Chapter 57: Dust Devil
The group stared at the torches as they hovered in the wind. The lights pierced the gloom despite the hurricane, which made Coop think they weren’t just regular torches. The Empire was probably using someone’s abilities to keep watch. They had covered some decent ground, thanks to Derek’s support, so they expected to be near the inner ring. It seemed like the Empire was actively guarding their wall.
“Could we try going around?” Madison suggested as she peered through the wind.
Marcus was the first to shake his head. “They’ll be using the entire inner ring. All hands on deck until the threat is cleared.” He glanced around them. “In this case, the threat is the storm.”
“So this isn’t a manhunt for whoever killed Rod?” Coop asked the apparently knowledgable Marcus.
Derek missed a note and sounded like he popped a string. “Hold up. Are you saying Rod is dead?”
Coop just shrugged, jostling Madison, but it was enough for Derek to jump for joy and start strumming a new, out of tune song.
He stopped when he hit the untuned string. “You know he had a legendary class?”
“He mentioned it.” Coop stated. Between Rod, Charlie, and Camila’s declined class, it seemed like there were a bunch of those going around.
Marcus ignored Derek’s antics and answered Coop’s manhunt question. “This is a hold pattern, if someone in leadership was assassinated it would look a lot different and more people would be mobilized.”
“Maybe they’ll just let us through then.” Coop suggested. “If they’re not looking for us specifically, we can just say we’re taking shelter from the wind.”
“Nah, mate, they’ll hold us for sure.” Derek argued, still looking for someone to celebrate with him. He smirked at Camila while tuning his guitar.
Camila ignored him completely while staring intently at Coop. “Let me take care of it.” She requested. The look in her eye told him she felt like she had something to prove, but he didn’t think something like that was necessary.