OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 192: Evidence

Chapter 192: Evidence

?

Emir and Lyra headed to where she parked their cruiser.

[Do you think it would be a good idea in the long run?]

[The metaphorical bomb you mean?]

[Yeah, I had my mind set on it after I saw his reaction.]

Lyra giggled.

[I told you, you were amazing. Now we know that they know about the runes, and we also used that information already.]

[Doubt would spread among them, give it time and we could turn that bomb into a nuke.]

[True that... but Lyra, he KNOWS.]

[Of course, he does... All four of them do.]

Emir let out a sigh as he threw Jake to the ground, causing clouds of sand to form, while Lyra sat Emma down gently.

[...Though, thankfully, he doesn't know about my oath cheat.]

[Right, he would've called us out on it if he did... So we can proceed with the plan with no worries.]

Emir nodded and gestured for his partner to help with waking them up.

After multiple slaps in the face and a few kicks for Jake, they finally got up, looking around in a daze.

"You're finally awake... Good afternoon, guys," he said in a sober tone.

"It's been twenty years... Everything is gone, and you..."

"Dammit!"

Emir lashed out, kicking the ground, causing cracks to form.

A coughing Jake showed puzzlement as he speechlessly looked at himself for a few moments.

But Emma caught onto the joke and simply stood up, rushing her boss like a bull.

"You scared me, you tall piece of shit!"

Emir sneered while dodging her charge, slightly extending his right leg in the process.

Emma had yet to come out of her daze, so she didn't notice his movement and tripped up, flipping upside down.

Thud!

And she crashed face-first into the ground.

Lyra and Emir looked at each other and began laughing.

Jake, who finally realized what happened, joined in the fun as he laughed at his unfortunate partner.

Emma stood after a few moments and activated her augmented suit's self-cleaning function as she looked at Emir with a pout.

"Stop making fun of me!"

Emir shrugged.

"I had to liven up the mood a bit... You're perfect for comic relief, you know~."

Lyra stepped in front of her, giving her a few pats on the back.

"Don't worry, Em, you'll get used to this."

"Whatever!"

Jake stood up and joined them.

"Let's talk on the way back; I've got a lot of questions to ask."

"Sure." Emir confirmed while pointing at their cruiser.

...

Emir and Lyra sat on one side of the bench, while Emma and Jake sat opposite them.

The steering was left to the cruiser's AI, with slight adjustments from Lyra whenever needed.

"You said that we wouldn't be seeing Lyra again until she brought in some good news, so am I safe in saying that we've got that?"

Emir nodded and answered Jake:

"She just came back, so I'd like to know that myself."

Lyra showed a smile as she turned on the holographic display from the center console.

A catalog of pictures and numerous profiles of all sorts of people showed up in front of them.

"First thing's first, my target belongs to the MoonScribe family, and yes, I do have good news..."

The image flickered to show a massive warehouse.

There were endless rows of towering shelves that held a myriad of items.

A surreal, dim light bathed their contents.

Strange and ordinary materials sat side by side.

Air filled the space with floating red dust, like spectral stars.

Two men stood in an empty section of that warehouse.

"Silent sent me to Mars...."

"We were lucky with that 'cause I already knew my way around that planet; it's where I was

created after all."

She paused for a moment and glanced at Emir.

[It's also where I first found out about you... You were my first.]

Letting out a telepathic scoff, Emir replied:

[You make controlling someone's life sound so romantic.]

A soft giggle echoed in his mind.

[It kind of is; they've led me to you, which led to this; wouldn't you call it romantic?]

[I'd say it's messed up more than anything, but sure. Go on.]

They both laughed for a few moments and then returned their attention to the conversation at

hand.

Emma raised her hand and asked:

"Wait, wait, before we move on, tell me... What does Mars look like?"

"Well... It was different, to say the least."

"Cars flew all over the place, there were constant advertisements everywhere, skyscrapers so tall they reached kilometers in height, and two tiny moons hovered above."

