There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 306 - 298. A Quiet Storm

Chapter 306: Chapter 298. A Quiet Storm

Inside his small, new apartment, Nora frantically pranced back and forth in his bedroom after closing all of his windows and curtains. He listened to the static sound of his call, staring hard at his link’s screen, and bit his nails in anxiety.

"Come on, Zein..." he mumbled nervously. "Pick up, please...pick up!"

But the call did not go through, and it only made him more anxious. He pressed another number, and after waiting for half a minute, the other person finally picked up.

[Hello?]

"Nadine! Where’s Captain?" Nora whispered as loud as he could, because he dared not to talk normally even in the confine of his own bedroom.

[Nora? Why do you want to know?]

"I tried calling him, but he’s not picking up. It’s urgent--I think...I think they are trying to do something to him!"

There was no response from the other side for a while, but the call was still connected. Nora had expected Nadine to berate him about speaking nonsense, but as expected of Zein’s deputy, she calmly contemplated Nora’s words.

[Who are they? Where are you?] Nadine finally asked, and he could hear her footsteps.

"...Captain put me in Celestia,"

[What?!] She paused for a bit, and, before Nora had to explain it himself, already came to a conclusion herself. [To be...a spy?]

"Yeah,"

From the moment Zein gave him that piece of paper for an address and a name, he knew it didn’t come for free. After all, who was in their right man would put a ’traitor’ in a bigger guild, even if it was just a branch. Nora had no idea what he should be spying on exactly, or whether he could gain any information.

But he had a feeling it was for today.

It was something he chance upon, all by accident. The espers of Celestia had always been treating their guides like air, something Nora had been familiar with all his life--except when he was in Trinity. Perhaps that was why they didn’t care about saying something while he was guiding one of them.

One of the esper, someone from the main strike squad, told the esper he was guiding that some people from the main headquarters would come in a while, so the esper had to get ready for the plan. Nora had no idea what this plan was, but he reckoned any plan around this time had a high possibility of being connected with Trinity, because he knew the Guildmaster of Celesta had been furious about the project’s result.

So he spied on the meeting happening between the people who came from Rexon--what seemed like a scout and one mysterious person who didn’t look to be a part of Celestia. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he managed to see the screen on one of esper’s commlink; it contained a familiar picture of Zein and an address.

He told Nadine all of this, who, by the time he finished, had stopped walking. [The address, do you remember it?]

"Yeah, I think it’s Sir Vaski’s apartment,"

[Alright, don’t hang up. Where are you now?]

"I’m back home already, I...I think it’s okay, they don’t care about guides," Nora said, still whispering.

He had immediately come to the management asking for a sick leave so he could come home without them getting suspicious. Perhaps because his face was extremely pale and sweating at the same time, his acting was really convincing.

On the other side, he could hear Nadine opening a door. [Alice, I need to call Guildmaster] he heard the guide say to Zein’s assistant, and Nora was filled with both anxiety and relief. If it was the Guildmaster, things should have been resolved quickly.

Or so he hoped.

* * *

It was like a storm; something that Radia did not even expect. Just like how he did not expect the Saintess to make a move at that time, or how Freyja went as far as claiming Zein.

He knew Celestia might do something to hinder them, because if Trinity decided to withdraw, it would be them who got the project. But he believed that a group like Celestia, who hang upon their public image, wouldn’t do something so blatantly obvious like kidnapping.

It was clear that he underestimated their recklessness. Or stupidity.

"Are you there?" he glanced at one of the screens, of the many he had in front of him right now.

[Yes] Jock replied from the other side of the screen. [The management said there’s nothing weird happening, at least as far as they know. Can I just go in?]

"We’re in an emergency," Radia said, eyes glancing at the black screen that stated Zein still hadn’t answered his commlink. He had hoped it was because the guide had fallen asleep, but he also remembered Bassena said his nanny should be there to take care of Zein while he was gone.

Haa...this was his fault. He became too complacent because things had been going his way. He should have known that things could go wrong abruptly, just like the time Joon suddenly announced he would go to the military.

