Kali was looting the weapons as Philip stood muttering to himself. He still hadn’t told her his plan, and they could hardly wait for much longer.

“What are you doing?” She finally asked.

“I’m using a skill, [Most Likely Outcome] to see what we should do in the short-term.” he said.

“Doesn’t sound like a very precise skill. How reliable is it?” It was clearly better than nothing, but still.

“As the name implies it’s not very reliable, it only shows me the most plausible outcome given what I know, and it can vary wildly, but it still helps alright?” He snapped back.

“Right now, it seems the best course of action would be to hide here.” He added, with a complexe mix of emotions.

“Hide here? I mean I get the hide where they least expect it idea, but it’s not really a great place for hiding yourself, much less two of us, now is it?” She said as she made a wide wave showing the room, which was fairly big, but with no good hiding spots whatsoever.

“Well, I’ll excuse your lack of faith in my genius for now, as you are too ignorant, but I have always prided myself with having backup plans.” He retorted, proud of himself.

“Oh? And pray tell, where were those backup plans when you tried to stop me and the others from escaping?” She said, knowing it wasn’t a good idea to say, but couldn’t stop herself from saying nonetheless.

The afronted look on his face was enough to know it was worth it for her.

“Well, maybe I was too short on time at the time for backup plans, alright? Plus, you only succeeded because I was ignorant of many relevant facts, so my [Most Likely Outcome] kept getting everything very wrong, alright?” He tried to argue back.

“Are you saying I was lucky?” There was something about Philip that made him fun to tease. Maybe it was his bloated pride. Also the fact that he thought so highly of himself, despite his shortcomings.

“Lucky? You were beyond lucky, and not only that, but I’ve been very unlucky since I met you.” He said, looking straight at her for the first time since they started talking. What she saw in his eyes wasn’t anger, but something much more complexe. A hint of regret, resignation but also conflicting emotions, like happiness and maybe even desire? Probably not.

Such a strange man, this Philip. At first he had seemed like a pervert, but that had been flattering in a way, if still disgusting. Then he had been mad at her for some reason, and now he seemed to think it was her fault he was where he was, but still didn’t seem very angry at her. But resigned and also with maybe a hint of relief. Which was strange beyond belief.

Hadn’t he just lost everything he had spent years working towards? He was now a wanted man, at least by this crew, and would probably have a bounty on his head for the foreseeable future.

She had always thought men were simple creatures. And she had been proven right most of the time, which made every time she had been wrong all the more confusing. Well, now was probably not the time to think about it.

***************************************

Philip didn’t like this situation one bit. He was supposed to hate her, to want revenge upon her.

But as the event replayed in his mind, and they worked together to survive, he had been, kind of happy?

Happy. It had been a very small emotion, almost too small to even notice, but it infuriated him all the more as it didn’t make any sense.

Why, even if it was infinitely small, was he happy about this fiasko? Relief of his responsibilities? Freedom from a post he had hated all his life? That was the only explanation he could think of, and honestly, he didn’t have time to delve on it right now.

Looking back at Kali cleaning her face and hands in a sink, he thought of the best way to get out of this mess he was in.

Then a brilliant idea struck him. They had both assumed they were both wanted. But that wasn’t true! Stupid Kali had taken that conclusion in her haste.

No, they thought the slaves were all under control. No one knew they were working together, except Marco who had suspected it. The announcement hadn’t been about her in any way, shape or form.

Which meant, his genius had prevailed yet again. He himself needed to hide however, but she was free to blend in with the crew to check things out and pave his way out of here.

“Are you done cleaning up? We should hide and discuss our next steps. And I just so happen to have an incredibly good idea to get me, I mean us, out of here.” He stated proudly. Was he trying to impress her? No way, he simply was impressive to anyone who met him. It was only natural if she was impressed by his genius.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how much more time before anyone comes.” She said, looking at the door.

“Don’t worry, it’s locked and should get us enough time to hide even if someone comes.” He said smugly. Hadn’t she seen him fiddling with the door? Stupid, it had been the first thing he did, obviously.

“Alright, come on.” he said, motioning her to follow him.

They went through the door to his, uh, extra private room. In a corner there was an out of place small library. Library maybe wasn’t the best word. The slim shelf only had one and a half row with books, the rest having small statues and whatnot. Pulling a book, the whole thing swung open to a small space.

He turned to her in triumph to see her expression only to be greeted by a raised eyebrow.

“Really? A library that swings open. Plus, it’s a library so out of place it basically screams ‘hidden room’.” She said as she placed her hands on her hips, wholly unimpressed

“Well, I don’t see you bringing a better solution to the table.” He spluttered. The gal! He was presenting the best possible solution, and she just trampled all over it. He was probably saving her life here! The audacity.

