“How did you find us?” Nina asked as she tried to prevent her voice from wavering. This person was the one who had no doubt started the chain of events which had resulted in the wanted posters with her name on it being circulated.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ormain smiled as he turned his palms up. He wore a sand-coloured cloak with a white shirt underneath, a small black submachine gun dangling from each hip. With long brown boots and khaki pants, he was clearly equipped for the desert. “I was never going to find you in Luem, so I decided to change the stage. If you can’t find a rat in a haystack, just set the haystack on fire and wait until it comes out.”

They had been played, she realised as Reina appeared beside her. Setting the haystack on fire was the circulation of the wanted posters, and as soon as they had seen the smoke, they had fled. Instead of hiding in an impenetrable maze of a city, they had instead moved to a small desert town where they cut a striking contrast to their surroundings. Ormain hadn’t been looking for them, he had been waiting for them.

“The people here are also a bit more desperate for… just about anything,” he laughed. “You’d be surprised at what people here are willing to do for even a few coins.”

Like watching out for them and running to Ormain as soon as they had seen the truck approaching, probably.

“You found her, but you can’t do anything about it,” Reina replied. “We both know that you aren’t going to force your way in here, so stop interrupting our lunch.”

“I didn’t just find her,” he smiled as he looked up at them. “I also found you. You’re the one in charge here, right?” They watched as he bowed without hiding his mocking expression. “My name is Ormain, a captain at the Security Union. You are?”

“Ignore him,” Reina said to Nina before turning on her heel. “They can’t do anything, let’s eat.”

“The captain asked for your name,” a woman’s voice spat from below as Nina and Jade turned to follow Reina back to the table.

“Shalan,” Ormain barked at whichever member of the group it was. “Ignore it. They have to come outside sooner or later.”

Hearing his response, Reina’s lips curled into a thin smile as she sat down. Nina and Jade also sat, but Nina couldn’t wipe the troubled expression from her face. She didn’t want to admit it, but Saela was correct in a sense. If she hadn’t joined The Cloud Orchestra, they wouldn’t be in this mess. It wasn’t just Nina who was in trouble now, it was the entire group.

She had no doubt that Ormain's group would open fire on them if they thought he could get away with it. She didn’t know why they were operating outside of usual SuTSU protocol as the man on the door suggested, but she would take any advantage that she could get right now. He had used the anthill as a threat, but it seemed that he didn’t want to get them involved for some reason. Did the higher ups at SuTSU even know that they were here?

Either that or Ormain saw them as a treasure that he didn't want to share with anyone else.

The general mood of the group had gone from carefree to muted while she had been lost in thought. Nina could feel Saela’s glare as the man from earlier began to bring dishes out one by one, but she chose to ignore it. Things were bad enough already.

“Is everything fine?” Reina asked the man as he dropped the final couple of plates on the table, her confident smile returning.

“Not a problem,” he reassured her. “I won’t discuss specifics, but we have more than enough people here to deal with them if we need to, even if they decided to bring the anthill down on us. I assume your travel plans haven’t changed?”

“They haven’t,” Reina replied as she examined the dish in front of her. “Thanks for the food.”

“Customers like you are a charm compared to most of them,” he said as he walked back towards the stairs. “I’ll prepare for your departure.”

Eating in the warm but gentle breeze on the roof, Nina found the food to be surprisingly good considering what she thought would be available. The dishes were mainly fish, although that was to be expected because it seemed that the river was the main source of food in the badlands. There were some dry cakes of a sort which suspiciously reminded her of the sandscale roll from earlier, and after a bite she realised that it was probably why they were loaded with spices. Another bowl contained some knotted roots which were boiled in a salty soup until they became a deep red colour, and a rather normal plate of biscuits and cheeses sat to the side.

“So what do we do about that?” Trim asked after they had finished eating while nodding her head in the direction of the street. “Something tells me that they aren’t going to be leaving us alone anytime soon.”

“Ignore them,” Reina casually waved her hand. “We’ll beat them to Zaffre’s and disappear before they know what happened.” She paused for a moment as her gaze swept across the empty plates on the table. Satisfied, she stood up. “If they want to play their own tricks, then we can play ours too. Nina, come.”

Nina stood and followed Reina as she walked to the railing.

“We just need them to think we're staying here for a while, so be quiet,” Reina murmured before they both looked down to the street below to see that Ormain and his group had parked themselves on the other side of the street under a shade cloth. There was, however, one person missing.

