Chương 333: 339: A Plague of Phantoms: A Reason to Reflect IV
<You good Iris?> I asked through the manacite communication ring.
<So far. General Panzer hasn't noticed me yet.> Iris replied.
<Where is he headed?> I asked.
<Looks like back to the hotel for Egypt. He's probably trying to warn his collaborators or prepare for a quick exit.> Iris said.
I frowned and crossed my arms, contemplating that notion then quickly dismissed it. Considering General Panzer is a general in the Egyptian Air force it would stand to reason that he had a evo capable of flying him off the island.
<He's warning his collaborators. Iris, have one of your evos follow him instead. I need you back here on the King's Glaive.> I told her. There was a moment of silence before Iris responded.
<Alright, Rainbow is following him now. Where is the King's Glaive now?> Iris asked.
<Back in the willow forest. I can have Grimm-Guard or Bone-lasher come get you?> I offered.
<No need. I'll be back soon.> Iris replied. I nodded then turned my attention back to those in the room around.
I was inside the King's Glaive's storage car with Jane, Jade, Nate, Bo, Madilyn, Haws, Astrid, Alberto, Damon, Louie, Angie, KC, Grandpa Seamus, and our two new hires Reagan and Anders. Though the later two were currently handcuffed and restrained on their knees by a spell that Jane had cast the moment she saw them.
Reagan was calm about the situation, Anders however was not. He was noticeably irate, understandable considering that Jane literally walked into the room and cast the spell with no warning.
"What's the deal? I thought we'd proven ourselves already!" Anders snapped. I held a hand up to silence him then replied.
"We had a situation happen that's put us on edge."
"What situation?" Reagan asked suspiciously.
"Chad is dead." I said plainly. Reagan and Anders looked shocked and I couldn't detect any signs of them putting on a act.
"Dead? What do you mean dead?" Anders demanded.
"As in no longer alive. Obviously…" Reagan said snidely. Anders looked at Reagan drolly and scowled.
"No shit! I meant how did he die?" Anders said.
"Should have said that then." Reagan quipped teasingly then looked to me, his expression serious. " Do you suspect us? Can't your splicing train-thingy tell you we haven't left this room?"
"We know you didn't kill him. It was Nate there." I replied, pointing over to the man in question. Anders and Reagan both looked at Nate incredulously, frowned then looked at each other.
"Wait…him?" Reagan asked.
"You don't have to sound so surprised!" Nate snapped. Jade chuckled and patted her Husband's arm reassuringly.
"Calm down honey." Jade said. Nate deflated almost instantly and pouted.
"He didn't kill him directly, the Briar Lieons did that but it wouldn't have been possible without Nate crushing his leg." I clarified then narrowed my eyes on Reagan and Anders. "Chad betrayed us and was trying to lure Sin into a trap to kill him and make it easier for them to steal the evos. I'm a little distrusting of new people right now."
"Then why isn't she tied up?" Anders exclaimed and pointed to Madilyn. "She's the president's granddaughter!"
Everyone blinked then turned to look at Madilyn in unison. She looked back nervously then looked back at me. I sighed and stomped my foot on the ground while channeling frost attribute mana. A trail of ice crept along the ground and circled around her feet. Ice erupted from the spot and encased her lower body.
"What the…?" Madilyn exclaimed and futilely smacked the ice to try and smash the ice but it didn't budge. She then scowled, looked to me and pouted. "…really Chase!"
"What? He has a point…" I said with a shrug.
"You didn't have to turn me into a popsicle!" Madilyn griped.
"Would you rather he used electricity?" Haws asked her. Madilyn froze, then cocked a eye at me. I only gave her a sly smile in response then turned back to looked at Reagan and Anders.
"Sho'lajah, control car door has been opened from the outside. A authorized personnel has entered." King's Glaive announced over the intercom.
"That'll be Iris probably…or Jane's parents." I said to the mana train.
