章節 84: THE RAT'S TAIL part 1
(2 hours later, Canada, Team Zero Safe House)
"Sorry about that," apologised Sean as Clara shook her arms in pain.
She turned to Frederica with a frown.
"Your partner was very rough with the handcuffs," she complained.
Sean gently smacked Frederica on the back of her head. Frederica grabbed the back of her head, pouting at Sean in displeasure.
"Be gentle with your comrades," he chided. "I know she's our hostage now, but we are just bluffing Big Sis and company."
"Yeah," chipped Clara, moving closer to Sean. "We are comrades and friends, you are Sean's partner, that makes us friends too!" she exclaimed.
Frederica remained stoic, nodding her head along slowly.
Internally, she wants to dismantle Clara down to her last cell from her raging jealously.
Seeing that Frederica is not saying anything, Clara decided to tease her a bit.
"My, you are quite cute I see," joked Clara, affectionately rubbing Frederica's face, causing her to freeze from shock and embarrassment.
Sean pulled Clara's hands away with a glare.
"So would you do the same to Nanami?" asked Sean.
"Nah, too scary for my liking," she replied.
"You are breaking my heart, babe," sniffed a person in a corner of the room, causing Clara to immediately snap to attention. In contrast, Sean and Frederica remained seated.
"Ma'am, I..." muttered Clara.
Nanami pretended to cry, wiping her "tears" in an extremely dramatic fashion.
"How could you! After everything we have been through...waah!" said Nanami, stumbling over and hugging Clara.
"And I thought you were the drama king," said Xiao Tian to Sean, leaning against the door, observing the 4 of them, amused.
With that, Nanami stopped fooling around, becoming serious again.
"Thank you for your help," said Nanami to Clara. "We will throw you out at the nearest hospital, you can contact UNSSD from there."
Clara turned to Sean incredulously.
"I am sorry, what?" she asked.
"You heard your orders," said Sean.
Clara laughed. "What about you guys?"
"We will be fine," assured Sean. "We don't want to drag you into this mess. You have already done a lot for us."
"It's not your decision to make Sir!" she exclaimed at Xiao Tian.
"I am your comrade," she said firmly. She then turned to Sean. "More than that, I am your friend!"
"I don't have the habit of leaving my friends in trouble and not doing a thing about it!" she said. "So I am staying, and there is nothing you can say to make me quit!" she stressed.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Xiao Tian.
"I am positive, Sir," she replied firmly.
"Do you trust us?" he asked.
"I do," replied Clara firmly.
"All of the evidence are against us," reminded Xiao Tian.
"Because I know you all are good people, and are my comrades!" she exclaimed.
Xiao Tian nodded.
"Alright then, but you are still going back to UNSSD."
Just as Clara is going to complain, Xiao Tian stopped her.
"I am entrusting you with a major task, I need you to remain in UNSSD for that."
"I am all ears," said Clara, now cooperative.
"Once you return, wait till Captain Aya contacts you," said Xiao Tian. "Instructions will follow."
He handed her a piece of written paper. "Here's how to deal with the inspection and interview by the UNSSD military commission once you return to UNSSD."
Clara nodded.
"Send my regards to Ariel, Phineas and Louis," said Clara as she packed her things up, giving Sean a fist bump.
"Take care of yourself," she said, leaving the room.
Xiao Tian got a message.
"Michael Miller is here with the USS Trump submarine, let's leave," he said.
(3 days later, Tokyo base)
Clara yawned, stepping out of the interrogation room.
After a marathon of interrogations by the MPs, Clara is finally cleared, allowed to return to her unit.
As she walked into her dorm, she walked by Aya going through the delivery parcels at the front gate. She had just received a notification that a parcel had been delivered to her.
Aya grabbed a small parcel.
"Who sent me this?" she thought, not finding a sender name on the parcel.
"Should be safe," she thought, as their parcels all had been x-rayed before it was placed at the gate of the dorms.
She grabbed it and returned to her dorm.
The UNSSD individual dorms are very simplistic, with a bed, work table, a large mirror, a heater+AC package and a wardrobe.
Aya opened her parcel, finding a data drive inside.
Frowning, she plugged it into her holo projector.
She looked at the images projected with a stern frown.
The images are the evidence collected by Team Zero from the Alaska research facility, exposing the illegal experiments conducted by Archangel.
