“Just what is our instructor trying to prove?” Amanda sighed as she looked over everyone in her group. “Unless I’m going crazy, these group allocations seem strangely familiar.”
Maxim chuckled and nodded. “Well look at it this way…she may be trying to give us an opportunity to redeem ourselves from earlier.”
Eric nodded as well. “I knew that we’d be placed in the same groups as our first mock battle at some point, even if it was just to see just how much we’ve grown over this short period of time.”
Melek sighed. “If anything, that just added more pressure for us to deliver on a planet none of us are familiar with. Not exactly the easiest of environments to excel in that’s for sure.”
Kolten, ignoring everyone, turned on his holowatch and read the task that they had received. “Looks like this task also isn’t a simple one too. During our time before the event, we’re supposed to try to find any traces of this terrorist group. At least she was kind enough to give us an intelligence briefing about last known locations, potential sympathizers, and places we could start looking.”
The rest of the group began looking at their watches. Maxim carefully read over the intelligence briefing. “So from the looks of it, they’ve been essentially avoiding the inner-city and sticking to the outer edges…I’m thinking we should stop by this weapons shop that’s been linked to unsavory groups in the past. They might know something.”
Amanda sighed. “And do what? Tell them we’re mere students and to tell us what they know about a terrorist organization? I’m sure that’ll go over well.”
“Who says we have to tell them we’re students? We could tell them that we’re working with the authorities about a possible link between him and a criminal group that’s currently under investigation and would like to ask him some questions.”
Eric nodded. “I’m with Maxim here. The direct approach would probably work best, considering we don’t have time to tiptoe our way around this. I’m guessing our deadline is sometime in the early afternoon tomorrow, so we can plan our guard duties appropriately based on the information we obtained. Taking a longer approach puts us and the attendees in more danger.”
Melek and Eric both shrugged their shoulders, showing that they don’t have any objections to asking the shop owner. Amanda sighed. “Fine then…lead the way.” She sarcastically said, crossing her arms in the process. Maxim held back a sigh and looked at the report again. Putting in the address listed in a gps app, the app showed that they were about ten minutes away by vehicle. After ordering a ride from one of the local rideshare companies, the group arrived at the weapons shop.
The building looked run down and abandoned were it not for the barely functional “open” sign that flickered. Eric chuckled. “Oh yes, I’d definitely buy all my weapons perfectly legally from this establishment. Nothing shady going on here.”
Amanda snickered. “Oh come now, obviously this shop is where all the responsible weapons owners go to.” She paused before looking at Kolten. “So how much you wanna bet the owner of this shop killed someone in the past?”
Kolten sighed and walked towards the building. Pulling open the rickety door, he held the door open so Maxim and the others could walk inside. Once inside, they were met with a nearly overwhelming smoky smell. Melek gagged as he walked inside and immediately put his undershirt over his nose, trying to mask the smell. Maxim cautiously walked forward, holding back some coughs of his own as he approached the front desk. Seeing an electronic bell, he pressed the button, and a sharp, piercing sound assaulted all of their ears.
“Coming!”
The five of them were frozen in place after hearing the voice. Instead of a deep, gruff voice as they were inspecting, they heard a high-pitched, cheery voice coming from the backroom. Within seconds, a young and very feminine looking woman walked out of the backroom and up to the front desk. “Sorry for the wait! I had to check up on the inventory in the back. Got a big order earlier today for a militia group on Clotho so I gotta make sure we had all the stock available. How can I help you?”
The five of them looked at each other awkwardly before Maxim cleared his throat. “A-are you the owner?”
The woman shook her head. “I am not. I’m just a part-time employee. I got to university off world, and it ain’t cheap. You would not BELIEVE how hard it is to find a job right now! I’m just glad Chuck was kind enough to offer me a job, otherwise I’d be on the streets right about now.”
“Chuck? Is that your boss?”
“Mhmm he is.” She chuckled to herself. “He looks more like what you were probably expecting. I’ve seen that awkward stare more than once since working here.”
“W-well maybe you can help us. We’ve been asked by the authorities to take a closer look at this establishment, as there’s a report that states there’s a possible connection between this shop and a terror cell that’s been working behind the scenes. Do you know anything about that?”
“Hmmm…nothing rings a bell, but of course I’m always in charge of the surface transactions. Chuck is the one that makes all the…’business’ transactions, if you get my drift.”
“I see…so nothing’s stuck out to you in the past few months?”
“Not really, no. I mean, I can’t exactly say ‘I saw a shady person the other day’, because that’s like almost all of our customers.”
“I see…and do you know where Chuck is right now?”
“Nope. All he told me was that he had a big client that he had to meet up with and that he’d be gone for a few days. He left me in charge and said that if any ‘business associates’ were to come by to let them know he’d get in contact with them as soon as he could. Never told me where he was going or what he was doing.”
Maxim couldn’t mask the disappointment from his face. “I see…thank you.”
“No problem! Oh, and by the looks of it, I see your saber is based on a previous gen model. I have some parts that could make it more stable and easier to use if you want.”
Maxim chuckled and shook his head. “I’m good, thanks. Gotta get that sales pitch in I suppose.”
The woman laughed. “Gotta pay my bills somehow, and the commission from sales like that is pretty nice. Anyways, sorry I couldn’t be of more help, and if you ever do need an upgrade, stop on by.”
Maxim and the others quickly left the building as Melek took an exaggerated breath of air. “Finally! I can breathe without my lungs becoming more smoke than lung!”
Amanda laughed. “You gotta get used to that Mel. Most weapons shops aren’t exactly a place where goodie two shoes meet for their morning coffee.”
Melek looked at Amanda. “Since when am I ‘Mel’?”
Kolten cleared his throat. “Well, this lead was an obvious bust. The only information we could get is someone named Chuck owns a weapons shop. Have no idea where he is or what he’s up to right now either.”
Maxim sighed and nodded. “All evidence that we could have that this shop is involved would be circumstantial at best. The report did mention there’s a few other leads we can use. Let’s try those next.”
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