Chapter 198: The Spy Has Been Caught
Roman Rowe shoved the door open without a second thought. It wasn’t like he was deaf; he could hear the sounds coming from inside.
A thick, coppery stench filled the dimly lit room. Roman Rowe waved a hand in front of his nose in disgust. "What is that smell?"
"Who’s there?!" Shane Wilder bellowed defensively, instantly pulling the blanket over his naked body.
It wasn’t bright, but with the eyesight of Frost Shaw and Roman Rowe, they could still make out the scene inside.
Sprawled haphazardly on a wide bed were several men. All were emaciated, naked, and deathly pale.
One man was lying on his stomach, his back so thin his ribs were visible, and it was covered in bloody welts, clearly from a whip.
Aside from Shane Wilder under the blanket, the others were all breathing faintly.
Frost Shaw’s voice cut through the gloom. "Shane Wilder. Male. Base Commander of Auspice?" His words sounded even more sinister in the dim room.
"I... I am." Shane Wilder knew his own limits; he could tell at a glance that he was completely outmatched.
He huddled under the blankets, shivering, fumbling to secretly pull on his clothes. His whole body trembled like a leaf.
"Good. Come on out. We need to talk." Frost Shaw turned and stepped into the hallway, finally exhaling. The air inside had been stifling and foul.
Roman Rowe trailed right behind him and casually draped an arm over his shoulder. "So, what’s the plan?" he asked again. "Don’t tell me..." He let his gaze wander over Frost Shaw with a mischievous look.
They had both seen the scene inside. One thing was crystal clear: Shane Wilder liked men, and he liked to torture them. ’So, is Frost Shaw here to...?’
Frost Shaw shoved him away with a look of disgust. "Piss off!"
Roman Rowe, relieved, sidled up to him again. The two of them stood close, peering into the room.
The lump on the bed deflated as Shane Wilder emerged, having hastily thrown on his clothes. Only... his T-shirt was on backward, and his loose pants were threatening to fall down.
He scrambled off the bed in a panic, tripped over his own long pant legs, and went down in a face-plant. Frost Shaw clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The icy sound made Shane Wilder’s cowardly heart tremble. He scrambled over on all fours and latched onto Frost Shaw’s thigh.
THUD— Frost Shaw kicked him away, his voice laced with disgust. "Stay back."
Shane Wilder pressed his back against the wall, cowering in the corner. He didn’t understand why they were here. ’Are... are they after my position as Base Commander?’
’They can have it! I don’t want it anymore!’
Before Shane Wilder could speak, Frost Shaw continued, "Starting tomorrow morning, the base will operate normally. Stop restricting entry and exit. Understand?"
It dawned on Shane Wilder. ’So, they’re here for the lottery shop.’ He mentally checked his space; it was filled with the rewards his trusted Guardian Corps members had turned over in the last two days.
He was reluctant to back down, but he knew he couldn’t win a fight, and he was terrified of pain. He nodded frantically. "Yes, yes, of course! Whatever you say!"
Satisfied, Frost Shaw started to leave with Roman Rowe. But after just one step, he seemed to remember something, turned back to Shane Wilder, and held out a hand.
"The rewards," he demanded, as if it were his right.
Shane Wilder played dumb. "What rewards?"
He was still sitting on the floor. Frost Shaw stepped forward and planted his boot precisely on the top of Shane Wilder’s foot. A sharp "CRACK!" echoed in the hall.
Roman Rowe jumped back in fright, exclaiming, "What was that sound?"
Frost Shaw gave him a deadpan look.
Shane Wilder tried to bluff his way out of it. "Wha-what rewards? I don’t know anything about them!"
The words were barely out of his mouth when another sharp "CRACK!" sounded. Roman Rowe silently looked down.
Shane Wilder’s instep was now bent downward at an unnatural angle. The sight was gruesome.
A bloodcurdling scream was torn from Shane Wilder’s throat, his already grimacing face twisting into a mask of agony.
