Still kneeling near the body, Austin had watched the Guardian leave the hanger, his pistol loosely held in his hand as he scowled angrily. Feeling a presence next to him, he looked over to see Arland inspecting the body – after having nodded towards Austin.

”... I'm sorry, man. I couldn't get to her in time, she was too fast. Bloody hell, I was almost right by her, but I couldn't target her quickly enough...” Arland said, which was followed by a sigh and a disgusted look at the body.

”Don't apologize. We both underestimated our targets. It an error of judgment for both of us. Anyways... as you said, we don't leave our work half finished. She has Evie, and my pistol, and I want them both back.” He replied, once Arland had suggested getting to his ship. ”Let's go, or I'm leaving you here.”

Once he said that, he holstered his pistol and got to his feet. Moving quickly to collect the weapon that Lily had on her before actually heading towards Arland's Guardian. While most of the time, he would've joked about leaving someone behind, but this particular circumstance, he actually meant it, and would leave Arland on Trafalgar in a heartbeat without thinking twice about it.

James in turn just nodded crisply, safetied his gun and followed in step with his wingman and colleague. He didn't like the look on Austin's face, and knew him to be capricious when he was like this, but he knew he didn't mean him harm, specifically. And he understood the feeling all too well right now - they'd failed, been outmaneuvered, plain and simple.

"We'll find them again."

Whether or not he tried assure himself or Goodman of that was unclear, but one thing was absolutely certain - he'd do as well as he could to make it become fact.

After some time, Evie, without being able to move at all, fell asleep. Amelia meanwhile flew with her ship to planet Curacao in Cortez. Once she landed the ship on one of the landing pads, Evie woke up and looked at her. She tried to say something but forgot that there was a tape on her mouth. Amelia, who had noticed her walked towards her, pulled out a device that was obviously showing a report of the Endeavor incident.

"Have a look at that, Evie." She said, holding the device infront of her. Evie carefully read the report and arched an eyebrow, trying to say something. Amelia giggled lightly and removed the tape from her mouth. "Apparently there are people who believe that you hired mercenaries to attack the convoy. That's why I wanted to see you all the time, but you didn't make it easy for me."

"You gotta be kidding me! That's ridiculous! I would have never done something like that! It was you and Lily, you hired those mercenaries!" She shouted, squirming around.

"No, I didn't hire them, and it wasn't Lily either. I was with her all the time after all." She replied calmly.

"Ah? Really? Then be so kind and tell me where the hell you and Lily were when these mercenaries attacked!" Evie shouted.

"She warned me that there was an planned ambush against the convoy and that nearly everyone was involved in it. She said I couldn't trust anyone." She replied sighing.

"Ah, but you could trust her or what? She tried to kill me! She is the one! SHE IS THE ONE! She planned it, Amy. IT WAS HER!" She shouted.

"I know that she tried to kill you and I say it again, I wasn't aware of that. I am really sorry." She said as she moved closer and placed a hand on Evie's shoulder. "Calm down now, okay? Help me find out what really happened? We are not getting anywhere with baseless accusations."

"Then get these ropes off me already." She said with a sigh, calming slowly down.

"I have rented a room on Curacao. We can go there." Amelia said as she was taking off the ropes of Evie.

"Fine..." She said and stood up as soon as the ropes were off from her. She stretched her arms and placed a hand on her back. "That hurt..."

"I am so sorry, Evie..." She frowned as suddenly her device was making a noise. "One moment, that must be my contact. Maybe he managed to find out more."

Evie raised an eyebrow and noticed that her own device was still in her pocket. She pulled it out and wrote a short and simple message 'Curacao. Cortez. She rented a room. Alone with me.' addressed to Austin Goodman as Amelia was distracted. She put the device back into her pocket and smiled innocently at Amelia as she was approaching.

"Ready?" Amelia said and returned the smile. Evie nodded and both left the ship. Amelia took Evie's hand and guided her towards the building, through corridors and stairs. "There it is. Come!" She said as they were reaching the room and both entered it...

He was sitting alone in the rear observation deck of the Suffolk, eyeing Planet New London from afar. While his breathing and body language was calm, his face retained an extremely annoyed expression.

Three hours had passed since the incident on Trafalgar where he failed to protect one of the Berry sisters, and during that same incident, took the life of another. While taking a life is expected of an Armed Forces pilot when your own life is in danger, that wasn't what bothered him.

No... what bothered him was that he failed in keeping his promise to protect someone, and that personally drove a stake through him. On top of that, both he and Arland were too slow at attempting to track down the Liberty Security Force Agent that had taken Evie, by the time Arland's ship was in space... their target was long gone, and space was huge.

"We'll find them again." The phrase had plagued his mind, repeating over and over, for the past three hours. Of course, it was suddenly interrupted by a loud beeping sound.

He broke his gaze from the planet and looked down at the PDA he was holding in his hand, the screen flashed informing him that he had one new message. Tapping the screen with his thumb and pulling the message up he quietly read it aloud to himself, and smiled faintly.

