After a while.
The girl in the baseball cap emerged from the bushes first, with Turner following behind, his gun trained on her.
The frail-looking leader stared at the girl in the cap. She showed no sign of panic.
He waved a hand, signaling Turner to lower his gun.
In a friendly but feeble voice, he said:
"Hello. Most people call me Mantis. What should I call you?"
"Kara."
"Good, Kara. I have a question. Since you've been following us all this way, why show yourself now?"
The others froze at that, especially Turner.
She had been following them the whole way, and none of them had noticed.
And she had revealed herself on purpose...
"You're the strongest group here. I want to work together."
"Haha."
Mantis seemed to find Kara's words hilarious. He laughed so hard he could barely breathe.
The mercenaries: "..."
Their leader had a strange, low threshold for laughter. He often laughed and laughed, then suddenly killed someone. That senseless cruelty terrified them.
Once he had caught his breath, Mantis said, "You said it yourself: we're the strongest. So why should we work with you?"
He looked Kara up and down. "Nice figure. But I wonder how wet you get. Care to satisfy my curiosity?"
The crude turn came out of nowhere.
Worse, his tone was perfectly serious, as if he were genuinely discussing it with Kara.
Kara seemed to consider it just as seriously before shaking her head.
"No."
"I see. What a shame."
Mantis looked regretful, then gazed at Kara, waiting for her to explain why they should work together.
Kara said:
"Two reasons.
"First, you've lost the trail, and I can point you in the right direction.
"Second, once the job is done, I won't take any of the bounty."
"No bounty?" Mantis