Jerrick's face instantly darkened, a violent storm brewing in his eyes. "Like hell he's worthy."
Nicholas's expression chilled as he watched Serena pull up all the transit logs and mapped routes.
"If we cross-reference this with the encrypted relay station nodes along the transport route..."
Nicholas traced a line across the holographic map with his long fingers, ultimately pausing at a set of coordinates in international waters. "Whitecliffe Harbor. It has to be their critical rendezvous point for the next phase."
Serena let her fingertips rest on the edge of her grandmother's old file, gently stroking the paper.
Her eyes were deep and calculating, as if she were meticulously assembling the scattered puzzle pieces inside her mind.
A moment later, she spoke. "Whitecliffe Harbor isn't the finish line."
Everyone immediately turned to look at her.
Serena lifted her gaze, her voice perfectly even. "It operates more like a transit hub."
"The Overlord was in a frantic rush to silence Mordecai before he died. That tells me whatever is moving along that transit line is infinitely more vital than this entire Severian branch."
"Meaning..." Serena's eyes narrowed into sharp, glacial slits. "What they are truly desperate to protect isn't in Severia at all."
Julian's brows knitted together tightly. "If that's the case, we need to investigate Whitecliffe Harbor immediately."
"I've already ordered my network to tear into the shipping logs, private ports, and subterranean transit chains," Nicholas said, his voice a low thrum. "Give me a little more time. I'll drag Project Zero-Transit and The Raven out into the light."
Sitting at the head of the table, Ambassador Sterling's expression turned incredibly solemn after absorbing their analysis.
He spoke slowly. "This situation has far surpassed the scope of a simple tournament scandal."
"It involves the global abduction of top-tier talent, human experimentation, transnational criminal syndicates, and state-sanctioned cover-ups."
"The Elyndor State Department and our intelligence divisions will launch a synchronized operation to track this Whitecliffe Harbor lead."
He turned his attention to Serena, his eyes carrying undisguised gravity and deep admiration. "Miss Serena, we owe this entirely to you."
"If you hadn't violently flipped the board on their trap in Sector 10, no one would have ever unearthed this monstrous network."
Serena's expression remained perfectly stoic.
She merely looked down at the experimental codes her grandmother had left behind, her voice faint. "It's still not enough."
They had undeniably decimated the Severian operation this time.
And they had brutally severed one of the Obsidian Sun's arms.


VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Messing With Her? Are You Crazy!