A sound from the hallway interrupted them. That sounded like a loot of boots and shuffling in front of his door. Kali had quickly become quiet as well, and he motioned her to get in.

Having little choice given the situation, they both cramped in there. It was still big enough for the two of them without being all over each other, which was ideal but he still didn’t like for some reason, but they would still be a bit balled up in their respective corners.

Just as they were closing up the ‘door’ a contained explosion could be heard from the other main room. They had blown away the door from the sound of it and were now rushing in, only to find Marco’s body and his goons.

“Stop walking all over the place!” A voice could be heard saying.

“He probably didn’t stay here and we need clues.” The voice added, along with the sound of a back head getting a slap.

“Well, Marco is definitely dead.” Another voice said.

“Yeah, shame.” The other voice said without seeming to mean a word.

“See these traces on the floor? He started walking towards the hallway, before stopping and getting rid of the blood under his boots. Ain’t no telling where he hid himself, but so far, no one has seen the bastard.” A third voice spoke up.

Philip turned to look at Kali who had a shit eating grin on her face. Her work? Damn, even he had to admit that had been a good move on her part. He should have been the one to come up with it.

“Search the place just in case.” The first voice said, seemingly bored.

“You ain’t the boss.” Another said, and they started bickering as they searched the room.

Philip could hear footsteps and people messing up with all of his stuff. Probably throwing everything he owned in a fit of rage when they couldn’t find him. Imagining the scene and their frustration helped make him feel better.

Two lizardfolk entered his special room and he stopped breathing, just in case. The slim shelf was one way see through and why he had several sculptures instead of only books which would have blocked his view.

“I can only pity who he put in here, the sick bastard.” One of them said.

“Yeah, look at this place, he has no taste! It’s just so ugly. Look at this, a damn library here.” The other one said, laughing.

“It’s so he can torture his foes with terrible litterature of course!” The other one shot back.

“Litterature, Hah! Booooring.” They continued joking but actually started to move everything just in case. His tools were thrown out of their case on the ground, the table they had been on, overturned.

Soon one of them came to the slim shelf and started pulling out the books. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Kali sweating, even preparing herself to fight for her life.

The books kept being pulled out, several at a time, and soon, there were only a few books left. Philip couldn’t help the smile that was creeping in on his face as he looked over towards Kali’s panicked state.

The last books were pulled out and clattered on the ground, but the shelf still hadn’t moved. Turning to her with a grin, she looked at him in confusion, trying to sign her question.

Who the hell learned sign language? What a stupid waste of time. Anyway, he’d tell her later, but it had seemed obvious to him when he had it installed. If you were hiding in here, you didn’t want someone randomly opening the thing! So of course he had made it so you could toggle it on and off while hiding in here.

Stupid Kali thought she was always so smart. Hah! Showed her his genius foresight yet again!

The grunts continued to search the place for a bit more but soon joined the rest in the main room. They mumbled about this being a waste of time and soon were out of here.

Kali turned to him slowly, signing something even he could understand from her face and gesture. What now? What now indeed.

He motioned for her to get closer so he could whisper in her ear. She refused, motioning for him to come to her. Uhg! Couldn’t she see that he had finally found a good position in this cramped space?

Refusing, he gestured more vividly for her to get close again. To which she refused again! Motioning even more wildly than he.

Crossing his arms, he thought about their situation? Of course he could be the bigger man here, but it set precedents for later. And he knew it was a slippery slope. You say yes to a woman once, and then it was all downhill from there.

He saw her roll her eyes as he crossed his arms. He wasn’t pouting, no, he was, uh. Being completely reasonable and not childish at all. Rolling her eyes, she finally decided to move towards him instead.

He couldn’t help but smile at the small victory. To which she sighted. Coming up to his ear she whispered.

“So, what now mister genius?” He motioned for her to turn so he could whisper in her ear.

“Right now, we plan our moves. The first thing we have to do is be sure we are alone and can get out of here safely.” To which she nodded. Of course, it was his idea.

He mulled over his words a bit for the next part. He had to make sure she knew he was crucial to their mutual success, so she wouldn’t run away on her own.

“You are going to be doing the most for the next part of the plan, but my knowledge will be invaluable to your success. Basically, I need you to, I mean, we need you to secure some things.” He got interrupted as she pulled away to whisper in his ear instead.

“Could you just spit it out already? Be more specific.” She said.

Be more specific! Hah, as if it was that easy. Plus, he didn’t have a plan per se, more of an idea of how to start untangling this mess. Pulling closer to her ear again he continued.