Seeing Frost Shaw lift his foot again, Shane Wilder immediately begged for mercy. "Stop! I’ll give them to you! I’ll give them!"
Frost Shaw lowered his foot. He and Roman Rowe stood together, two pairs of eyes fixed squarely on him.
Shane Wilder gritted his teeth against the pain in his instep, simultaneously circulating the energy in his body to soothe and heal the injury.
At the same time, his hands were busy rummaging through his storage space. His personal space was a full fifty square meters, and more than half of it was filled with the rewards turned over by the Guardian Corps.
’Should I give it all to them?’ he wondered. ’Or just half? Or maybe just the junk?’
Frost Shaw wasn’t about to let him dither. He gave him an impatient kick. "Hurry up!"
Shane Wilder sped up his rummaging, transferring the rewards out with extreme reluctance and a pained heart.
Roman Rowe didn’t bother looking at what they were, simply using his own space to receive them. A stream of items flashed before their eyes and vanished.
"That’s it, that’s it! It’s really all gone!" Shane Wilder insisted, his hands clutching his Space Ring nervously.
Frost Shaw let out a soft scoff, then contentedly started to leave with Roman Rowe.
’I thought we’d have to fight,’ he thought, ’fight fire with fire. I didn’t expect the guy to be such a coward...’
Roman Rowe chattered beside him, "So, business has been terrible these last few days because of that asshole Base Commander?"
Frost Shaw nodded.
Roman Rowe was furious. He started to rush back, intending to give Shane Wilder a proper beating, but Frost Shaw grabbed him, causing him to stumble and nearly fall into his arms.
Not only did he almost fall, but Frost Shaw began dragging him away. "Let’s go," Frost Shaw said in disgust. "Even the air here stinks."
Roman Rowe had to agree. Forgetting about his near-tumble, the two of them hastily left Auspice Base.
As for Shane Wilder, the moment he confirmed they were gone, he began screaming and flailing.
"Guards! Somebody, get in here!"
Don’t ask why he didn’t call for help earlier. He knew it would have been useless, and he’d only embarrass himself further...
After a long while, members of the Guardian Corps finally rushed in from outside. The Base Commander had given strict orders that no one was to enter this building.
Entry was only permitted with his personal summons. The Guardian Corps crowded around Shane Wilder.
Without asking what had happened, they simply lifted him up and started towards the infirmary.
Everyone was tacitly aware of the Base Commander’s little "quirks." He liked to play his perverted games, which often left either himself or others... well.
So, this wasn’t an unusual sight. They all adhered to an unspoken rule: ’we don’t ask, you don’t tell.’ They just picked him up and walked.
Shane Wilder, for his part, bit his tongue. He refused to say a word. It was too humiliating! ’The great Base Commander, getting bullied like this...’
The night passed in the blink of an eye. Before going to sleep, Lily Hart had been thinking, ’Since there’s not much business anyway, it’s probably okay to sleep in a little, right...?’
But the moment she opened the RV door, she found a dense crowd of people waiting outside. Startled, she instinctively activated the RV’s defense system.
But on closer inspection, their expressions seemed friendly, and she could even see faint smiles.
Lily Hart sensed something was off. She was just about to ask a question when she was hit by a wall of sound.
"Boss Hart! Hurry, hurry! Bring out the tickets!"
"Yeah, yeah! I want some scratch-offs! And I need to buy some Powerball tickets!"
"That’s right, stop dawdling, Boss Hart! Let’s get going!"
Lily Hart quickly snapped out of her confusion and hurriedly pulled out stacks of scratch-offs from a drawer.
Before she even knew what was happening, a hectic hour had passed. She could finally catch her breath.
Lily Hart took the opportunity to ask one of her customers, "So, did they catch the spies in the base?"
The man was engrossed in his scratch-off. He looked up at her words, gave her a quizzical glance, then went back to scratching. "Yeah, they caught ’em."
Someone nearby chimed in, "Yup. They’ve been rounding them up for two days straight. No clue where all these spies are coming from."