Dragon At Heart

Chapter 18

Needless to say, everyone aboard was now aware that they had a saboteur among them.

The general mood was only slightly more cheery than his nephew's. No one wanted to believe that one of their own had not only gone against their orders but, in doing so, endangered everyone on the ship.

Iroh did his best to keep up some sort of team spirit. Everyone suspecting everyone wouldn't get them anywhere.

Zuko was walking away from the wreckage. Iroh joined him.

Knowing his nephew was in no mood for small talk, Iroh cut straight to the chase: "Anything new?"

Zuko looked thoughtful and distracted. First Iroh suspected the teenager hadn't heard him.

Finally Zuko sighed and turned to look at Uncle: "Nothing. Nothing on the culprit, anyway. I did discover something new about the method of destruction, though."

Iroh nodded to let Zuko know to go on. On an ordinary day they may have lowered their voices as not to be overheard, but right now the wind and the rain made sure their secrets were safe.

"Whoever did this, I don't think they used explosives. I suspect that someone rigged the catapult, set it on fire using the same tar we use to light the ammo and launched it. While the hatch to the deck was still partially closed. The result being loud, smoky and destructive enough to pass as an explosion."

Damn. So much for my theory about the saboteur being an explosives expert. Or concerned for everyone's well-being.

As Zuko spoke, he waved his arms to demonstrate his words. Something about the way he moved his left arm caught Iroh's attention.

"Prince Zuko, are you hurt?" Iroh asked but didn't wait for an answer. He grabbed his nephew's hand into his, but let go of it almost immediately as Zuko winced at the sudden movement

"I just twisted my shoulder when lifting some torn metal. It's an old injury. No big deal", Zuko tried to shrug him off, but Iroh held his ground.

"You should have Sergeant Cho take a look at it."

Zuko rolled his eyes: "It's fine. Really."

Zuko was about to walk away, but Uncle stopped him.

"No, Zuko. You may be the captain of this ship and the one giving orders around here, but I'm your uncle. Worrying is part of the job description. So, do your old relative a favor and go find Sergeant Cho. Right now."

ooo

Zuko sighed. So typical of Uncle to quibble over unimportant details.

Zuko hadn't mentioned his injury before because it was healing on its own and, all in all, he didn't really feel like telling anyone how he'd gotten his ass kicked by a 12-year-old who wasn't even the Avatar.

Anyway, for the safety of everyone aboard the ship, finding out who was trying to sink them had to be a first priority.

All else came a distant second.

The problem was that Zuko still had no idea who the saboteur was, or even what to do next to find him.

Well, truthfully, one option did come to mind, but using the Power of Dragons had its risks.

So long as he had no clues regarding the saboteur's identity his only option was to go over the whole crew one at a time until he found the culprit, at which point even the slowest of crew members would have figured out his secret.

Not the biggest secret he was keeping right now, but a to-risk-your-life-and-future -big, regardless.

Some other day Zuko may have thought that the risk of trusting his crew to keep the secret was one worth taking, but not today. Today he was in short supply of trust.