“Hoped that we would leave already?” Ormain smiled as he stood up before strolling into the centre of the street, ignoring the hot sun that shone down on him. “I’ve got someone covering the back door too, so why don’t we just talk it out? You don’t want to be stuck in there forever, and we don’t want to sit here waiting for you either.”

“You need supplies and you need to sleep, you can’t stay here forever,” Reina replied in a cool tone. “Save us the effort and leave, you can try and pick up the trail again later.”

Ormain and a couple of the suits behind him chuckled at her suggestion. He had brought three men and two women, all but one of which Nina recognized from the day outside Glass Heart. Like Ormain, none of them made any attempt to hide the collection of weapons they carried. Dressed in an assortment of browns and whites, pistols protruded from pockets and sat in holsters while submachine guns dangled from their belts.

“I don’t trust anyone from Network,” he smiled as he eyed the two guards which stood by the door. “That should be understandable for you, shouldn’t it?”

“Is it?” Reina replied dismissively. “I think it’s a bit rich for anyone at SuTSU to talk about trust.”

Nina noted that usual smile was nowhere to be seen, a cold expression now plastered on her face. Reina had said that it was a trick, so she hoped that the reaction was simply part of the act and not a true representation of how she felt right now. She had only seen something close to this expression once, and that was when she had stormed out from Julia’s place. It wasn’t something that she wanted to see a repeat of.

Ormain shrugged, seeming completely unfazed. “Maybe so, but we both know that you’re not so good yourself,” he smiled as he turned to Nina. “Say Nina, what did she tell you? Do you know why you were really called down to Neo Luesa?”

“Don’t listen to him,” Reina said.

“They were going to make you a suit Nina.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Reina laughed. “With zero combat experience? There are thousands of applicants every year, yet you want to pull one from Caecus?”

“Oh, surprised you would know that,” Ormain smiled in return as he put a hand on the shoulder of a woman who had stepped beside him. With a thin white headband in her black hair that ran just past her shoulders, her fiery gaze locked onto Reina as though any distrust in Ormain was an offense. Nina noted how close she stood to Ormain, her brown leather jacket opened not only to reveal her impressive figure, but also two pistols that sat in matching shoulder holsters.

“But if you knew that, you should know exactly why Nina was called down,” he continued. “Combat experience can be trained, and I can see by the bulge in her jacket that you’ve already started your own work on her. The thing that draws the line between a pass and a fail where suits are concerned is their skill outside of combat. Being a suit is just as much a game of office politics is it is about being good in the field. It’s a role where the pen is just as mighty as the sword, and the ability to thrive in a bureaucratic machine is vital. The very same strengths that you look for in your own people, I would assume.”

“I’ll admit that you’re quick on your feet with your stories,” Reina replied. “But nobody is going to buy it.”

“The vast majority of suit applicants pass combat tests with ease but fail miserably with office duties,” Ormain shrugged has his hand on the woman’s shoulder moved up to run a finger through her hair. “It’s the necessary work behind the scenes that they just can’t understand. Ask yourself what the common factor is between the army lancers on The Skywall, or the wardens in that anthill over there. The answer is that while they’re all good in combat, they’re useless outside of it.”

“Still doesn’t explain why SuTSU would invite an outsider into a prestigious position,” Reina smiled. “Your story is lacking.”

“It’s as simple as we can’t find talented enough people for the office that can also function in combat, but the truth in my story is for Nina to decide herself,” Ormain said as his eyes turned back to her. “Speaking of truths, I wonder what kind of story your boss told you? Why did you end up wasting away as a criminal down on the orange floors when you could have been a part of something greater on the blue floors, or even higher?”

“Nobody starts that high,” Reina cut in. “It might sound plausible to someone who is new to the plates, but anyone with a sliver of knowledge about SuTSU would know that you’re just making this up as you go.”

Ormain raised an eyebrow. “You seem to know more than you should, boss lady. Who are you really? I’d say failed applicant, but you’re too talented. Family history with the Security Union? A deserter?”

“I’d never have anything to do with the likes of you,” Reina smiled. Nina noticed that the confident expression had returned as she turned to face her. “Let’s go, nothing good will come from this.”

“We’ll see you when you decide to leave then,” Ormain chuckled. “Oh and Nina, the offer is still on the table if you want to join SuTSU and be a part of something meaningful. I saw your file and it’s very impressive, I can fix the paperwork up like nothing happened.”

Nina glanced at him and the woman beside him one more time before turning around and following Reina back to join the rest of the group at the table.