"But if you asked me what was most obvious, then it would've been the planet's dependence

on its government for everything."

Seeing them nod with amazed faces, she continued:

"Anyways, I tracked him for two days, but he didn't go to any of the outposts I knew of, so I resorted to stalking the location he constantly visited..."

"After confirming that it was safe for me to enter, I went in, and voilà..."

"You've caught him talking to someone." Emir continued on her behalf.

"Yep. Whoever he was talking to was wearing a mask at the time, so I couldn't scan their face. And I couldn't track them either; I didn't know what security measures he had, so I stuck with

my target."

"Getting close enough to hear what they were talking about was impossible, and if I did, it

wouldn't have mattered anyway..."

"Why?" Emma asked.

"They might've had isolation barriers up." Jake answered.

Lyra nodded to Emma's questioning gaze and continued:

"I didn't get any info from their conversation, but I didn't need to; knowing that the area was controlled by the Order was enough; I could've gotten more out of it if I stuck around, but..."

"You've heard what happened to us in court, and you immediately rushed out of there." Emir

finished her sentence once again.

"Uhn."

"Good job, Lyra. Seriously... you saved us with this, and now we have all the ammo we need to gun them down, or at least threaten that we could do so."

Lyra looked at him with a bright smile for a long time, simply staring at him with love-sick

eyes.

And seeing that she was silent, Emir turned his gaze towards her and, after a quick pause, let

out a chuckle.

"Can you stop flirting? You're making me jealous here..."

All three looked at Emma with amusement filling their faces, and they all laughed in unison.

"Whatever." She said while showing her head away.

After a few moments, they all quietened down, and Jake, who had just removed his lingering gaze from Emma, asked a question that had been burning in his mind for a while:

"Where did you get that suit? It looks way better than your last one."

The augmented suit he mentioned donned Emir's body; it was no longer the tight black

overalls he used to wear, the one with advanced technology fitted everywhere, and a spine-

like structure that spurted out his back.

Now it looked to be a very expensive and tight black business suit with a white t-shirt underneath, which had a black tie striped with red and white.

"I got it from Auric; it didn't look like this before, but I customized it to my liking..."

"I expected nothing less of an E10 rank suit."

"E10?!" Emma and Jake voiced out in unison, as they both knew how expensive it was to buy

one.

"Yeah, I probably could've asked for one more based on how easily he gave this to me..."

"True.... But enough about that, Emir. Why don't we talk about Alex? We've delayed this

conversation for too long."

"What do you mean?" Jake asked as he looked at Lyra with a raised brow.

Emir answered instead of her, shrugging his shoulders as he did so:

"We've suspected that Alex was responsible for the hit on me... And him coming here today only made that suspicion concrete."

"Do you mean that time when you attacked those Night riders... Uhh, raider, guys?" "Yep. After I hacked into their database, I got information on those they had come in contact

with, and one of them was an 'unknown hunter,' so out of all who we met, Alex fit the bill to a

tee."

Lyra replied to Emma as she waved away the hologram, causing it to disperse into particles of

light.

"Are you sure?" Jake asked.

After seeing Emir nod with a relaxed posture, acting as if this had nothing to do with him, Jake

muttered:

"Damn... Who would've thought.... And here I was thinking that he was a good dude."

Emma then cut in, looking at Emir with a calm face, which was quite unlike her flabbergasted

companion:

"Do you know why?"

Emir didn't reply but just sat there and pointed at Lyra.

"He wants me," she stated.

"....Or at least what I could bring to him, access to the old world, and whatever else he might

be dreaming of."

They all sat in silence for a while, Emir and Lyra only doing so to give them a chance to take in

all of what they revealed to them.

????!

But suddenly a loud radar signal echoed through their compartment.

Lyra raised her hand and swiped through the air.

A hologram of the cruiser's radar appeared just after.

????! ????! ????! ????! ????!

It showed a few dots, which kept increasing and increasing until it reached an uncountable

number...

Now the entire radar was blinking.