154 Shocked...
Shi Lang sat down in his room, immersed in meditation. Soon, the door was pushed open and Amelia walked inside. She did not bother him but moved to the bathroom. She was going to take a shower.
Zysha had no task here, she would eat and sleep. The food they served here was high-quality beast meat, she liked it a lot. When after a few minutes, Amelia came back outside the bathroom, she found that Shi Lang was just standing up from the floor. She asked, “How do you feel now?”
The young man nodded, indicating that he was feeling better. Amelia said, “The bots must have entered the vents or drains now.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I will take a bath, then we will have them create the model.”
Amelia nodded and said, “You take a bath, Darcx has already begun mapping.”
After giving her a nod, Shi Lang entered the washroom. Since the whole team was going to do their part, the level of stress will be lowered. This was suggested by Rosa, she had noticed that Shi Lang had almost lost his control today, so to avoid any ruckus, she had taken these measures.
This was how teams should work. Shi Lang came outside the bathroom and found that the team had gathered in his room. The room was big enough for all of them to fit in. Shi Lang and Amelia sat on the foot of the bed, while the rest grabbed a seat on the couch.
Darcx said, “The model.” and patted the screen of his communicator a few times and a holographic model appeared in front of everyone. Shi Lang looked at the model and found every vent and sewer line was clearly drawn.
Shi Lang said, “Overlay the exterior of the palace on the vents, have the bots survey the openings. Tag every person, who matches the physical description of the Queen.” in a calm voice.
Jenkins asked, “What will this tagging allow us to achieve?” Without waiting for Shi Lang to reply, Rosa said, “The person who appears the least on the list of tagged people, is to be our Queen most probably.”
The people nodded and they understood what was going on. Amelia said, “Ace, could it be that the intruder in our room was the Queen herself?”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “It is a possibility but I won’t be betting on it. It could be the fake queen doing some recon for the dark hand.”
Rosa nodded and said, “Yes, it is likely to be this. The real queen will not risk it. Although she is not coming out in the open, sneaking inside someone else’s room, does not seem to be the virtue of the royalty.”
Jenkins asked, “How long do we have to figure out who the real queen is, and what will we do if we can even figure it out?”
Shi Lang nodded and replied, “I would like to have an audience with the hand in the dark.”
The people were shocked, they did not understand his thought process and Shi Lang was more than aware of their curiosity and said, “Do not worry, I will not go into the tiger’s den unprepared.”
He turned his head to Quinn and said, “Track down minister Abbey, and all his cronies inside the palace, from maids to the spies inside the palace guards. Do not leave anyone. Screen them all.”
Quinn nodded, and replied, “I will be cooperating with Darcx.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “You all have two days at most. In the meantime, I will try to reset my mind. Okay, I am close to the sixth-star realm. I will try and push forward.”
The people nodded and dispersed. They had lunch in their separate rooms and when it was about the time for dinner, the palace guards informed the Terran team that the Queen would like to have dinner with them.
They had no reason to reject, or more like they could not reject. It was more like an imperial edict. They all put on a set of normal formal clothes and moved to the dining hall.
Shi Lang and the rest saw the Queen sitting on her chair as the host. She smiled at the people, and Shi Lang greeted her in a formal manner, and with the gesture of the lady, they all sat down in their chairs.
They had just sat down when Shi Lang sensed something. He turned his head to look at the queen and said, “Greetings, Your Majesty.”
The queen had a surprising reaction in her eyes which were quickly covered. She asked, “Shusha Ace, did you not greet me earlier?”
The Terran team was also surprised, Shi Lang smiled and said, “Your Majesty is well aware of the reason behind my second greeting.”
Nexalia Neytiri raised her head and gazed directly at Shi Lang and her demeanor changed completely. Her eyes became distant and cold. She spoke with an aloof tone, “How did you figure it out?”
Shi Lang smiled and said, “Beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but your aura gave you away. I have been very sensitive to the aura for a long time, and when I sat in this position, I could see that you are very strong. Far more than your other self.”
Nexalia nodded and said, “I did figure out that you were smart, but being too smart for your own good is a bad thing, you know?”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “It seems like you speak from experience, Your Majesty?”
The people were holding their breaths to see that the person they have been looking for have already appeared in front of them. They were also scared, this outcome was not within their expectations. The sudden appearance did not only disrupt their planning but also raised a lot of questions.
Why did she show up? This was giving away her initiative. Nexalia nodded slightly as she spoke, “Indeed, I am speaking from experience, otherwise do you think that my own family members were to plot against me? In the past five months, there have been ten assassination attempts on me. What do you think I have done to earn that?”
Shi Lang shrugged his shoulders and said, “Perhaps making your brother the minister of finance was a mistake. You do not seem to be as smart as you just stated, Your Majesty.”
The queen glared at the smiling person, wishing to tear his face apart. However, she controlled her emotions and asked, “Enough, do you think, you can lace my palace with your bots and I will let them operate as they wished? I knew from the movement you smuggled them out of your ship.”
The Terran team frowned, but Shi Lang and Rosa Blues maintained their composure. Shi Lang replied, “Do you think I did not know, that you did not know? Your dark hand reacted so flusteredly that day, I would be a fool to not suspect something.”
Nexalia asked, “Do you not want to know, what I am here for?”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “You need our help to deal with something.”
Nexalia raised her eyebrow and asked, “How did you figure this out?”
Shi Lang leaned back in the chair and said, “I cannot figure out any other reason than this, because the external activities were just a distraction. The real threat that you have been facing was someone inside your close elites. To figure out the ploy here, we must learn who are the suspects. But while I was trying to come up with an offering for you during our first meeting, my team here, dug up something that you would like.”
Nexalia raised her eyebrow, and Shi Lang showed her the data his team has found on the people around the minister o finance. The more Nexalia watched, the more sure she was enraged. She stood up from her chair and said, “What can you do to help me?”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “Allow me to be your aid for a day. By the time the day has come to an end, you will have fewer enemies to worry about. However, I will do all this for a payment in return.”
Nexalia asked, “If you are fair, I will provide you with anything that you like.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “Your promise to form an alliance with us, the Terrans.”
Nexalia nodded and said, “I did not intend us to go to war with your civilization at all, in the first place. However, the things inside my empire cannot be solved from the inside. Since it is all in the open, I know that you are all soldiers, and the reason you are here is that I called for you. The president of the federation was approached by me in secret. I wanted him to provide me a crew that could do things that others do not dare to even think of.”
The truth was out, but it was something that shocked the people to their cores.