RB Chapter 174 Jointly Working Together

The time was noon, the sun was bearing down with all its might, but for the four who were travelling on the ground, the sun wasn't causing any discomfort.

Canopies of leaves and ruins of buildings and sky roads shielded them from the might of the sun.

Eric was leading the way, Sally the next one behind him, with Chloe bringing up the rear.

Eric was wearing black flexible and casual clothes over his SYMOR. The vegetation that was wildly growing on the ground since the soil was fertile enough. The four were wading through the grass and other kinds of undergrowth, not impeded in the slightest.

"Njibwa's team are currently surrounding a building and waiting for us to arrive." Sally said. She was the only none who kept in touch with Njibwa as the three didn't like her personality.

"Which building?" Eric asked.

"The tallest one." She answered. Many of the cities before the evolution had been built in such a way that the city lord lived in the tallest building at the center of the city. Even this city which specialised in food production, the city lord had still occupied the tallest building.

'Why did he stop by this city? He should have continued on.' He wondered.

"According to the scent that the captain of Njibwa's team has picked up, Leah is very much alive."

"Really!" Elena jumped at those words, a grown spreading along her face. Sally frowned at being interrupted, though she had finished what she had been saying. The abruptness of Elena's happiness had surprised her.

Eric, who was leading the way also had a grin of relief speed out on his face. Though no one managed to capture it as his face was away from them.

"Can we trust the words of Njibwa's team?" Chloe asked in skepticism.

"There is utterly no reason that they would lie...they might be mistaken, but they won't lie as it isn't beneficial to them." Sally explained.

'I have the strength, but I feel as though its helpless in the face of the situation...but I promise to save you, even if I have to die.' Eric clenched his fists harder as he jogged. They were making their way to the place where the tallest sky scraper was situated, the center of the city.

The drones had been withdrawn as that might scare Monki into doing something contrary to their motives.

'They are truly very professional, managing to find Monki in such short time. The Black Diamond group really chose a competent team. Though, I wonder what their orders are, could it be just to capture Monki, or kill on sight?'

'...and then there are those who hired the assassin...would they allow Monki to be captured that easily?' All of these thoughts swarm around in Eric's mind. What truly worried him were those people in the shadows, the ones who had hired the assassin...there was no way that they didn't have a plan B.

"Sally, what do you think would be the next move that those who sent the assassin might take after that failure?" He asked.

"...they must have placed all their faith on the assassin seeing how string he was, now that he's dead, they must be preparing a plan B..."

"...if I were them, I would prepare a plan to prevent Monki from ever getting back to underground city, or Kampala city. Monki might have evidence against them, their is also the possibility that he will tell Njibwa, or any of us, so they will try to have all of us killed on our way back." She said.

"Really? I don't believe they can get the resources without alerting the high authority, right?" Elena asked.

"Don't be so naive! Elder Muti is one of those who doesn't want us alive. They will try to get him to help in their scheme since they are faced with desperation. Desperate people can do anything! Though, whether their scheme succeeds or not, elder Muti will ultimately be the winner." Sally continued.

"So, we have to find a way to survive the scheme?" Eric asked.

"Yes, it would be better if on our return journey, we take other roads. Also, we must set our target as the underground city since Kampala city is their turf."

"Wait a second! Njibwa is the fiancee of Mugumivu, surely they won't kill her too? Right? That would bring his wrath down on them." Elena interjected.

"As I said before, they are desperate. Even if they don't want to do it, elder Muti will force their hand and blame it all on them." Sally explained.

"This is going to become a very big event. It might even fail to be surpressed, causing Kampala city to become a laughing stock." Chloe said.

"I don't want that to happen. We, who are citizens might even fail to get the rewards we deserve from the war. So, we must make sure that this is kept under wraps...but even I, with all my wisdom know that such a thing is impossible due to the scope of the people involved." Sally sighed after saying that.

"We could always contact Mugumivu and get him to work with us." Eric proposed.

"...but all this will have to wait until after we save Leah." Eric continued.

-----

Elder Muti had once again stepped out of the situation room and come out into the same office as before. This time a sliver of a smile adorned his face, lighting up his features. His entire body radiated a jovial aura as he leaned back into his chair and beheld the man standing in front of him.

His fingers were crossed and his half smile wielded as a mocking tool.

"What brings you here at this time?" He asked. Even though the drones had crashed after the team he had sent out was annihilated, he had his means of getting the information about the Monki situation.

Bunyogovu, like the loyal woman she was, was standing at his side, slightly behind as a bodyguard in case the person standing opposite decided to attack.

A black suit, incapable of hiding a potbelly clearly too massive for the short man. He had a large face, and a black cane was placed on the ground at his left, with his left palm holding it. Though, it was a wonder whether the man truly ever needed the cane, or was simply a copycat.

His face was calm but his eyes betrayed his inner turmoil. The man had come alone, probably his cronies had all refused the task that was meeting elder Muti. Elder Muti's smug grin alone caused the man to want to grind his teeth together. His partners probably avoided the task to come here because of the mockery that would be heaped upon them.

"Elder Muti, we all want the same thing, don't we? So I believed there is an avenue where we could work together." The man started. He lifted his right hand and adjusted his tie. A few beads of sweat had already formed on his forehead.

"Work together...that's a nice sounding proposition. What brought this on? And why do we need to work together? I don't understand anything. Would you elaborate?" The elder asked smugly.

The man grinded his teeth audibly, but he didn't lash out. Politics and negotiations were a complicated thing. Emotions were the first this that needed to be placed away for you to be able to benefit. The man knew all this but it didn't stop him from wishing that he could leap over that table and strangle the elder to death with his meaty hands.

