EV shook her head to his suggestion. "No, we can't use Weesog's. I think that's how he found me - I use them for my deliveries. And that man, I didn't get a good look, but he had Vench blood on his clothing. I don't think Weesog will coordinate any deliveries anymore."

She paused to acknowledge the loss of a fellow Vench and a good man.

"No tacks are safe anymore - no one is. I'm sorry about your failed delivery, I really am. But unless you deliver it yourself, you can't lead anyone else here." The question lay unasked upon the air. EV was too mixed up in things now, the hunters would never escape. The elf though, he still had a chance, it was possible nobody would realize he was connected. So would he choose his job and his safety over this ungrateful Vench who had only ever treated his socialization with silence? If so, she could not blame him. How many times had she opted for the success of her research at the expense of a colleague?

She moved over to look at the window at the street below, searching for some sign of the men following them. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing but crowds rambling through the market as usual and the roofs of a multitude of colored tents. The quiet in the room made her nerves buzz and the prototype she still held to feel heavy in her hand. Even though the windows had been mirrored for privacy, she could help but feel like something was watching them. Damn synchronicity and its way of messing up everyone's life.

She moved back from the window, into the shadows at the edge of the room. Her not eyes moved in the elf's direction, antennae providing a physical prop. "I think we have to find the source, the center of the spiral. If we keep running it will only get wider and wider and we'll never escape."