CHAPTER 307: CHAPTER 307 AVERY’S CONCERN AND DECISION

"I’ll be right there."

As soon as Avery received word about what had happened to Jasmine and Olivia, he rushed to the Dauntless’ cockpit and started up the engine.

Once again, the event staff tried to stop him, but he was willing to drop out of the entire thing if they did not let him go.

The final of the three events of the day had just wrapped up around twenty minutes ago, so it was not like there was anything else pressing until tomorrow.

Avery was far too concerned with Jasmine and Olivia’s conditions to care about any of the competition’s regulations right now.

"I get that this is disconcerting, but you should calm down a bit. We already received word that they are both alive." Kasandra said as she took the seat next to him.

He gritted his teeth hard and gripped the controls of the Dauntless tightly in frustration.

Clearly, he knew that he was overreacting but learning about how close Jasmine had been to being abducted or even killed had triggered a flood of negative emotions in him.

Partly he was angry at himself for sending her off on a dangerous mission while he was otherwise preoccupied.

Obviously, the work that they did was bound to come with certain risks, that was just part of being a mercenary.

Still, Avery could not easily change how he was currently feeling just because logically he knew that Jasmine and Olivia would be okay.

’There’s also the bastard that attacked them. If there’s anyone I’m more furious with than myself, it’s him.’

What Avery really wanted to do was fine the guy and give him a beating he would never forget before handing him over to the Alliance Police.

Unfortunately, even a giant bahnen could cover their tracks and hide themselves well.

Trying to pursue the man at this point would prove impossible.

To rescue Jasmine and Olivia, members of Olivia’s crew had set off a fairly powerful explosive charge.

This had naturally caught the attention of the authorities, and they had to lie low for now to avoid getting caught up in more trouble.

It was certainly less than ideal to have ended up on the wrong side of the law this time, but sometimes mercenary work ended up in a bit of a gray area.

At the very least, they were still morally in the right considering that they were pursuing dangerous criminals at the behest of the Chancellor of Azade.

Once Avery had been given permission to land on the capital planet, he made his way towards the designated hangar in Azade’s representative’s building where the rest of his team was staying.

"They’re both inside getting medical treatment right now. I’ll guide you to them." Langdon said, having come to greet Avery and Kasandra as soon as they exited the Dauntless.

Since it had the best equipped facilities, Jasmine and Olivia were recovering in the Olivia’s corvette’s sick bay.

Unlike on the Dauntless and other smaller ships, it was not just a small room with a medical pod, but a more proper medical facility.

Most of the equipment was stuff that they had taken from Iniquus’ station, and it was all pretty high-end.

When Avery and Kasandra entered the room, they were shocked by what they saw.

Olivia was currently unconscious in a medical pod which was not particularly unusual, but what was happening to Jasmine certainly was.

She was sitting in an isolated chamber and there were very thin needle like tendrils coming out of a frankly horrifying looking machine that had penetrated into both of her arms.

"I was kind of hoping you won’t get here until my treatment was over, but I’m also happy to see that you came to see me so quickly." Jasmine said, her voice being transmitted from a speaker from within the chamber.

Her expression was currently showing quite a few emotions.

Shame for her failure to apprehend the people that had attacked them, joy at seeing Avery again and knowing how much he cared about her, and embarrassment since he was watching her in a pretty unsettling situation.

"Are you okay? You’re not in any pain, are you?" Aver asked, approaching the chamber Jasmien was in.

"No, it doesn’t hurt. The nerves in my arms have been blocked off so I can’t feel anything. Though it’s certainly unsettling to watch." Jasmine replied with an awkward smile on her face.

As it turned out, her arms had been in pretty rough shape.

Normally, medical nano machines could fix most physical injuries such as broken bones, but sometimes the damage would exceed their capabilities.

This was what had happened with Jasmine’s arms.

In places, her bones had not just been broken but essentially pulverized into a powder. That was how hard she had been hit.

Her blood vessels and nerves had also gotten messed up pretty badly as well.

The nano machine pills she had taken had done a good job patching her up already, but some of the areas had not ended up being put back together exactly right. The machine that Jasmine was currently hooked up to was rectifying these issues.

"I’m sorry that I failed. I should have been more careful and considered the possibility of a trap. It’s my fault as the one in charge of this mission." Jasmine said, lowering her head.

Avery really wanted to comfort her and say that she had done nothing wrong, but he needed to act as the leader of his team right now.

"Yes, it was a mistake on your part, but also mine. We both underestimated our enemies because things were going well. I’m glad that no one died or got kidnapped. Going forward in future missions, we’ll need to be more careful. For this one though, we’re done."

The eyes of everyone in the room went wide when they heard this.

Even after this setback, all of them had still be expecting that they would try and pursue the ones responsible for what had happened to Jasmine and Olivia.

"Don’t you think that’s a bit rash of a decision to make right now? We’ve already been paid quite a lot for this job. Stopping at the first sign of trouble won’t look good" Kasandra said.

From the look on her face, Jasmine clearly agreed with Kasandra. She was hoping to get back at the people that had made a fool of her.

"I appreciate your input, but this is my choice to make. If the reports that I’ve been receiving are correct, then I believe that we’ve already fulfilled the contract we made with Azade’s Chancellor."

"What Jasmine’s mother wanted us to do was uncover the corruption within the Department of Education, and that’s what we’ve done. The people behind the corrupt bureaucrats is another issue. We just need to hand over everything that we’ve collected and let Azade handle the rest."

While Avery understood that there was more too all of this than they had found, things were starting to get a bit too dangerous for his tastes.

He needed to consider the safety of his team here.

Also, what they were doing was already a bit outside of the work that most mercenaries would do.

Something like this would typically be under the purview of a specialized private investigation company.

Regina had asked them to do it mainly because she knew that Avery’s team could be trusted since Jasmine was a part of the group and in a relationship with Avery.

This job had been a means to assist her daughter as well.

The money had not been an outright gift, but it was clear that Regina had overpaid for the service that was being provided. No doubt this was for Jasmine’s betterment.

Of course, this probably meant that her mother would not want her daughter to be taking any undo risks.

Once she found out how much danger Jasmine was in, she might even go so far as to cancel the request even if they continued investigating.

After Avery explained all of this and his own thought process, the others were more accepting of his decision.

Certainly, he could have just ordered everyone to drop things without giving a proper explanation, but that could cause resentment to build up. When it was possible, Avery wanted to be as transparent with his team as he could.

"Fine. I really wanted to get back at that bahnen that messed me and Olivia up, but I understand." Jasmine said, closing her eyes and sighing deeply.

"Don’t worry. We’ve got an image of his face thanks to you and Olivia. We’ll hand that over to your mother as well. Hopefully she’ll be able to find him. And honestly, I think whatever she will do to him will be a lot worse than anything that we could." Avery replied with a wry smile.

After that, Avery and Kasandra sat around with Jasmine until her treatment was completed.

They did not do anything of importance and merely chatted with each other.

Naturally, the topic of the competition came up, and Avery and Kasandra were able to state proudly that they were currently in second place.

In the second and third event of the day, they had managed to place fourth and second. Not the best, but still enough to keep them close to the top. Depending on how things went in the final event tomorrow, it would still be possible for them to dethrone Cerise and take first place overall.

Eventually, Avery and Kasandra had to leave.

Fortunately, they had accomplished their goal of checking in on Jasmine and Olivia, and Avery had put an end to the dangerous assignment now that they had collected enough evidence.

Now the only thing left for them to do in the capital system was finish up and hopefully win the competition.