but Varyna had finally given up following his every move, so he decided to stay put and enjoy not having her constant stare. He was worried that if he moved elsewhere, she would take notice and decide to restart the stalking.

The crummy holoshow proved a poor distraction, and thanks to the sudden appearance of Varyna, Lus's mind spun out into a new set of worries. He'd already been having a hard time coming up with a good excuse for why he'd disappear for what could be days while down on the planet when he was posing as a volunteer to help with humanitarian aid. And now that excuse had to be good enough to fool a member of the COPS, one who already knew he was a Runner and was likely up to something illegal.

It would be extremely unfortunate if he managed to safely retrieve the artifact only to lose it to the COPS because he was unable to escape from Varyna's clutches after this. Not to mention that might lead the law enforcement to catching on to what the Argo had been up to for all these months, which could very well put the entire crew at risk.

So in addition to figuring out how to get to the castle, getting the artifact, and getting back off the planet, he also had to make his escape from Varyna and not let himself be followed back to the ship.

Easy…

If only.

"We should probably head to bed. Orientation starts early tomorrow, and then we'll be heading down to the surface immediately after," one of the Humans in the group said.

Everyone mumbled their agreements, and the holoscreen was turned off. Lus followed them out of the lounge and to the shared quarters. He swept aside the curtain for his sleep pod and confirmed that it was just as he left it. At least Varyna hadn't gone through it, though he should probably keep it close from now on just to be safe. He wouldn't put it past the psycho law officer to dig through his underwear in hopes of finding Leviathan's USB.

He took his stuff with him to the men's bathroom, got ready for sleep, and returned to his bed to find the quarters far more crowded than before. With a sigh, he shoved his bag into the tiny wall shelf inside the pod, pulled the curtain closed, and settled into the sheets.

Sleep did not come easily with all the noise and light from the others, especially since he'd mainly been sitting around for days on end. Once everyone else was in bed and the room became silent, he was able to lull himself into a fitful rest.

***

The next morning was chaotic since everyone was in the bathrooms trying to get ready at the same exact time. Luckily Lus kept a minimal morning routine so he was in and out fast. He kept his duffle bag with his clothes and food on his person as he left to the lounge to grab breakfast. He would be sure Varyna didn't get a chance to search it.

Others trickled into the room to join him in eating. It was a good, hearty breakfast, though the quality was still lacking. There'd been a time in Lusac's life when he didn't pay that much attention to the quality of food, but ever since becoming a [Chef], he found that he noticed such things a lot more often when eating food made by others. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

All fifteen volunteers were in the lounge when Dlt entered.

"Good morning everyone. Orientation starts in just thirty minutes, but I wanted to remind you all to drop off any luggage you intend on taking down with at the security checkpoint for inspection before we start. It'll be returned to your assigned bunk for pickup before you head down to the planet," the Kremel announced.

Lus sighed. He should have known there'd be a check on bags going down. Hopefully they wouldn't take his food, but if they barred him from it, he'd just have to find another way to sneak it down.

Since he'd gotten in early for breakfast, he was among the first to finish. Leaving his plate on one counter for the golems to worry about, he left the lounge behind to drop his bag off at security. Then he returned to the lounge to wait for orientation to start. He noted that Varyna was still there, picking at her breakfast.

Good. She wasn't snooping through his underwear.

Sanur came up to him and started up a conversation that lasted right up until Dlt returned and announced it was time for their orientation.