?281 Chapter 281 – Team Leaders
Nick kept looking at the empty Containment Unit for a while.
'This was the only Containment Unit on the map that could possibly house their Adult,' Nick thought.
'All other Containment Units are either occupied by weaker Specters or are empty. Additionally, this is a very expensive Containment Unit, and they wouldn't just keep it empty like this. That's a waste of an investment.'
'Is there truly nothing in there?'
Nick decided to check and moved around the ceiling for a bit.
'Sure enough, I don't hear any hum from the electronics,' Nick thought. 'The Containment Unit isn't even on!'
'Does that mean that their Adult is somewhere else?'
'Nah, as far as I can see, the map makes sense, and there are no suspicious empty spaces. Additionally, why would you want to keep your strongest Specter this secret? Sure, you don't want others to know about it, but you don't even want your team leaders to know? That's strange.'
'Also, why was this Containment Unit marked red on the map?'
At that moment, Nick became suspicious.
'Do they even have an Adult?'
'Based on what Wyntor said, the Spartans were originally a group of three Veterans that left Kugelblitz to create their own business.'
'They quickly managed to get a couple of Adolescents and Newbies, but for several years, they couldn't get an Adult.'
'And then, about half a year ago, they announced that they had caught an Adult.'
'But did they?'
'I've never heard any details about this Adult.'
'Yet, the power of the leaders increased. John Keyweather even demonstrated his power as a Mid Veteran.'
'They shouldn't be able to do that without an Adult.'
If Nick were corporeal, he would be furrowing his brows right about now.
'Something is going on,' Nick thought.
'As far as I can see, there is no Adult in any of the Containment Units, but the powers of the Veterans still increased.'
'But that's impossible without an Adult.'
Suddenly, Nick had a revelation.
'But what if they do have one?'
'What if it's just not inside any Containment Unit?!'
'What if it is walking around, disguised as a normal human?'
'Obviously, the Spartans have been contacted by one of Envy's servants. Otherwise, the ambush wouldn't have happened.'
'Assuming the servant contacted them six to twelve months ago, it would make sense that they announced they finally caught an Adult.'
'I'm not sure if the servant is bribing, controlling, blackmailing, or trading with them, but one thing is clear.'
'The servant is increasing the overall power of the Veterans.'
'However, working together with a Specter like this is about as illegal as it gets, and if anyone finds out, they will all be killed.'
'Because of that, they have to keep everything secret, and they're telling their team leaders and normal Extractors that they caught an Adult.'
'To make it believable, they said that their most expensive Containment Unit, this one, is housing the Specter, but they're not giving them any details.'
'That would explain why the team leader marked this Containment Unit red while he didn't mark any of the other empty Containment Units.'
'He thinks that an Adult is contained here!'
'But there isn't!'
'So, where is the Adult?'
'Among the employees!'
Nick didn't like that thought one bit.
This meant that a venomous snake was hiding in a bunch of harmless snakes.
If Nick grabbed the wrong one…
Eventually, Nick turned around and went back into the light layer above the hallway.
Yes, there was a dangerous Specter amongst the enemies, but he still couldn't just leave.
Additionally, Nick only needed to be careful.
It was possible that the Specter wasn't really among the employees but just some kind of visitor or external consultant.
Eventually, Nick stopped above one of the offices, but this one was different from the previous one.
This one was occupied.
A beautiful blonde woman was sitting inside her office, writing something on a sheet of paper.
Based on the size and the look of the office, Nick could tell that she was another team leader.
Nick's smoke body stopped above her head and created a circle.
His message was clear.
The Grey Room moved towards the place and waited.
Nick moved to the side.
Silence.
BANG!
The Grey Room cut through the floor and pushed itself downward by jumping off the ceiling.
The woman became startled, but before she could even look around, the Grey Room landed on her head.
Her Barrier wasn't active!
Even though these Barriers were expensive, the slight drain of Zephyx could still annoy a couple of people.
Most of them kept their Barriers active and just dealt with the annoying feeling, but some of them, especially when they felt safe, deactivated their Barriers.
And, well, this team leader was sitting inside her office.
There was probably no safer location from her perspective.
As soon as the Grey Room landed on her head, her eyes became unfocused, and she fell forward, her head hitting the table.
Nick came through the hole and materialized, looking at the team leader.
She didn't move.
Yet, she was still alive.
Even more, she didn't seem injured.
It was all too clear to Nick that the Grey Room was feeding.
Nick wasn't sure how the Grey Room fed, but the team leader's state was too abnormal right now.
Nick furrowed his brows, grabbed her neck, and broke it.
"We're here to kill. I told you that I would let you escape the building, but in exchange, you have to help me," he said.
The Grey Room didn't move for a while, but eventually, it went back to the walls.
It didn't communicate in any way.
The next moment, Nick looked at the dead team leader.
'This should be the third one.'
'The first one should have been the guy with the yellow Barrier during my ambush. He was the only one with a yellow one, while everyone else had orange ones.'
'I didn't originally pay the color any mind, but the supervisor I killed near the trading post earlier also had a yellow one. He was probably also a team leader.'
'So, she should be the third.'
'I don't know how many teams the Spartans have, but I'm sure almost all of their team leaders are dead.'