295 Trap.
Shi Lang entered the Imperial palace with ease, this place was something that he knew just like his home. His pace was steady and he easily avoided the patrol by using the terrain. Not many people could think of this, but the terrain inside the palace of Arcadia was meant to aid Cara to run if she encounters trouble.
Just by simply using the architecture, they had left some blind spots and once someone stepped into those positions, finding them would become a task like looking for the needle in the haystack.
Shi Lang was calm and collected throughout the process he used his spirit sense to locate Zyra. He did find the beast, but it was not Zyra. The beast with wisdom would have been able to locate his presence and communicate to him telepathically after Shi Lang got a hundred meters closer to her.
However, the beast did not react and kept laying down on the ground next to a bed, which Shi Lang concluded was once used by Cara. He raised his eyebrow, one thing that he confirmed during this visit was that there was something fishy going on here. This whole scene was not coincidental. Someone was pulling the strings from the dark.
Shi Lang had the aid of his illusion array and thus he was not worried about being detected by the monitoring cameras. Before he left this place, he decided to comb this place completely to make sure that nothing was missed.
Thinking about this, he found a blind spot, used his communicator, and sent a message to the team outside the palace. The content of the message was for them to find a better hiding spot while at the same time setting up monitoring around the palace to find if there was someone suspicious going in and out of the palace in this situation.
His command was, that if there was someone who left the palace, then they must be tracked with the help of nano trackers. The team acknowledged the command without asking anything, they were aware of the capabilities of their leader.
They were here for a rescue mission and the place was not Terran, so everyone except a Terran was a suspect. They dispersed and quickly got down to their work.
Meanwhile back in the palace, Shi Lang moved around and avoided detection. He discovered a few surprises, the officials inside the palace were all working like regulars, and it was as if they did not seem to be aware of the disappearance of their sovereign.
The more he thought the more absurd he felt. Recalling the past, the military general of the place was hostile towards Cara, and Shi Lang thought, ‘Could it be that guy who played the dark hand in this scenario?’
After a few seconds, he shook his head and put away this thought. If someone in the government was a fool to make move against the Empress, then why did they make a move on the investigation team? Did they not know that more will come looking for the Terrans?
This was a low-level mistake, and the person should not have left this loophole, or was it because the enemy was so confident in his abilities?
Now in this situation, there were many limited options left for Shi Lang to dwell upon. One, Cara, and the rest have been buried. Two, they are being held hostage as the person behind this have a bigger goal and does not think too much of them.
Shi Lang believed that it was most likely to be the second option. Otherwise, the motive behind all this could have been seizing power from Cara and then establishing a reign of their own.
However, after Cara went missing, and when the investigation support team arrived, they were also lost in this place. This was a bit too peculiar. The ace division was a group that Shi Lang had trained and nurtured personally, they would not fall for an easy trap.
Wandering through the palace, Shi Lang arrived at the prison area, and he was stunned for a moment. He was scanning the area with his spirit sense and in the deepest part of the holding cell, Shi Lang found a beast, laying on a damp floor with a chain around her neck. He made his way closer to the beast and the beast suddenly opened her eyes before turning her head in his direction and a calm voice rang in his mind, “Bastard, it too you so long to come over.”
Shi Lang did not approach her but stood in his spot as he asked, “Fill me in, we have time constrain here.”
Zyra replied, “You can find the answer to your question at these coordinates, Xt52, yu63. However, you must be careful, very careful. The enemy is yet to come out of the shadow and can control and influence the minds of other people. The only reason I am safe is that my skills were hidden.”
Shi Lang nodded and asked calmly, “What is the motive, and are the rest of the people alive?”
Zyra hummed and said, “The motive should be the destruction of the world. Simple as that. Plain and blunt destruction of the Arcadian empire. The rest are alive, after all, they are better than the best that you can find here. If my intuition is not wrong, then they will be your enemies.”
Shi Lang frowned and said, “The enemy is using my people against me? Interesting. You hold on for a bit longer, I will get you out.”
Zyra snorted in his mind and said, “You better do that, this floor is damp, and my fur is damaged. Also, you will have to buy me a nice spa day.”
Shi Lang was relieved to see her cocky temper, and said, “Fine. However, are you sure things will be answered when I reach those coordinates?”
Zyra hummed, and Shi Lang asked her a few more questions before he left the place. The reason he did not go closer to the beast or broke her out of the prison was the security system.
The enemy had placed Zyra behind a phaser curtain, nothing could get through it, at least not without making the presence known, plus Zyra being here would keep the enemy assured that his plan was yet to be discovered and all the obstacles were sorted.
Shi Lang went out of the palace without leaving any trace. He regrouped with the team and rested, he decided to confirm a few things before he moved ahead. The last person who made any ripples in this situation was Archie Arkham.
Shi Lang went into the logs of the daily report submission and remotely accessed the site with his communicator. He searched for a daily report submitted by Commander Silence, using the highest privilege he had. He found the report submitted yesterday and ignoring the content, he looked at the coordinates.
He was searching for the existence of the coordinates that Zyra had mentioned. How was the tiger aware of it? And after he skimmed through all of the reports, he smirked and said, “Sure enough, things will not be easy here.”
Jack asked, “What is it, Boss?”
Shi Lang said, “My informant seemed to have been under the enemy’s control.”
That said, he passed on the report to the team to see and said, “The submission is made from the coordinates different from what I got from my informant. The daily report submission is made from the same coordinates.”
The rest of the team understood that they had barely missed a well-set trap. Ryan asked, “Boss, what should we do now?”
Shi Lang said, “We will cooperate with them. However, not for free.”
The team of four people smiled, they were going to walk into the trap to drag out the dark hands. Thinking about this, they could not help but feel excited. Shi Lang said, “The enemy will use the Ace Division against us. I will go in alone.”
Sophie shook her head and gently said, “Boss, that is too dangerous.”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “Do not worry, I am not holding you all back because you people have gained new strength and if your blow was to kill someone by mistake, it will be a shame. After all, you all are strong and might not be able to execute precise control in a perilous situation.”
He coaxed the team and had them agree to stand by and watch how he subdued the entire team. He lied to them earlier, even if these people have achieved a state of indifference, it will still not be enough for them to deal with the Ace division.
Those guys will use their abilities to deal with them, and with the killing intent. This will put him in a passive situation and if the people beside him suffered any injury because they were not able to keep up, he will hold himself responsible. He did not want that.
Shi Lang and the team decided to split up, Ryan accompanied Shi Lang to the trap coordinates and Sophie and Jack went out for scouting the coordinates they discovered by investigating the report.