"Good. I'm glad this isn't over with, and now it'll be on my terms." He said gently, opening up a new message and sending it to his wingman.

Arland, meet me in the Hangar bay. No uniform. Bring your weapon. We're going on a field trip.

James was in Suffolk's rec room, lounging in the sofa and watching a BBC news screening as his PDA made a small hum in his pocket. As he read it he frowned and muttered.

"All work and no play makes James a dull boy..."

Then he got up and started moving, heading for his own quarters. It was the size of a walk-in closet compared to the cabins higher-ranked officers got, but it was his. He quickly changed into his civvies. Blue-gray jacket. T-shirt, plain black. Black trousers. It'd do.

He reached for his security locker, punching in the code on the keypad. There were a few things in there, but only one thing was really relevant right now, and that was his L18. It had been cleaned and oiled since its last use. He knew it wasn't loaded, but he pulled the charging handle back and checked the chamber anyway, which was basic safety practice.

Satisfied, he let the mechanism snap shut with a sharp clack, pulled the trigger to decock it and packed it into a duffel-bag along with five magazines and all the accessories he figured would be useful. Suppressor. Dot sight. Long-range optic. Tac-light. Laser-sight. He was typically against the practice of loading guns up with all kinds of crap at once, but all of this stuff had practical applications if this was going where he thought it was.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder he headed for the hangar bay and waited for Goodman. He didn't get any looks from the ship crew - people came and went all the time. The civvies might have gotten him some odd looks but most people on the HMS Suffolk knew his face, so nobody stopped to question him.

Both sisters entered the room after reaching it and Amelia locked the door once they were in, whereas Evie walked towards the bed and sat down. Amelia slowly approached Evie with a smile and sat beside her down on the bed.

"I have missed you, Evie." She said softly as she leaned her head against Evie's shoulder.

"Missed me, huh?" She replied with a disgusted look, pushing her gently away. "How's Jenny?"

She sighed and lowered her head. "She is fine. She was the only survivor in the Endeavor incident, if you didn't know that by now." She said as she looked up again, placing her hand on her shoulder.

Evie rolled her eyes as Amelia placed her hand on her shoulder and stood up, looking at her. "I am thirsty, do you have anything to drink here?"

Amelia shook her head and stood up. "I can get some if you want." She said with a smile.

"That would be nice." Evie said, returning a soft smile.

"Stay here then and behave, please." She said and gave her a quick hug, moving to the door, unlocking it and locking it again once she was out of the room. Evie watched her leaving the room and heard the sound of the lock. Upon hearing the sound she smirked lightly and walked to the bathroom, kneeling down and pulling out the knife from her boot. She looked at the knife and smiled. Ever since the knife has always saved her from difficult situations and so she was pretty skilled in it. Just as she wanted to leave the bathroom she heard the sound of the lock. She hid the knife behind her back and moved back to the living room, ready to strike with her knife.

Amelia entered the room with two bottles in her hand. "Evie! I have your favorite drink!" She said with a kind smile and looked around to find Evie. She jumped lightly as she found her right behind her. "Oah, there you are!"

Evie sighed and put her knife carefully inside her pants, still hiding it. "My favorite drink?" She said and smiled, having old memories coming up.

Amelia smiled and handed over the bottle. Once she handed over the bottle, she walked over to the bedside table, opening it and pulling out two glasses. She placed the other bottle down on the table and moved back to Evie with the glasses, pointing towards the nearby table and chairs. "Let's sit down and have a drink, hm?"

Evie shrugged and nodded lightly, moving to the table with the bottle and sat down. Amelia followed her and placed the glasses on the table, taking Evie's bottle and opened it, pouring in some of it in both glasses and sat down herself. "So you say Lily hired those Mercenaries, can you prove it?"

Evie took her glass in the hand and drank from it. "I indeed do... but..." She reached to her pockets to find the documents and remembered that she placed them on the table on Trafalgar. "I... forgot them after you took me as hostage on Trafalgar." She said annoyed.

"We can pick them up later, if they really prove that Lily was responsible for the ambush." Amelia replied and stood up as her device made noises, moving to the bathroom. "Be right back."

"Mhmm." Evie mumbled and took another sip from her glass.

After the two had met in the hangar aboard the Suffolk, the two immediately left on the next outbound transport to the Cortez system, more specifically, Planet Curacao.

For most the trip, Austin remained quiet, studying the layout of the location they were going. He had highlighted various locations that would make for great choke points should their target be aware that both men would be making landfall on the planet shortly. Though, from the message he received, it appeared as if they would actually have the advantage. The plan would be simple enough, get in and secure the hostage.

He sighed lightly, leaning back in the seat and closing his eyes after a few minutes of scanning the image on the data-pad he held in his hand.

"This is an illegal operation, and I don't want any political backlash if we do happen to get caught. So let's try to keep shooting at a minimum." He muttered, pausing slightly before continuing, opening his eyes and holding the data-pad towards Arland, "The resort itself seems to have a few security check point around the space port, so getting our equipment past these points is going to be hard. The current plan is to get in and secure our target... I'm not sure how many hostiles we'll be facing, so let's try not to screw this up. If possible, I want Amelia Berry alive."

