Chapter 379: The Worst Evening of His Life

Her vision didn’t blur, but her focus narrowed to a single point: the sensation. She tried to stop herself from thinking about it, but it was still there.

Lilianna’s hand trembled as she slowly raised it to her throat.

As her inner voice said, she knew what it was. It was the residual side effects of the fast-acting healing medicine that Helena’s friend gave to her.

That was the reason she could seamlessly come into the gathering like nothing had happened.

Helena was at her side before Lilianna knew it.

No words. No fuss.

Helena simply handed Lilianna her own glass, looking like it was half-finished with the amber liquid inside.

Then, she pressed it into Lilianna’s hand.

Lilianna drank it, and the liquid felt warm as it went down her throat. It was slightly bitter, with an undertone of something herbal.

It coated her throat in a thin, cool film that immediately began to smother the burning. The relief was so abrupt that her eyes watered.

The quantity was small—barely two mouthfuls, so she finished it quite quickly. It was hardly enough for a woman who looked like she was really thirsty.

But Lilianna noticed the way Helena took the glass back with a particular kind of care. Her fingers curled around it protectively.

The liquid she let her drink was the same color as the drink she had been drinking. One wouldn’t find any difference in it if you didn’t consume it.

To anyone else watching, it looked like Helena just offered what was the available drink in her hand to the thirsty Lilianna.

After all, Helena had been drinking from the same glass all evening. Same color, same drink. It appeared that the quantity inside the glass was just low because Helena had almost finished it.

A perfectly reasonable explanation.

Lilianna thought as the burning in her throat subsided to a dull ache.

’She’s really good at this,’ her inner voice commented. ’Better than you, honestly.’

Ciel appeared at Lilianna’s elbow a moment later, holding a tall glass of water in his hand.

His young face had a face full of concern. "Thought you might need this. Helena was about to ask, but I was already up."

"Thanks," Lilianna said, her voice still rough.

She took the water and drank. The cold cut through the residual warmth of whatever Helena had given her.

It wasn’t enough to fully quench the thirst that still clung to the back of her palate, but the crawling sensation in her throat had receded.

It’s Irritating, but not incapacitating.

Helena placed a hand on Lilianna’s back and guided her toward the dining area. "Come. You need real food to give you additional nutrition, not just the liquids."

The three of them moved together: Helena on Lilianna’s left, Ciel on her right.

Colonel Vane peeled away from his position near the wall and trailed after them at a distance. Close enough to intervene, far enough to be ignorable.

✦ ✦ ✦

Three hundred kilometers south-southeast of the seaside estate, beneath a canopy of alien trees whose bioluminescent leaves cast the forest floor in changing patterns in the colors of blue and silver.

Xavier Hunter was having the worst evening of his life as a General.

"Spread to flanking positions. Thermal imaging on. Nobody moves until I give the signal."

Xavier’s voice carried the flat, clipped tone with authority. His golden eyes caught the ambient glow of the forest’s strange flora.

Lieutenant Rocky Hawn relayed the order through a series of hand signals.

The squad of twelve soldiers in light tactical exoskeletons fanned out through the undergrowth. Their movements were near-silent, boots engineered for terrain suppression.

But the forest itself was loud: there was the wet click of nocturnal insects, the distant crash of waves against a rocky shore.

Somewhere deeper in the canopy, the long, warbling cry of something that was either a bird or something similar.

They had been pursuing Ethan Goelet for the better part of the late afternoon.

For approximately four hours.

Xavier’s jaw ached from clenching.

Four hours to chase a single man through woodland terrain with a full tactical squad and air support on standby.

This was embarrassing.

"Sir," Lt. Hawn murmured, appearing at Xavier’s flank.

The lieutenant’s face was streaked with the forest’s bioluminescent pollen, giving him the appearance of a human glow stick.

"Thermal’s got him. Two hundred meters north-northeast, stationary. But he has stopped moving."

"Cornered?"

"Looks like it. Ravine edge. A thirty-meter drop to the shore below. There was no path down."

Xavier took a deep breath.

Finally. Whatever tricks Ethan had been using to mask his thermal signature seemed to have run out.

He moved through the trees with Lt. Hawn on his six. Their squad tightened the perimeter in a textbook encirclement pattern.

The forest thinned as they approached the ravine, the bioluminescent canopy giving way to open sky.

One of the planet’s twin moons hung fat and silver above the horizon, its light painted the treetops in cold platinum.

Xavier could see him now.

Ethan stood at the ravine’s edge with his back to the drop-off, his lab coat fluttering in the coastal wind.

Even in the half-dark, Xavier could make out the man’s posture: loose, relaxed, hands in his pockets.

The posture of someone waiting, expecting them to come.

It set every nerve in Xavier’s body on fire.

He had already read Ethan’s file.

The man had demonstrated an aptitude for pheromone research that bordered on the obsessive.

Disguised himself in the Maxwell Corporation as this kind person, but was caught in the power play.

"Ethan Goelet."

Xavier stepped into the clearing, his pulse rifle held low but ready. Behind him, the squad materialized from the tree line, a semicircle of gun barrels and targeting lasers.

"You are under military arrest under Article 14 of the Imperial Security Code. Surrender now and put your hands where I can see them."

Ethan turned his head. His expression was invisible in the moonlight, but his voice was clear, light, and almost friendly.

And then he laughed in amusement.

As he looked at the dozen rifles pointed at his chest in the silver dark of an alien forest.

Xavier felt like his laugh was a slap to his face.