by Hao Yang
Erikon and Lucis had no idea where to start, but they didn’t complain. They knew what they were facing couldn’t compare with what Gloria would run into. Erikon really admired Gloria for her resolve and courage, but Lucis thought Gloria was crazy.
Erikon and Lucis reasoned that the information center in the Guardian Fleet headquarter should have all prison personnel information. They tried several times but couldn’t even get close to the headquarter. They ended up asking Gloria for help. Gloria managed to get in, but the personnel information wasn’t there. Instead she found that several days ago, Guardian Fleet sent the personnel data to Human treasury department to process the payment. Even though the prison was making a lot of money for nine species, the second class species still needed to pay all expenses.
Since Lucis’s father was in charge of Human treasury department, Lucis and Erikon decided to try their luck in his father’s office. They waited until the weekend and left for Human colony.
The offices of Human treasury department was a group of buildings sitting near the river. It was the weekend and most buildings were empty. Lucis went to his father’s office before, so he no problem passing all security checks except the last one that required his father’s DNA. Since they couldn’t get into his father’s office, they quickly changed the plan and went to the room right beneath Cateon’s office. Then they sent a small robot worm to Cateon’s office through the ceiling.
As the robot worm crawled into the room, they started to hear people talking.
“I must say this Glycan thing really get all of us on the edge.” Cateon said in a joking voice.
“It didn’t work out as Liutein planned.” Colonel Salmon said easily.
“You think we will get any trouble?” Mark asked cautiously.
“Not that I know of.” Cateon said happily.
Lucis recognized his father’s voice, but had no idea who the other two guys were. He manipulated the worm to take a good look at those people. There were three men standing in the middle of the room.
“Well, Mark, you must be wondering why we have this meeting today. I could simply make a call, right?” Cateon asked with a mysterious smile.
“I am dying to know.” Mark said.
“We all know you worked on a lot of Hylocan stuff before. We also know your son Jason is locked up in prison Listan. It seems that those first species take special interest in your son.” Cateon said.
“Why is that?” Mark asked.
“It might have something to do with Hylocan.” Cateon said in a doubting tone.
“I see.” Mark said calmly and hid his surprise. He was actually expecting something related with Glycan.
“We would like to send somebody to prison Listan and find out more details.” Cateon said.
“If I do this, can my son get freedom?” Mark asked hastily.
“It’s not our call. Those first species don’t give a damn about us. They didn’t even tell us what happened when we requested.”
“I see.” Mark said sadly.
“You are certainly not our only option. Given the fact that the economy is so bad these days, I am quite sure someone else would like to take this job and make some money. I personally feel you are not the best candidate for this job. He is your son and you have this emotional attachment. But Colonel Salmon highly recommended you.” Cateon said with a grin as he glanced over at Salmon.
“I still didn’t get the money from that Glycan job I pulled last time.” Mark said unhappily.
“Oh, I almost forgot. This is what Glycan paid us.” Cateon said as he threw a crystal to Mark.
“I will do it. But I need more intel about the prison.” Mark said calmly. He was thinking about rescuing Jason.
“We have the personnel information.” Cateon said happily.
“That is somewhere we can start from.” Mark said.
They all smiled quietly and then left the room.
As soon as they were gone, Erikon and Lucis maneuvered the worm into a data port on a console and extracted the data they needed. They swiftly left the building and headed back to Eva-1.
Chapter 137
After the fight against Faty, Jason won another two fights. Even though he only won three fights, he had already gotten a reputation of cruelty. Because Jason killed his opponents in an extremely painful way. In the second fight, he punched through the belly of a Uainanese and used it to strangle the Uainanese to death. In the third fight, he bit the face of a Tizuee and pulled his skull apart. For him, the fights were more like the opportunities to unleash his animal nature so that he wouldn’t implode.
Right now Jason was having dinner with Geuinm. Everyday they had the same food: a thin soup and five pieces of bread.
“You ever thought about the guys you killed?” Geuinm suddenly asked.
Jason stopped gobbling and thought for a second. He smiled easily and said, “I am not really a sentimental type.
“Oh.” Geuinm was a little surprised, but he kept his posture the same.
“You ever killed anyone?” Jason asked curiously.
“I killed several guys in UWII.”
“You must be a high rank officer at that time.” Jason said confidently.
“Why is that?” Geuinm smiled.
“I got that feeling.” Jason said happily as he took out a sausage which he got from trading gems with shopper. He started betting on himself from the second fight.
“Hey, you want some?” Jason whispered to Geuinm.
“No, thank you.” Geuinm said politely. He knew what those sausages were made of and he knew Jason knew that as well.
“I thought an old guy like you get used to all those killings.” Jason said in a low voice.
Geuinm flashed a stiff grin and said, “I hope not. When you lose the care for life, you pretty much lose the care of everything else.”
“I guess, we should all become vegetarians. Right?” Jason joked.
Geuinm smiled reluctantly.
After dinner, Geuinm went back to his cell. Jason sat alone at the edge of the playground. No one came to talk to him or even looked at him. Jason saw Luee walking in the distance, but he had no intention to deal with Luee and he didn’t feel sorry for punching Luee on the face.