“Okay, so the main thing we are going to use here, is that they are all after me. They think all the slaves are back under control, correct? Only a handful remember that I took you here, and they think I took you in as a slave, meaning, under control.” He kept looking at her face to make sure he didn’t miss her expressions as he explained.

She seemed to go from frowning at first, to understanding, to frowning with a pinch of revulsion.

“Now you already blended in once, so we can send you to get everything we need to get out of here for good. With my knowledge of the ship, and you sneaking around doing everything, we’ll be out of here in no time.” He finished, proud of himself. It was a brilliant plan after all. He could just stay here, completely safe, while she prepared everything for their escape! Brilliant indeed!

If she gave him up, she would lose her freedom or even her life right there, so she couldn’t betray him! Genius is what it was, and he was surprised he didn’t get a level in [Schemer] right there.

But Kali was looking at him like this was not the greatest plan ever. Which could only mean one thing. She didn’t get it.

“First of all, this is not really a plan, but okay. It’s a start. A pretty good one. Second, we can’t leave the other slaves behind Philip.” She whispered in his ear, and he saw a complicated emotion in her eyes as she pulled away.

Of course they could leave them behind. But clearly that would upset her so he refrained from saying it. The thing was, it wasn’t a bad idea either. If they somehow managed to escape with the slaves, they would forever be in their debt, and they could maybe even have some nice beefy grunts for the forseable future.

It was a greedy play by her, and he kinda liked it. But it also meant it was going to be riskier. Escaping with two people was a lot easier than fifty, or however many were left. On the other hand, maybe he didn’t need to make sure the slaves escaped, but had enough of a chance to make it on their own. That chaos would help them escape themselves.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought Kali maybe wasn’t so dumb after all. The idea had merit.

Once more he leaned closer to her to whisper in her ear.

“Okay, we’ll help the slaves. I think the first thing we need to do is secure some food, and a good disguise for you. Also you’ll need to steal someone’s security pass so you can access the armory and all the important areas.” He said to her.

“Why food? I get the rest but, food? Really?” She said in response.

“Well of course food. Look, you’ll be out and about, but I’ll be hiding somewhere and starving. The longer we wait, let’s say two or three days, the less guarded they’ll be.” He looked at her like she was stupid.

Did she think they were going to make everything explode yet again? When everyone was still on high alert after everything? Incredible is what it was!

“I’m not sure I’ll have the patience for that, but okay. I’d say it’s about time we made sure no one is still around, alright?” Which made sense. They had talked for a while and there hadn’t really been a sound.

Philip touched the open/close rune and the shelf slowly opened without a sound. As they slowly snuck out, he put a few books back up where they were so they could activate it again.

Just as he was done, Kali was looking at him with a completely serious expression and motionned him over while making sure he understood he had to make no sound.

Ever so slowly he crept forward, making sure to avoid what had been carelessly thrown on the ground. Ludicrous is what it was. Throwing away tools on a table, like they would hide in a table or something. There were other things like the chains too, which he made sure to give a wide breadth of, just in case.

As he finally arrived at the door to the main room, Kali motioned for him to take a peek in the small opening she had made.

There, a bored guard stood, which raised all kinds of problems. He was probably there to make sure they caught him if he came back as he was turned towards the entrance, but as it stood, they couldn’t get Kali out there like planned.

They couldn’t kill him either, as that would alert them that they had been here at least, which would be suspicious. What if they killed him, and then they had two guards instead, or more!

As they slowly closed the door, Kali looked at him for a solution, but just this once in his life, Philip’s genius wasn’t up for it. There were no good ideas.

No, he wouldn’t be this easily defeated. There had to be a way. As he started pacing in thought, several new scenarios popped to mind.

Drug the guard with a sleeping agent? It would have to be something light, so the others didn’t suspect foul play, but only thought him lazy. But then how would she come back in?

No, that wouldn’t work. Maybe they would stop guarding the place soon? No. Never rely on the stupidity of others, expect it, but do not rely on it. Something he had learned long ago.

Think Philip! Think, there had to be a way to outsmart the stupid grunts that had taken charge of the ship. Wait! Maybe that was it. If he could figure out who was in charge, and play them against the others that wanted more power, maybe, maybe.

But wait, he was getting ahead of himself. Oh, yes, maybe if he simply just…

*Crack*

The loud sound took him out of his thoughts and he looked back in dismay at what Kali had done.

She had snuck behind the grunt and broken his neck in one swift motion. Oh lord, may the system have mercy on their souls, that stupid woman was going to be his death.

Seeing his look of disbelief and fear, she simply shrugged her shoulders and motioned for him to follow her.

To his dismay, he did, and soon they were running in the hallway. May the system have mercy on them, because he knew they would need all the luck it could give them. And maybe a bit more.