After falling silent again, he sighed lightly, looking around the lounge they were in and muttered once more, "If you have any plans, feel free to share them."

"This is the Captain speaking, we'll be arriving at Curacao within a few minutes, please fashion your seat belts." Sounded over the loudspeaker, other people within the lounge began shuffling around, seemingly ignoring the two men who were sitting at a table.

Arland looked up briefly at the captain's notification, then studied the PDA for a few seconds, repeating what they'd gone over some half dozen times once more. General layout, security, known hostiles...

When he spoke, his tone was low, smooth and focused.

"Getting past port security will be the hard part, like you said. Amelia isn't likely to have much muscle on hand given how only she and that other sister of hers showed up last time, so with some luck we can do this without a shot fired. Back home we could have pulled rank, but security will be OS&C staff... Private, and with some luck, willing to accommodate those with enough money in their pocket. If we have the cash we might be able to convince them to let us through... If not, I say we take our time, take a good look around and look for alternate ways through. Staff exits. Possible disguises. Good old vent shafts. You know, the regular security holes."

Evie was sitting on the table for a while as Amelia took longer than expected. She let out a sigh and thought to herself if she maybe was too harsh to Amelia. But what if she was just playing this role to reassure her that she was safe. She didn't knew it and so she was still suspicious in Amelia's presence. She took another sip from her glass the moment Amelia returned from the bathroom.

Amelia walked slowly with a smile towards her and sat down.
"We're going to have two visitors in a few minutes. One of my contacts who is trustworthy and glad to help us and someone you haven't seen for a while." She said with a smile, drinking from her glass.

"What? Why didn't you ask me beforehand?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, sighing lightly.

"Well, sorry about that... I wanted to surprise you with the last visitor." Amelia replied.

"Who is it then? And who is your contact?" Evie asked simply, taking another sip from her glass.

"Jenny." Amelia said and drank from her glass too. "The other one is a good old friend. His name is Jeff Brooks."

"J-Jenny is coming to this place?" She asked a bit nervous. "I... didn't expect that at all."

"Well, that was supposed to be a surprise. Looks like I screwed up." Amelia replied giggling and turned her head towards the door as suddenly knocks were heard. "That must be Jeff."

Amelia stood up and walked towards the door, unlocking it and opening it.
"Hey Jeff, come in." Amelia said with a smile.

"Thanks." Jeff said as he walked in and immediately turned his head towards Evie. "That's her? The naughty girl that you were searching for so long?"

"Yes, that's her..." Amelia replied and rolled her eyes, beginning to move towards the other side of the room to pick up another chair. "Go ahead and sit down, Jeff."

Evie narrowed her eyes and stared at the man who was slowly approaching her. She could notice that he was heavily armed and wore a Liberty Security Force uniform. She thought to herself why someone who was going to help investigate a case appears heavily armed. It was obvious for her that something was wrong here and so she stood up the moment Jeff was a few meters away from her. Evie smiled lightly, walked towards him and reached out a hand, while she slowly and for Jeff not foreseeable pulled out her knife with her free hand.

"Nice to meet you, Jeff, right?" She asked with a smile and waited for him to shake her hand. Once he was shaking her hand she pulled him closer towards her with a jerk and rammed her knife inside his chest. All she could hear was a loud scream until he fell down backwards on the ground. Evie smirked lightly and looked at Amelia with the knife in her hand. "Told you it was a bad idea not to inform me beforehand."

Amelia, who was just picking up the chair on the other side of the room, turned around and startling jumped back as the man was suddenly screaming. As Amelia was behind Jeff she couldn't see what was happening. Once the man fell down, making Evie visible with her knife in the hand, she finally realized what had happened. She let the chair fall down on the ground, making a loud dull noise and was like hypnotized staring at her. "E-Evie? Y-you..."

"Yes, I killed him, Amy." She replied with a smirk, moving slowly closer towards her.

"C-come closer and I will shoot!" Amelia shouted, pulling out her pistol and aimed at Evie.

"Oh come on, you had so many chances to kill me. Why would you do it now?" She said with a giggle and put the knife back.
"Let's go somewhere else. I don't feel comfortable with a dead person in the same room." Evie said and began walking towards the door, not caring what Amy was doing behind her back.

Amelia remained in her position, still aiming with the pistol at her and watching her leave the room. She turned her head towards the man who was laying on the ground and let out a sigh, putting the pistol back to the holster and following Evie out of the room.

"I am not crawling through vent shafts. Just so we're clear." Austin commented with a slightly annoyed tone as he looked around the shuttle again, pulling the PDA away from Arland and sliding it into his pocket as the intercom came on.

"This is the captain speaking. We've reached the space port on Curacao, please disembark the shuttle in an orderly fashion, and have a wonderful day."

"Wonderful day my... sure..." He muttered, this time getting to his feet and reaching for the brief case underneath the seat, nodding towards Arland, "Let's get this bloody thing over with, hm?"