Chapter 14: A New Discovery

Blue light poured out of a small, circular device attached to a wall on the opposite side of the room.

A projection of a news anchor displayed vividly across the wall, delivering the day’s, or perhaps the night’s, breaking news.

The background alone was a dead giveaway about the nature of the news.

"Breaking news today. We’ve received information about a devastating attack on a Silver Corp facility at the edge of Skylark City that happened not less than twenty minutes ago. Officials are withholding more information regarding the attack, but speculation about it being a possible terror attack is spreading like wildfire. The reason why a Silver Corp facility was targeted remains unknown, and the terrorist is still unidentified..."

The voice of the news anchor filled the room, talking more about the attack on the facility.

Elias stood against a desk, his hands clasped behind his back as he stared at the projection on the wall, a puzzled look displayed on his face.

"How on earth did Rayleigh Pierce manage to screw up this mission?" Elias asked, a bit of frustration rolling off his tone. "His job was simple. Break in and break out. Not blow the entire building into oblivion!"

Beside him was Nou, who was also watching the holographic news update.

"So, he’s gone? No way he survived that."

"Yeah. So are my bloody weapons!" Elias gritted his teeth before slamming a fist onto the desk. "Get me Ron. Now! I want to know what the hell happened in The Vortex!"

Nou exited the room and returned a few minutes later with Ron Kol, who had successfully broken out before the attack.

The moment his gaze landed on the news projection, his jaw dropped.

"What?"

Elias tilted his head.

"Shocker, right? What the hell happened, Ron? You were supposed to come out with my weapons!"

Ron immediately explained. "I swear, boss, I was going to bring the goods when I escaped, but that guy you sent told me to run for it, that he’d go after the weapons himself."

"Well, looks like he won’t be getting my goods anymore." Elias dramatically pointed toward the projection.

"I think we’re asking the wrong questions here. How did Rayleigh Pierce manage to blow up an entire facility?"

"Who says he blew it up?" Elias asked with a raised brow.

"Take a look, boss." Nou gestured with his hands. "That news chick says the terrorist is unidentified."

"I am trying and failing miserably to see your point, Nou," said a mentally exhausted Elias.

"The Silver Corp takes great pleasure in identifying itself as the strongest armed force spanning across Skylark City. How would it look when word gets out that a ’terrorist’ has blown one of their secured facilities to bits? And said terrorist just so happens to be a non-runer."

Silence settled inside the room as Elias pondered on what Nou had said.

It honestly made sense to him. The Silver Corp would never in a million years admit that they had been attacked by a single individual, much less by a human without any abilities.

Blaming it on a terrorist was a typical cover-up move to maintain their status as the best force in the city.

The door burst open, and a person walked in hastily. His eyes searched the room before landing on Elias.

"Can it get my spaceship now?"

"You’re alive?" Ron and Nou blurted out in unison, shock written in stark detail across their faces.

"How the hell are you alive?" Elias crossed his arms as he examined Rayleigh from head to toe.

Not even so much as a bruise could be seen on Rayleigh’s skin. If he told someone he had been at The Vortex a few minutes ago, he’d be tagged as insane.

"How I’m alive isn’t important right now," Rayleigh said, stepping further into the room. "What’s important is my spaceship. I did my part."

Elias scoffed, amused. "Did you now? Our deal was simple, Pierce. Break Ron out, bring back my weapons, but you walked out with one and left the other behind, and the weapons were the part that actually mattered to me."

Elias glanced at Ron briefly.

"No offence."

Rayleigh stepped into Elias’s personal space, almost imposing.

"Give me a spaceship, Elias, or I’ll level this place the exact same way I levelled The Vortex." The threat rolled off Rayleigh’s tongue like venom.

Rather than flinch, Elias grinned.

"That’s a bold threat coming from a man who’s supposed to be a powerless little human. How exactly did you pull that off? A normal human causing that kind of destruction? That’s not something most Runers could even manage." He tapped his chin. "Unless you’re not as human as you’re letting everyone believe."

Rayleigh’s neutral expression gave nothing away.

"The question is, why would anyone go through the trouble of pretending to be a non-runer?" Elias pressed.

"The type who’s trying to keep a low profile," Rayleigh answered simply.

Elias pushed himself off the desk he had been leaning on right before Rayleigh entered.

"Fine, keep your secrets. But if you really are a runer, you know there are academies that could train you. Hone whatever it is you’re hiding."

"I don’t care about academies." Rayleigh’s tone left no room for argument. "I just need to leave this planet."

Elias studied him for a moment longer before nodding slowly. He reached for a tablet on the desk and held it out.

"If you’re that desperate to leave Earth, then do one last job for me."

"No, that’s a bad idea. My face is probably plastered all over the news by now. I destroyed a damn building; no one is exactly going to be welcoming when they see me."

"No one knows it was you," Nou cut in bluntly. "As far as the Silvereds are concerned, they’re keeping this quiet. An attack at one of their bases by a human—you—is bad for their reputation, so you can go anywhere you like, for now."

Rayleigh pondered the matter for a while, weighing his options carefully.

In all fairness, he had lied about the weapons and the fact that he had absorbed them, so it was only fair that he compensated with another mission.

Rayleigh exhaled after coming to a decision.

"Fine. What should I steal this time? Candy, perhaps?"

"As a matter of fact, I do want some candy. A very delicious candy, but I don’t know how to find it. That’s where you come in."

Rayleigh wasn’t sure he understood the candy metaphor, and he definitely wasn’t ready to entertain it.

"Get to it, Elias."

"I got new intel about something that could change the entire world if it’s real." He looked at Rayleigh. "You know how the world was destroyed six hundred years ago?"

"Yes."

Everyone knew that story. It didn’t take a history lesson to know how mankind had nearly wiped itself out with advanced alien systems.

"One of those old systems has been found," Elias revealed.

Upon hearing that bit of news, Rayleigh’s thoughts raced.

’What? A system was discovered? Could it be similar to the Advanced Romulus in any way? If it is, then it ought to be just as powerful. More powerful, perhaps.’

"I don’t know where it is yet," Elias briefed. "But I know how the information on it is being kept as a hard copy; written down. No one in their right mind stores something that valuable digitally. Nothing digital is unhackable."

"How do you even know it’s a physical file?" Rayleigh asked.

"I have my informants," Elias answered. "You’re going to steal it for me, and the place you’re stealing it from happens to be somewhere you know very well."

Rayleigh’s brow furrowed. He wasn’t sure what Elias meant by that.

"Your old workplace. Where you used to mop floors for a living."

"The file is being held by a high-ranking agent." Elias’s eyes locked onto the tablet held firmly in his grip.

"Her name is Cassandra Moon."

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