NOVPUBOnce Jasmine had explained what she had found, her suspicions, and her plan to contact her mother, Avery sat quietly and in deep thought.
He was not going to deny her efforts, and that there was a possibility that all of these little incidents could be connected in some way.
The Odium Syndicate had already tried direct attacks, so after multiple failures, the organization might have decided to execute a more subtle strategy.
Avery certainly could not see how anything going on would stop the trial and save their cowardly assess, but that did not mean something else was not going on.
As Jasmine had suggested to him, they needed to get someone out there and, on the scene, to collect information. There was only so much that was possible from the Dauntless' cockpit.
Of course, this was hardly something for them to usually get involved with, and it opened up some risks.
By this point, the Odium Syndicate was more than aware that Grito had joined Avery's team. It was practically certain that they would be happy to ambush and murder anyone in the group.
"I get where you're coming from, but you can't go Jasmine. It's too dangerous. Not only will the Odium Syndicate be looking to catch any of us off guard, people with a grudge against your mother might come after you as well. No doubt after our visit to the chancellor's estate that every bigwig on the planet knows you've returned. It's far too great of a risk to send you out there."
The look in Avery's eyes was uncompromising. No matter what, he was not going to let Jasmine go off and investigate. He believed that it was simply far too dangerous considering where they were and what they were currently involved in.
Naturally, Jasmine was feeling unyielding herself and began arguing the point with Avery.
"You want to keep me safe, I know. And that's one of the things I love about you. But I think you're being overprotective this time. If you're worried, I can just wear a disguise. We both already found out that Kasandra is prepared for that. Before I joined you, I was part of the Alliance Police. I can handle my own against a few criminals even if it comes down to that." Jasmine said, vehemently explaining her own point.
When Avery started to refuse again, she cut him off and continued to stress the importance of this.
"Think about the assassination attempt that was made on Grito the day we arrived here. We didn't have any forewarning about it, and we were caught completely unaware. Several of us could have easily ended up dead. But, when the first attack when we were still on the way here, we obtained some solid information beforehand and learned about the assassins ahead of time. It just makes sense that we try and gather some information now while we can. We don't want to run into another situation like we did on this base."
Obviously, Jasmine made some good arguments, and Avery did agree with her reasoning. Nevertheless, he was not going to let her go.
"But Avery-"
"Jasmine, please just let me finish this time."
Before this devolved from an argument into a fight, Avery wanted to clear things up.
"It not that I don't realize the importance of what you've said. The only problem I have is sending you out. The chance of something bad happening if you're involved is doubled because you're Azade's Chancellor's daughter. I don't want to give anyone the chance to come after you. That is why instead, we can send someone else. We're a mercenary team. It's not like you have to be the one to do this."
Finally, understanding what Avery was getting at, Jasmine started to calm down.
She had thought that her idea was being dismissed, and it had somewhat remained her of her days in the Alliance Police. There were enough times that her captain had disregarded her opinions that she would need more than both hands to count them.
Back then, she had needed to continue to argue her point until her superior gave in or really put his foot down. In fact, that is exactly what had happened when she went out of her way to help Avery when he was about to be framed for crimes he did not commit.
As much as Jasmine really did want to head off and start investigating since this was her project and she had been working hard on it, she knew that what Avery was saying made sense.
'This isn't like back when I worked on Yuson II and whoever brought in the results got the credit. Avery tries to be pretty fair, and honestly, he's probably a bit too preferential to me and Kasandra.' Jasmine thought.
Easily enough, she gave in and agreed to let someone else go. However, she did have Avery agree to pamper her tonight as a consolation prize.
"That begs the question, though. Who's going to be heading out there?" Jasmine asked.
Her eyes naturally drifted towards Kasandra.
While she did not have years of investigative experience, her acute hearing and heightened instincts made her adept at locating suspicious individuals. Depending on the species, she could even tell if they were lying or not. Truthfully, she had the talents to be a topnotch detective.
Yet, Avery was reluctant to send Kasandra out as well.
Her skills might have been useful, but she would stand out. Felis Therianthropes were not particularly common on Azade and wearing a hat or something similar to hide her ears would dimmish Kasandra's hearing ability. Plus, Avery did admit he did not want her to put herself in danger either.
"You really can be overprotective sometimes." Kasandra said with a giggle. "I just hope it doesn't stop you from letting us fight when it's necessary."
Avery held his hands up in surrender and nodded his head. He knew he could not keep either of them wrapped up in a protective bubble at all times, but just for this situation, he did not want either of them at risk.
"Well, I doubt your sending the Ezra, since he's about as subtle as a phasic torpedo. And Kaiden's out because of the same reasons as me. That leaves Olivia, I presume."
Kasandra was right on the money.
Out of all of the members of his team, Oliva might have been the best at handling herself in a scarp.
If she did find herself getting into trouble, she could probably fight her way out.
Before accepting her onto his team, Avery had spared with her once, and gotten his ass handed to him. She was not as strong as Ezra, or quite as quick as Kasandra and Kaiden, but her overall skills in close combat were astounding.
There was still the question of whether she was any good at investigations, but Avery figured she was at least somewhat adaptable, and Jasmine could give her instructions remotely if necessary.
Also, the matter of her agreement still needed to be confirmed, but Avery did not see any reason she would refuse.
"Why don't you have a couple of her crew members go as well. It might be better to have some extra heads, and it would be a good opportunity for you to show our newbies that you can count on them." Jasmine suggested.
"Sure, that sounds like I plan."
Avery agreed that if she wanted, Olivia would be allowed to bring two people from her crew with her.
With their plan going forward set, Avery contacted Olivia, and she promptly responded.
A few minutes later, she was standing aboard the Dauntless, fully kitted out in her mercenary gear.
"I'm guessing that you've got a mission for me." Olivia said without a hint of doubt in her expression.
"And what makes you think that?"
"It's pretty obvious. You sent me a message saying that you had something important to talk about. What else could it be?"
"I might have wanted to discuss your relationship with Ezra." Avery countered.
"Do you really?" Oliva asked, one of her eyebrows raised.
"No. I'm not going to bother with the personal life of anyone on my team unless it becomes a problem. You're free to have whatever relationship you want. I'm not in any position to criticize, all things considering."
Oliva glanced briefly at Kasandra and Jasmine and nodded her head.
After that, Avery brought Olivia up to speed on what Jasmine had found, and what he wanted her to do.
Seeing as how this was a request from her leader, Olivia normally would have accepted immediately, but Avery had stressed that she was free to refuse if she wanted to. He was not going to be forcing her to do something she was uncomfortable with when it was not entirely necessary.
"Yeah, I'll do it. I'm more of a fighter than an investigator, but I've had to do some snooping around in the past for some jobs." Olivia replied once she had considered the job.
"Good, then what about bringing along some help. Do you have anyone among your crew in mind?"
Olivia smiled and nodded.
"I think I know the best two for the job. Neither of them actually owned their own ships and mostly did colony work before… well, you know. Planetary cities might be different, but they've got the most experience doing jobs in urban environments. I'm sure that their insights will be helpful."
Once Olivia had told Avery which two members of her crew she was thinking about bringing along, he quickly reviewed their profiles and agreed with her assessment.
"Okay, everything looks good. Tomorrow you'll be heading out. Take the rest of today to prepare." Avery said dismissing Olivia.
With a look of anticipation on her face, she left the Dauntless and hurried back to her own vessel. She was ecstatic to finally have a big chance to prove herself.