He had thought that even if they became so stupid and planned to do something to Zein, they wouldn’t do it in a place that was supposed to be a fortress; Bassena’s apartment. So he had been retracting the shadow guards from Zein, because he needed manpower to look into the cult. The guide was only vulnerable when he was outside without Bassena anyway.

But clearly, his judgment was wrong.

From the screen, he saw Jock opening the door and looking around. The place didn’t look like it was ransacked, and it was quiet. Too quiet.

[Damn it!]

Radia saw it before Jock’s response; an unconscious body of an old woman in the kitchen, who should be Bassena’s nanny. After telling his subordinates to take care of the old woman, Jock ran to the bedroom upstairs, and searched the place immediately without thinking about courtesy.

But he found nothing. No one. Just an open balcony door and a cold breeze. [Vera!]

[At least three, probably four] their tracker started to give some images. [They came from the balcony; two were looking around the house to get rid of any witnesses. I don’t think they take anything else, Sir Zein’s commlink and storage ring are still here]

"Is she alive?"

[Yes. I don’t think they want to escalate this into homicide, so they just knocked her with some skill to make sure she was unconscious for a few hours--probably so she wouldn’t be able to call on anyone for help until they managed to get Sir Zein out] Jock said after receiving a report from downstair. [They might be using the same skill to get him]

Radia closed his eyes, head throbbing and heart dropping. How? How could someone breach that fortress? They had to bypass all kinds of security measures; alarms, barriers, anti-teleportation formation...

"Is this really Celestia?" he turned toward another screen, this one to their original source. For all he knew, there was no one in Celestia equipped with that kind of skill set.

Unless...

[I don’t think it’s the guild, I don’t think most of the executives know. But I think the Head Branch knew about it] Nora said, still whispering as if he was afraid someone would overhear. [B-but...there’s someone coming from the Capital that I don’t think...I don’t think they were part of Celestia]

"How do you know?"

[They wore a coat with a hood, like they wanted to hide their face. It’s not like how Celestia’s espers usually act]

Radia nodded. Indeed, Celestia’s espers were a bunch of proud beings because they were a part of the best guild, especially in the past five years, when the current Guildmaster took charge. That person sounded like someone from Mortix’s shadow guards, which means...

"They probably outsourcing someone else," Radia concluded. Someone skilled in breaking formation and barriers. But it was weird that someone prideful like Varion would resort to using someone else outside of his group.

Or perhaps, it was a person sent by someone Varion couldn’t defy.

[Chairman...]

"I know," Radia took a deep breath. "They can’t just take him out of Althrea without more preparation," he tapped on the armrest, trying to make his shocked brain work.

Breaching a secured apartment was one thing, but whisking someone out of Althrea without logs and identification was something else. From what he could see, this was done in a hurry, otherwise, they would have made it as if Zein was leaving on his own instead of blatantly kidnapping him.

They must have seen a chance when Zein was sick and Bassena left for his talk show. Even the timing...it was right when the talk show was about to air, which means Bassena would be focused on his job. Such unplanned coincidence couldn’t be followed by thorough planning.

Good. At least they still had hope.

"Scan all of the CCTV in and around Althrea that we can access, starting from the one near Bassena’s place and Celestia’s branch. Pull out every personnel from their task and focus on finding him. Vera, track them as far as you can."

[Yes, Sir!]

"Nora, I’ll send someone to watch over you, so you can stop worrying,"

[T-thank you, S-Sir...]

Radia stroked his chin and looked at Nora’s screen again. "Do you think Askan Bellum knew about this?"

[Oh, no, I don’t think so] the answer came without hesitation. [He’s always the odd one amongst the esper here] and then, after pausing for a few seconds, Nora asked carefully. [Should...should I call him, Sir?]

"You’re smart, just like Zein said," Radia smiled, and Nora nodded, before ending the connection so he could call Askan Bellum.

Radia let out a sigh, and, after massaging his throbbing temple, got up from his seat. "Get me Shin, and we’ll need to have a way to tell Bassena without making him go berserk."