The Final Storm

24. Consecutive Coincidences

Silence.

And not the brotherly kind.

"Are...are they gone?"

Adaira's voice was no more than a whisper. Partly due to caution, but mostly because Captain Carter's hand was still clamped over her mouth.

"I think so." Slowly, he removed his hand and gazed into her eyes. "I think we should retreat into the cellar for the time being. Agreed?"

One corner of Adaira's mouth crooked up. "Agreed."

"Very well. Then we—"

He cut off abruptly when the door to the room opened and our host stepped in. He froze, blinked, and stared down at their two figures lying on the floor on top of each other.

"Um, am I interrupting something...again?"

Adaira flushed. "This isn't...and what you saw before wasn't... This is a complete coincidence!"

"It is indeed." Captain Carter nodded sombrely. "We are always coincidentally cavorting with each other when other people enter the room. It's a bad habit. We're trying to quit, but umph—!"

He cut off abruptly when Adaira elbowed him in the ribs and thereby sent him rolling off her.

"Shut up, you!"

"Not even married yet and already suffering from violence," he said in a mournful tone. "This doesn't bode well."

Their host pointed at his still-bandaged head. "I can lend you some bandages if you would like."

"Why, thank you. It's so nice to meet a fellow sufferer."

"Stop it, the two of you!" came a chiding voice from the door. Looking over, Adaira spotted the lady of the house, giving the two men a meaningful look. "Let's get two of you back into the cellar. From what I can tell, they're doing a last sweep of the streets before calling off the search. We wouldn't want you to be found at the last moment, would we?"

"No." Shaking her head, Adaira quickly rose from the floor and made her way towards the door. "We most definitely wouldn't want that."

***

"Where is she? Tell me! Where. Is. She?!"

Mercilessly, Mr Ambrose stared down at the man in front of him—or rather, what used to be a man, and now was a collection of bruises.

"Sh-she?" the unfortunate fellow croaked. "Who are you talking about?"

"The spy!" Grabbing the rebel soldier by the front of his uniform, Mr Ambrose shook the unfortunate fellow like a piggy bank the contents of which he wanted to ascertain. "The spy you've been chasing!"

"Th-the spy? Sh-she? But...?"

An extremely confused expression appeared on the rebel's face. And, to be honest, I couldn't blame him.

It had taken Mr Ambrose and me a while to figure out that the "spy" the rebels were chasing was actually Adaira. It would probably have taken longer if we hadn't encountered a group of rebels in the street staring at a familiar fake beard with puzzled faces.

Luckily, the search had mostly subsided by then, and most citizens were still hiding in their houses, so nobody noticed when Mr Ambrose went berserk and single-handedly took down the entire squad of rebels, without even giving Karim a chance to draw his sabre. Now, we were ensconced in the ruins of a looted house, interviewing the only rebel unlucky enough to regain consciousness so far.

"Answer me!" Lifting the rebel into the air, Mr Ambrose drilled into him with an icy gaze. "Where. Is. She?!"

"Bhosdike!" the rebel cursed. "How am I supposed to know where to find that bastar—"