Just at this moment, a Tizuee walked to Jason. He was skinny and tall, middle age, wearing gray beard.
“Hi, how are you doing?” The Tizuee said happily.
Jason gave him a cold smile and then turned his head away.
“You seem pretty famous around here. Everyone knows you.” The Tizuee said kindly.
“You need to know the name to bet.” Jason said in disgust.
“I am kinda new here. Got in yesterday. I am Yawon, by the way.” Yawon said as he sat next to Jason.
It was the scent that stirred Jason’s memory. Jason immediately recalled Gloria who had the same scent just like this Tizuee. He took a sniff and said, “You smell like a girl, you know that?”
“Really? You probably miss girls too much. I don’t blame you. I miss girls too.” Yawon said in an understanding voice.
Jason took another sniff. Now he was quite sure this scent was the same as that of Gloria.
“Are you alright? You look distracted.” Yawon said gently.
“I am fine. What do you want?” Jason said impatiently.
“Nothing. Just talking. You know. So how long you have been here?” Yawon asked.
“Close to two months.”
“What did you do?”
“I was a trainee in....” Jason stopped short of saying Guardian Fleet.
“In what? I didn’t catch the last word.”
“Nothing.” Jason said coldly.
“You look like a soldier.”
Jason glanced over at Yawon, but didn’t say a word.
“How you end up here?”
“I don’t know. Oh, let me guess. Falling love with a Glycan girl and saved the Hylocan queen.” Jason said impatiently.
“I believe you.” Yawon said seriously.
“Man, that is funny.” Jason chuckled.
“I mean it.”
Jason broke into laughter.
“You regret anything you did for the Glycan girl?” Yawon asked directly.
Jason immediately stopped laughing and shot Yawon an angry stare. Then he stood up and walked away.
Chapter 138
It took Gloria three weeks to get into prison Listan. Titainein helped her a lot. She found out that Tizuee had a prisoner due to be delivered to prison Listan. The she pulled some string and had Gloria replace the prisoner Yawon, a serial killer who committed dozens of crimes on different planets. Gloria knew Listan had all kinds of security measurements, so she had to use something new to disguise herself. Upon her request, Titainein gave Gloria a prototype body-transforming device. Titainein warned Gloria that she didn’t knew what kind of side effect the device would have on Glycan’s body, but Gloria didn’t care.
When Gloria saw Jason the next day after she got into the prison, she was so thrilled that she almost slipped out the truth. Now she needed to get close to Jason and told him the truth when it was appropriate.
After swinging the sledgehammer for a whole day, she was exhausted, her arms and back sore, her legs heavy. She joined Jason and Geuinm and said, “Hi, guys, can I have a seat here?”
“You can sit anywhere you want.” Geuinm said casually.
‘Thanks. I am Yawon.” Gloria said happily as she sat next to Jason.
“Geuinm.”
“You are from family G.” Gloria said cautiously.
“It is tough to get more obvious than that.” Geuinm said with a grin.
“Do you know General Gien?” Gloria asked.
Geuinm suddenly put down his spoon and froze there. After several seconds, he said, “It’s been a while since I heard his name last time.”
“What’s the story?” Jason asked curiously.
Geuinm paused for a second and said, “I somehow have this feeling that you two know each other for a while.”
“What are you talking about?” Jason said with a confused look.
Gloria lowered her head and focused on her dinner. After several minutes, she asked, “So Jason, how is your day?”
“What about you? Fresh fish.” Jason said ironically.
“As bad as yours. I guess.” Gloria replied with a provocative tone. They stared at each other.
Just at this moment, Shopper and Eiteuoo came to Jason and acknowledged him politely.
“Hey, Jason, we just learned the odd for your next game. It is 10 to 1. You see a situation like this is not good for business. Well, you are a smart man. You know what I mean. Anyway, the point is if you lose the next one, just for this time, you can make a lot of money.” Eiteuoo said earnestly.
“Do I look I care?” Jason said coldly.
“Man, you are good. We all see that. But if you think about it, do you really want to travel to another prison and fight some guy there?” Shopper wheezed into Jason’s ear.
“You know what I am thinking?” Jason said kindly.
“I am listening.” Shopper said excitedly.
“I am thinking punching through your belly and pulling out your intestines and wrapping it around your neck and strangling you to death.” Jason said with a big grin.
Shopper backed off right away. He remembered what Jason did to that Uainanese.
“Hey, man, we are just talking. You can simply say no. Remember you need to buy stuff from Shopper.” Eiteuoo said quietly.
“If you don’t want to make money from me, I am fine with that.” Jason said in deference.
Shopper rolled his eyes at Jason, but didn’t say anything.
Eiteuoo walked to Gloria and shouted, “Hey, yo, Tizuee, if you say a word of what you just heard. We will cut your legs, make them into sausages and feed them to you. You hear?”
Gloria kept a cold face.
Both Shopper and Etieuoo gave Jason a cold smile and left.
“They like you.” Jason said in a funny voice.
“Thank you. I somehow can see that.” Gloria said angrily.
