𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 | 𝟏𝟖+

22

We decide to stay in a nearby motel for the night. Kai offered us to stay at his place but staying at one place for a long while can be dangerous especially when we don't know if someone is following us or not. We were protected when we were in my city but now we're outside the protected area and we have to be cautious.

"You know you need to start involving me in your plans too if we need this to work". I look towards the couch where he's working on his laptop with puzzled expression. "What do you mean by that?"

He sighs and keeps aside his laptop "I had no idea about that envelope today. I need to know what your next move will be. We're on the same team here, I need to know the whole plan for this to work out smoothly"

I turn away and continue to clean my guns and blades "Well it worked out just perfect today didn't it? I don't see the problem here"

"The problem is that it might not go as easily the other times too. Yes it worked today but we don't know what's going to happen in the future. How do you think it will look if others get to know that I am as much unaware of what's going on as them? We're going to look like fools" he argues

He's right. I don't want to admit it to him but he is. I can't put our mission at risk because I wasn't able to get past my personal problems with him. I can't lose. I have always worked alone and prefer it that way. No one to answer to. But I can't put us at risk just because I do not know how to communicate and tolerate people.

"Fine. I'm sorry. I'll try to avoid this next time"

"I would appreciate that" he returns

It's weird how simple it is to talk with him sometimes. If we don't argue we are able to bear each others presence just a little bit more. But I don't want to get used to it. It's a matter of a few months at max.

At least that's what Im telling myself. That spending some time with him will not change anything about how I feel about him. I just hope that remains the same.

"We'll be leaving early tomorrow. Talk to a few people I know around here. Maybe they can be a bit of help" he speaks up. He did mention having sources in this area before. It will be better if we don't rely on just the main families but also gather information from local sources.

"Sounds good. We need to keep moving anyways, we don't know who might be following us here. In my territory we were safe but I can't control things here" I voice my own concern. I do know locals here and there but that doesn't protect us as much. We need to keep our eyes and ears open.

We go over the details of what has happened till now and he provides me with the information I need to plan out our next steps.
"Is there any one place where your shipments land or do you keep changing them?" I question

"We usually send them to our nearest port  of where the order is from and we have our men look over the process of unloading the materials and packing it in trucks. We have five separate ports for all our business and the ships only dock at these ports"

"Hmm. Are there specific teams assigned for this? Because that would narrow down our suspect list quite a lot" I point out. It will be easy to catch the person if it is someone involved from these teams itself. It can be quite convenient for them to steal if they are on this team.

"Yes we have day and night shifts for the people who receive these shipments and load them. But the full information of this would be with the port managers"

"Then we go and inspect these ports too. These people are the ones who come in contact with the orders first hand so the chance of someone being in on this from these teams is higher" I expressed.