The relief at seeing a friendly face - even if it was a skinny elf those men could snap like a twig without even thinking about it - brought the Vench's natural defensiveness down. She didn't ask how he knew she was in trouble - in Ruin that question was redundant. If you needed help, it would find you. Of course, trouble always had a way of finding you too. She shuddered at the scream though it was barely loud enough to be heard. The erratic movement of the elf's compass was definitely a comforting thing.

"I-I don't know why they're here." She followed him as fast as she was able, her body not built for speed or even much travel at all. Fortunately adrenaline gave her the extra push she needed to brush past any tiredness and lethargy that had been weighing her down for the last several days.

"Even if my research was discovered - and I've never mentioned it to anyone - I don't think it was on the scale to alert Central."

She remembered the note from Dreg that morning, so hurriedly scribbled on the wrapping of her list. It would have been relatively easy to trace back to her drop spot if someone had managed to get their hands on it. She trusted Dreg to be careful - he always had been. But sometimes merely being careful was not enough. She offered up a brief hope to whatever fates might be listening that the trader would be alright. He might have lived on the wrong side of the law, but he had always been a good supplier and a reliable man.

"This morning, I did try and get in touch with my supplier. Not for anything bad - just some alloys and things. Maybe it got mixed up with the other events at the university...?"

She had the feeling that this was all just some kind of horrible misunderstanding. Central agents did not just wander around Ruin taking out relatively harmless scientists just trying to do their work below the radar of the government. That was reserved for the desk workers. These men had 'killer' written all over them. EV did not want to get mixed up in their business, but she had the feeling that it was already too late.

No other screams had followed that single echo from before and EV wondered if they were simply too far away to hear them any longer. Or if the men had other tricks up their sleeves to deal with a hunting gate. The sound of the sewage water flowing past distorted any other echoes, but she thought she could hear the angry rat-tat of quick footsteps. She could see the man in the black coat in the grainy shapes at the edge of her vision, but when she turned he was not there. She wouldn't have put it past him, however, to sacrifice his own companion to the hunting gate to escape.