"Elder, are joking with me now? You know what I am talking about." The man said playfully, trying to act as if what the elder said had been a joke. He also wanted to lighten up the atmosphere.

"You failed." The elder said simply causing the man to tremble at that. Bunyogovu almost had the urge to laugh at the man's squirming body, which looked like a large cute caterpillar.

Those two simple words had caused the man to feel as if his thoughts had frozen. Failure was a term he was less acquainted with. But now he was, and he had been pushed to the level of even asking someone he wanted beneath himself for help.

"We can work together of course, but I need some sincerity. I can't partner up with you lot for free." The elder straightened his posture and placed both his elbows on the surface of the desk. He wanted to see what he could squish out of this fat worm.

"Benefits can be talked about after the plan has succeeded." The man said, his eyes moving around the room, intentionally avoiding elder Muti's gaze.

"It seems like you still have some fight left in you. That means that you still aren't ready to cooperate. You do know that I am currently a busy man, right? Let's go Bunyogovu..." The elder pretended to stand up.

"Wait! I...we shall give you the formula for the production of high energy corn!" The man shouted in his panic to prevent them from leaving.

The elder's face registered some shock at that, and he sat down, his eyes brightening with each second until they became too blinding for the man. He felt as if he had just given a very fat juicy piece of meat to a wolf.

-----

"Have you managed to ascertain which floor they are on?" A voice came a few meters away. The sound of feet making contact with soil entered Njibwa's ears along with that question. She recognised the voice. It came from that blue eyed boy. Even before really greeting her properly, he had asked a question. Her face warped in displeasure for an instant before settling back into a warm one.

She, and the team that had come along with her were sitting in large pieces of fallen concrete, green moss coating their surfaces. They must have broken off the skyscraper a long time ago.

"You sure took a long time to arrive." She said without answering his question.

"Do you have any idea of which floor they are on?" Eric's voice once again entered her ears, this time even closer.

"Hmpf!" She scoffed.

Four figures came out of some ruins after some time. Eric's team had arrived. Though he was currently frowning at Njibwa. She hadn't answered the questions he had just asked.

"Njibwa, its nice to see you. It has been a long time." Sally walked up to her and gave her a hug. The squad from the Black Diamond Group was currently analysing the four that had just arrived.

The captain, who had been relaxed the entire time that they had been waiting narrowed his eyes when his gaze fell upon Eric and Chloe. He could feel a dangerous aura emanating from them. They were like swords, their sharpness hidden within their scabbards.

"Do you feel it too captain?" The woman who had been seated beside the captain whispered the question upon which he nodded imperceptibly.

"Njibwa, do you know the floor they are currently residing on?" Eric asked. The captain could feel that aura getting inreasingly dangerous.

"We don't know. They haven't made any action that gave them away." The captain hurriedly answered when he felt that it was getting increasingly dangerous. Since they three had been through multiple dangerous situations, they had developed an instinctive perception on the danger level of an individual at first contact. The danger they felt from this boy was equal to that they felt from the occasional spectrum warrior they had come across. Even before the war, the Black Diamond Group had nurtured a batch of spectrum warriors whom they used to undertake missions secretly.

Their group had had the chance to look at one of them from a far...and the aura the woman had been giving off had been terrifying at the time.

"Thank you." Eric politely said, causing the captain to be taken aback. He wasn't the only one, even the other two in his team were shocked and felt flattered.

"Njibwa, your status doesn't mean that you can't be killed. True power comes from oneself in this era." Chloe said sagely.

"I will reach your level in a few months." She spat back after breaking the hug.

"Okay okay there is no need to be at each other's throats. Captain, could you introduce the information you have about the building so far." Sally intervened.

"Okay." The captain answered after a nod from Njibwa.

"This building has about 150 floors in total. Most of the lower 50 floors had gardens within them, so the plants have grown wildly, creating a sort of vertical jungle. They have damaged some of the staircases, so we might need to climb up using vines and trees to reach the higher floors. Some structures have also already broken away from the building, only held in place by the plants. Large creatures couldn't firm habitats there, so smaller agile ones occupy the place. We will need to be cautious about them. The most important thing is that, you should never damage any plant or tree growing along a concrete wall, or else the whole building could come down on us." The captain finished.

"Where do you suppose Monki and Leah could be?" Eric asked.

The captain put a hand in his pockets and brought out a bunch of emerald things.

"These are the scales of the hostage. We think she and Monki launched them from above, trying to confuse us and waste a bit of our time. According to the angle, they must have been launched from the ten highest floors." He concluded.

Elena came forward and accepted the scales, after which she cradled them with importance.

The captain also took out a bunch of brown fur and showed it to the group.

"Now, we are going to need to go up, but we will need to be in teams...two people per team." He proposed.

"Why?" Chloe asked.

"Because according to or estimation, there are many areas through which they could slip by us. We need to at least be able to cover a larger area. I would have proposed that each one moves alone, but mistakes can happen and someone might die. With two man cells, you can have someone looking out for you." He said.

"I will be moving with Sally." Eric proposed. Chloe's eyes glinted at the suggestion. She had figured out his motive. He wanted her to pair up with Elena since he didn't tryst the others. He could even keep an eye on Sally.

"I will team up with..." The captain started.

"I will team up with this woman." Njibwa beat him to the punch. Climbing vines while a male oogled at you wasn't exactly a great feeling.

"Tch!" The captain clicked his tongue quietly. He had missed out on an opportunity.

"It seems that leaves the two of us." He said while patting the driver's back.

"Sally, is it agreeable with you?" Eric asked.

"It doesn't really matter who I go with." She shrugged.