After Avery and Jasmine had gotten a good distance away from the warehouse, the two of them stopped and waited for the others to meet up with them.
Both of them were breathing heavily and looked sick because of the act they had just put on. While they had not incurred any physical damage, it had certainly brough them no small amount of mental distress.
They had needed to act like they were absolutely depraved to sell the act. In the heat of the moment right when Kasandra and Grito were coming out of the vent, Avery realized that the guard that had approached them was getting suspicious and he had done something horrible to Jasmine.
She had played along, but just remembering it made him feel like throwing up.
"Never again. I'd rather just start shooting than have to do something like that another time." Avery said, his expression one of utter disgust.
"I know it was my idea, but I think I agree. That was far worse than I thought it would be."
Jasmine looked completely ashamed of herself. Sure, their tactic had been effective, but it had required doing something that crossed over the line of what she was comfortable with. She was far from being some chaste maiden but showing off her body to so many people like that was beyond unsettling. And the way Avery had been forced to act sickened her. It was far removed from how he normally was and the man she fell in love with.
"I don't know, I thought that it was pretty funny. When I first saw the two of you, I almost burst out laughing and gave myself away."
Kasandra wore a big smirk as she rounded the corner and met back up with Avery and Jasmine. She had seen their entire distraction, and it was certainly amusing to have watched the two of them acting completely different from normal.
"How about next time you take my role then." Jasmine responded bitterly.
"Oh no, I don't think I can replace Avery's babydoll."
Kasandra's snarky reply had both Avery and Jasmine's face burning bright red as they were forced to relieve what they had just done.
Still, their back and forth bickering at the very least helped Avery and Jasmine to forget how disgusted they had been feeling. Being a bit angry and frustrated at being teased was a lot easier to deal with.
"I get that the three of you are close but now is not the time for this. You can flirt later. We need to get going." Ezra said, walking into view.
"Yeah, you're right. But why is Grito hanging off your back?"
Avery was perplexed to see a small head popping up over Ezra's shoulder. For some reason, Grito was clinging to him.
"We need to hurry and get out of here, and as I'm sure you know, he's not able to keep up with us when we're really moving."
"Plus, I have a far better vantage point from up here. I can keep a look out for any pursuers." Grito added.
Deciding to simply accept the explanations given to him, Avery took the lead and started heading back to the hangar where their ships were waiting. It was time for them to meet back up with Kaiden and go through what they had found.
"Yeah. The sick bastard he works for put this in his head." Kaiden said, pulling out a clear container that held some sort of device in it."
After getting back to the hangar, their group of six met back on the Dauntless to discuss things.
Unfortunately, Kaiden's news came as a shock to all of them and was far from good.
The prisoner they had taken ended up dying because he was about to spill intel on his boss. It was certainly a twisted way to keep people in line, but it had been effective.
Just before Kaiden was able to figure out who those private soldiers worked for, the man had been racked with immense pain and died soon after.
"This is just great. But at least we got the communication information from their base. With it we should be able to trace it back to where Grito's uncle is being held."
"Hey, just because the guy died before telling me who his boss is, doesn't mean that I didn't get any useful information." Kaiden interjected.
Quickly he relayed what he had learned, and it was both shocking and infuriating.
"So, their boss, lord, or whatever they call him, gives mercenaries off the books jobs and then kidnaps them. That's just down right…"
Avery became so furious he could not even get the words out.
He was angry at the person behind everything and himself. The people that they had been fighting and even killed some of were being forced to do the bidding of a figure that had abducted and enslaved them.
Then there was the fact that these people were their peers. Mercenaries just like them that had rotten luck and ended up tricked.
"To think that someone would do something ." Jasmine said, an aghast expression on her face.
"It certainly is heinous, but I understand why it was done. Mercenaries go missing all the time, so no one is going to heavily investigate a few disciplines. A lot of them have decent skills and don't need much training to become soldiers as well. For someone without any morals, its an easy way to build up their forces."
"Ezra, why are you saying something like that?" Avery said, his rage apparent.
He felt that Ezra sounded a bit too nonchalant as he was explaining things. They were mercenaries themselves. People like them were being targeted and forced to act as slave soldiers.
"I was just coming at it from a rational point of view. But don't get me wrong, I find it despicable as well. I'm pissed off just like the rest of you. If I had my hands on the person behind this, I'd rip them apart right now."