Seeing the clone of Freyja, her blood boiled in rage.
She scrolled to the last image, where Xiao Tian dropped her a message in a book code that she recognised to be using the Japanese story: The tale of Genji.
She grabbed her copy from her table, encrypting the message:
"Check Freyja's autopsy report and what was done to her body, if we can find out who was the one that leaked her body information out, we can sniff out the real traitor. The autopsy center that she was sent to is located in the DRK, find Clara."
Aya sighed, she is still apprehensive, given that Team Zero are still labelled as traitors, with no direct evidence to prove their innocence. After all, all Team Zero managed to prove is that Archangel conducted some heinous illegal experiments and that UNSSD is likely implicated.
After some deliberation, she chose to believe in her comrades.
She immediately went to find Artemis 6 "Liu Zhong".
"You want to apply for a recon mission to cover up the investigation?" asked Liu Zhong.
Aya nodded. "Just the 2 of us and Clara Park as our pilot/technician."
"What will be the excuse?" asked Liu Zhong.
"Say that we found clues of Team Zero in the DRK, and we ask for Clara to be our guide," replied Aya.
Liu Zhong nodded. The 2 parental figures of Squad Artemis unanimously decided to keep it a secret from their comrades and the rest of Squad Artemis as a precautionary measure.
"I will get Franz and Bryan to issue the order," said Liu Zhong. "They should be clear."
(Night time)
Aya and Liu Zhong are at the airbase, dressed in civilian clothes, gear stuffed into their bags.
In front of them is a small utility plane, which is what they will be using to fly to the DRK, landing in Seoul.
In the cockpit, Artemis 7 "Vasily" is readying the plane for take off. His co pilot is Clara.
"Does your squad leader know about this?" asked Clara, referring to Harriet Ling.
"She knows I am flying a recon mission, but not who I am going with," replied Vasily.
Just as Aya and Liu Zhong are about to board, they are approached by Albert and Vera. Aya is surprised to see them dressed up in civilian clothes too, having their gear too stuffed into bags.
"What are you 2 doing here?" she asked, perplexed.
"Ma'am", replied Vera. "Our orders are to join you and Lieutenant Liu Zhong for this recon mission."
"From whom?" asked Aya, frowning.
"From Colonel Schulz," replied Albert, referring to Franz.
Aya could not help but be suspicious, but with no other choice, she let them on board.
Soon the plane took off for the DRK. Aya and Liu Zhong decided to catch up on sleep.
Albert and Vera chatted away, occasionally mingling with Vasily and Clara when they exit the cockpit for breaks.
(The next day in a hotel room, Seoul)
"This looks ok," said Aya as she went through the autopsy report with Liu Zhong.
The 5 of them booked 2 hotel rooms, the girls sharing one while the guys shared the other, with an extra bed ordered.
Having sent the others out to buy dinner, Aya and Liu Zhong have the time to examine the files uninterrupted.
Just then, Liu Zhong frowned, pointing to a page on the holo projector, enlarging it.
"The body mass don't add up!" he explained, pointing at the number. "Even if we were to take into account the torture she suffered, her body mass shouldn't be so drastically different from our average body mass."
"But the body was intact at the cremation," recounted Aya, remembering the funeral. "Then that can only mean one thing," she realised in horro.
"Her body was swapped. The cremated remains are that of a decoy!" she snapped.
"Then we need to find out where her body was brought to," said Aya, her voice shaking in rage.
Liu Zhong nodded, and the 2 got to work.
"I think here is a possibility," analysed Liu Zhong, referring to a facility on Jeju island.
"There is an Archangel bio-engineering factory here," he said.
"And what about it?" asked Aya.
Liu Zhong pulled up several Korean news reports from 2131.
"There is an urban legend of strange organisms witnessed there by the local population, though they were never proven," he analysed.
"This facility is also mentioned in the oldest Archangel files of Project Lone Star, I suspect this is where their illegal experiments first started. And interestingly, in the same year the Alaska research base was commissioned, and once it went operational in 2132, the sightings disappeared almost overnight."
"Coincidence? I think not," he said.
"The rats finally revealed their tails," said Aya.
創作者的想法 
MOSS3000
MOSS3000 So sorry for the late updates. The next part will be out by tonight.
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