“What do you say? Geuinm.” Jason asked politely as he took out a candy and handed to the sloth on Geuinm’s shoulder.
“I guess all those killing start to take a toll on you.” Geuinm said.
“Not really. This is just me.” Jason said easily.
“Yea, I forgot how long I know you. You are right. But Shopper had a point. Do you want to fight in another prison every three months? You need to think about that.” Geuinm said sincerely.
“I understand Shopper’s point, but I don’t like losers.” Jason said firmly.
Gloria knew exactly what Jason meant. She knew him so well. She smiled at Jason and said, “You can quit. You know.”
“What do you care? Fresh fish.”
“Why are you so mean?”
Jason thought for a second and said, “I am just a mean Human and you know the good news?”
“No.”
“You don’t need to like me!” Jason said firmly.
Gloria stood up, took her dinner plate and walked away angrily.
Geuinm flashed a reluctant smile and said, “Jason, you don’t have to fight everyone. As a matter of fact, you can’t survive if you do that.”
Jason gazed at Geuinm with respect and said, “I will be nice next time.”
“I hope there is a next time.” Geuinm said as he peeked at Yawon.
Chapter 139
After meeting with Cateon, Mark did some research on prison Listan. Originally he planned to impersonate a guard, but he needed to wait another three months for the next guards’ rotation. He couldn’t wait that long. Then he found out second class species sent a maintenance team to Listan every two months and the next one would be in two weeks. He decided to catch on this ride. After he finished preparing everything, he still got one week left.
There was something else bothered him like a tiny splinter in the flesh. He still didn’t understand why Cateon William got involved in all these. Driven by curiosity, Mark decided to find out what was really going on with Cateon.
Right now he was hiding in a rental car, monitoring Cateon’s residence. It was a villa in a neighborhood designated for Human high rank officers. Mark had been doing this for the past three days and just while he was thinking tonight would be another cold and quiet night, he saw a shadow flying quietly out of the neighborhood. Mark knew it was a stealth hover. He used to pilot one of those. He started his car and took it off the ground, following the hover in the distance.
The hover headed to the suburb area. After 20 minutes, it landed near a deserted station, one of the earliest stations Human built on the planet. Mark saw Cateon get out of the hover and walk into the station. He parked the car and crept into the station from the other side.
Inside the station, the air was heavy and dense and everything was covered by a thick layer of dust. Mark tread lightly and cautiously, his hand holding a pistol. After about 10 minutes, he heard some voices and it sounded like three or four people. Following the voices, Mark reached a short corridor opening to a hall. The voices was coming from the other side. He slowly moved to the end of the corridor and peeked over the rusty jamb. There were four figures standing in the middle of a dining hall. With the help of starlight that passed through the broken window on the roof, Mark could see Cateon William and Treton London clearly, but only caught the backs of the other two figures. One was taller than the other one.
Mark didn’t hear the whole conversation, but he did catch several words such as Hylocan, president and Human fleet. Judging from the voice, Mark believed that the short figure was Lreque. Mark watched Treton and Cateon nod at the tall figure and leave. Then the tall figure turned around. Mark caught a glimpse and immediately recognized that face. It was Liutein. He was so surprised that he almost fell on the ground. The noise alerted Liutein and he glanced back in Mark’s direction.
Mark held his breath and stayed still. Liutein walked slo
wly towards the corridor, followed by Lreque. Mark saw Liutein coming towards him. He aimed his gun at Liutein and slowly backed away.
All of sudden, Liutein dashed at Mark’s direction, his clothes transforming into an armor suit.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Mark fired his gun at Liutein as he ran away. Two bullets dented Liutein’s chest armor.
Bearing the pain on his chest, Liutein continued forward and quickly caught up with Mark. He leaped into the air and hit Mark on the shoulder. The blow knocked Mark on the ground. He swiftly turned around and blasted the pistol at Liutein.
“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Liutein dodged into a nearby room. Mark kept firing at the doorway as he stood up. While he was reaching into his pocket for a grenade, he ran out of ammo. Liutein darted out of the room and sprinted at Mark, a dagger popping out of his right fist. Mark hauled out the grenade and removed the safety. He held it right in front of his chest.
Liutein suddenly stopped, standing a meter away from Mark.
It was much darker in this room and Mark could barely see Liutein’s face, so he couldn’t really know whether Liutein was afraid or not. He slowly stepped back.
All of a sudden, Liutein scooted forward and grabbed Mark’s hand that was holding the grenade. He swung the dagger at Mark’s forearm. Mark immediately dropped the grenade on the ground. Liutein quickly disengaged. Mark ran for his life.
“Boom!” The grenade exploded, leaving a big hole on the ground.
Mark escaped the shrapnel, but the shock wave knocked him over the ground. He struggled to stand on his feet, his head spinning and his ears ringing.
“Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!” The heavy footstep was coming closer and closer.
Mark didn’t have time to think but ran like crazy to the car. He didn’t dare to look back. Soon he darted out of the facility, rushed to the car and jumped in it. As the car left the ground, he saw Liutein emerge from the door. He drove the car away immediately, disappearing into the dark night.