"Acknowledged, Sho'lajah." King's Glaive replied.
A few moments later Iris walked into the car, she gave a quick cursory glance and didn't seem surprised to see Madilyn or Anders and Reagan bound. She then quickly walked over to Jane and whispered something into her ear before rushing over to me.
"Madilyn is not a traitor." Iris whispered in my ear in Torapos.
"I know, of these three she's the last I suspect." I replied, also in Torapos.
"I heard my name! Are you two talking about me?!" Madilyn exclaimed.
"I don't suspect her either or those two, Chase. I wanted to gather everyone here to talk to you." Jane spoke up, switching to Torapos.
"I feel a lecture coming on…" I muttered.
"A well deserved one, prolly, Starlight." Seamus said, once again using Torapos. Jane and Iris stepped in front of me and shot me serious looks.
"Not the time for your normal sass, Chase." Jane said, switching back to Universal standard. "Nate nearly died and the Briar Lieons were nearly stolen…all because of Chad."
"I think you're forgetting a very important factor in this…a familial factor." Bo spoke up, earning him a glare from Jane which Bo returned. Surprisingly Jane relented and glanced off to the side. "You're right. I shared some of the blame however Chase's handling of the Chad predicament is another matter entirely. He was a traitor to my family's royal guard and he assumed that because he showed a modicum of remorse and redemption that he was trustworthy. You gave him free reign of the shop and the apartments with little to no supervision. It's no wonder he was able to help orchestrate this attack."
"That's not really fair…" Angie said, immediately coming to my defense.
"…Yeah! If you were so suspicious then why didn't you keep a closer watch on him!" Haws exclaimed.
"Lets not forget you just said that Chad was originally from your own family's guard….if your father with a entire branch of a intelligence agency under his control couldn't tell someone was a traitor, how could Chase?" Louie spoke up.
Jane looked startled and a little rattled from the sudden battering from Angie, Haws, and Louie. She took a step back, looking like a scolded child for a split second before steeling herself and scowling.
"He is the owner of this company. Our boss, your landlord, and protector. He accepted responsibility for all our lives the moment he took the right to command us." Jane said sternly yet calmly.
"That's…" Haws started.
"You're right." I said suddenly, cutting off Haws. I walked over to Reagan and Anders, stopping in front of them. "Regardless of the outcome or the different routes that could have been taken I am the boss. I'm the one that comes up with the plans and has the final say on decisions that affects the lives of everyone in this room. So that means everything is my fault."
I turned to look back at the others and saw everyone staring at me with confused or awestruck expressions. I couldn't tell which was which. Regardless, I looked to Nate and Jade. It struck me earlier that Nate could have died or been dead but I was distracted somewhat by the sudden realization that Chad was dead.
To say I was feeling guilty for being the one to bring Chad into Nate's life and my lack of action in monitoring him resulting in today's incident was a understatement. The thought of losing someone else because of my failings felt worse than every gunshot, every severed limb, or broken bone I had ever felt in my life combined. It was talking all the will power I had to not lose it in a fit of rage.
"My job as the owner and operator of Sho'lajah Artifact Company is to ensure the health, prosperity, and safety of my employees. That means all of you. Chad wasn't a employee…he was parolee that should have been under stricter observation. By not taking the appropriate steps to ensure everyone's safety, I made it possible for Chad to betray us…" I turned and looked at Reagan and Anders, narrowing my eyes at them. "…never again."
"Glowing eyes isn't a good thing right?" Anders squeaked to Reagan.
"Why would that be a good thing?!" Reagan snapped. I felt a hand on my wrist. Grabbing it tightly.
"Starlight, don't kill 'em." Grandpa Seamus said softly. I looked at Grandpa Seamus with my eyes wide as saucers.
"Kill them? I wasn't going for kill them!" I exclaimed. Grandpa Seamus quirked a brow and let go of my wrist.
