He followed her, and stood at attention near the bench. After all, a soldier trying to win a promotion would want to look sharp, right? He spoke softly, and quietly to avoid being overheard. "You didn't get anything out of that? That one who knew you, Keio... he knew something. The look on his face when you asked that question, and he mentioned Timber Maniacs. Somebody saw them there. They must've.", he said. His training let him gain just as much information from what was not said as what was.

Quinn kept her focus on the ground. Even after she wiped away her tears, she was unsure of if those were the last tears or just the start. She didn’t want to be rude towards Dante, but continued to look ahead at the ground when she spoke to him.

“Well, I didn’t get anything obvious. Keio knows something, as does the Captain. They both know you’re not who you say you are, but why they didn’t call it right there could be for many reasons. As for Timber Maniacs, who knows what that could be about? One of the intelligence officers told me that they monitored some Esthar activity there a little while ago, that’s probably what Keio is referring to. If I was just about the bodies you’ve stacked up, I think they would have taken you out right there.”

She was very impressed that Dante kept his composure during her conversation with the soldiers. Quinn didn’t want to admit it, but she knew if she had made a mistake in her approach to the soldiers, diplomacy would have been the first thing out the window. Whether she spilled blood or not was an entirely different concern. That was one of the few knocks against Quinn: she focused too much on the consequences for both her and her opponent. It didn’t slow her reaction time or decision making at all, but for her, it almost felt like time came to a standstill in certain situations. Every good soldier knows their opponent has something to fight for as well, but Quinn was one of the few that wanted everyone to go home at the end of the day.

It was a weakness that had brought about severe consequences in the past. Even after losing someone close to her heart, she still didn’t change her ways. A review was done on her performance after Mission 255-O, the fourth mission in her SeeD career and one where nothing went according to plan. All the people who came to her defense stated different reasons why she wasn’t in the wrong: mercy isn’t a problem, Alexander got into her mind, and it went on and on….yet Quinn didn’t say a word. Three hours long and she just stayed in her seat, without a sound, almost as if she wasn’t even there. She spent those three hours wondering why nobody gave her their condolences for the loss of her fiancé.

After a few minutes of silence, Quinn gathered herself together and sat up straight. The tears had been gone for a little bit and she wasn’t worried about them coming back. She stretched her arms from the bench and then stood up, looking to Dante.

“We’ve got a little bit before daybreak. In that uniform, you could easily get into the hotel if you wanted to rest. Other than that, I don’t know what we could do now. I think its best not to get ourselves into too much trouble before we find out what Keio has to say.”

Dante hadn’t asked her how she knew the troops. Nor did he ask what they meant about her “wounds” healing. Quinn decided she would tell him later on. Maybe it would be good, the honesty might make things easier between them. Or maybe he would think her weak, look at her as a liability from there on. Honesty had its’ prices.