"Ya weren't? That little speech ya rattled off there sure sounded like ya would." Grandpa said then pointed down at my farm crystal and motioned to my eyes. "That and yer kinda glowing red Starlight."
I looked down at my farm crystal and realized Grandpa was right, mostly. My crystal was glowing but not the deep red that it normally did when I was pissed off. It was more a harsh pink if anything. Though looking down at my hand also made me realize that my eyes were also in fact glowing.
'File that new development under: Research later.' I thought then quickly turned my attention back to my Grandpa Seamus.
"I wasn't going to kill, just make sure they couldn't harm anyone in the company." I said.
"How are you going to do that exactly?" Nate asked.
"Remind us daily that we betrayed our country and that everyone we know thinks we're dead so you all could actually kill us and nobody would know?" Anders offered. Reagan looked at Anders with a annoyed and fed up look that reminded me of Jane and Iris for some reason.
"Shut up you idiot!" Reagan snapped.
"What? It's probably better than whatever twisted idea he can come up with!" Anders exclaimed defensively.
"I mean…." Jane, Iris, Alberto, Damon, Astrid, and Bo all said in unison. I snapped my head back to look at them and they all looked elsewhere, feigning innocence.
"I'm going to put the same spellbound tattoo that I had put on Chad on you two. Normal and Exotic are going to be watching you from here on until we get off this island and I can prepare my more permanent solution." I said.
"Which is?" Jane asked.
I paused for a moment then channeled mana into my void pocket then quickly reached in and pulled out a pile of lysdale scripts in had tossed in their. I flipped through each one until I found the one I was looking for and tossed it Madilyn before putting the rest back in my pocket.
Madilyn started to look it over when her eyes fell on the name of evo inscribed on the script. The look of horror and utter disgust she showed so readily only put everyone else on edge.
"A Symbo! You want to make these and give them one!" Madilyn exclaimed.
"What's a symbo?" Reagan asked.
"It's the perfect monitoring evo…" I defended, low-key ignoring Reagan's question.
"It's a symbo! Based off the Neuralgasht! Which killed more than fifty test subjects!" Madilyn exclaimed.
"What's a symbo!" Anders asked, which again was ignored by both Madilyn and I.
"I got rid of that gene cluster that was causing it to go berserk and modified it for be better normies than splicers." I defended.
"IT'S A FUCKING SYMBO!" Madilyn barked.
"Okay I'm less pissed about the fact we keep being ignored and more worried about the fact the woman with a reputation of being a raging psychotic bitch is scared of something right now." Anders said to Reagan
"I agree." Reagan said quietly.
"Chase what the hell is a symbo?!" Jane snapped
"A terrible idea that he is not doing!" Madilyn replied for me then instantly ripped up the lysdale script.
"Hey! That's my only copy!" I snapped then rushed over to pick up the fragments.
"Good! You might be hurt right now but you cannot be that far blind that you would think that placing a parasitic evo inside one of your employees bodies is a good idea! Even I'm not evil enough to do that!" Madilyn snapped.
"Explain to me how that is less evil than experimenting on a infant?" Angie asked with a viciously expression. Madilyn started to open her mouth then frowned and looked down at her still frozen feet.
"No…I sense that would be a mistake in my current…predicament." Madilyn said.
"Wait did she say parasitic? As in parasite?" Reagan asked.
"Never mind that! Did she just say experimented on a infant?" Anders asked.
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Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn HUTEXA_THE_DJINN HERE! Bringing you a new update in the tentative update schedule for Evo-Lution. This next month is going to be a slow one the novel. I will be on vacation starting the 11th of October till the first of November, during that time I will not be posting but will be writing new chapters in advance and working with a couple artist to get...some monster portraits and a new cover art! Hopefully... the main artist I'm working with is a relative...so...yeah. But regardless of that you all will get several more chapters between now and then! remember if you enjoy the novel and want to support it then please leave a like, a comment, a power stone or a review.
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