Kidnap

"These?" Lucas was having a hard time believing that Aiden has these pictures. Astonished, he couldn't help asking, "Who did you meet?"

"That is what I want you to answer." Observing the reaction of Gen. Lucas, Aiden had no difficulty understanding that these images had some deep secrets hidden in them.

"Exo-04. That is an exoplanet found in the vicinity of the Planet Will."

'Exoplanet, huh!' Aiden was no stranger to the term. It was a planet that orbits around the star other than the Sun. Lyutan-b, more commonly known as Planet Will, is one such exoplanet that orbits around the red dwarf Lyuten's star, however…

"I have never heard of any habitable exoplanet close to Planet will." Aiden couldn't help but ask.

A habitable exoplanet is a little different from the other exoplanet. It is closer to Earth in size and also has the gravity comparable to that of Earth. More importantly, there must be an atmosphere and a source of water on it.

These conditions are easy to list but difficult to fulfil. So the only habitable planet near to Planet Will is Earth, and that is almost 12 light-years away from it. So…

"It is not habitable." Lucas shook his head, "It was a cold piece of ice, but they found a way to make the place habitable. There are about…" Lucas stopped at mid-sentence, looked at Aiden, and asked, "It's a federal secret. It's better if you don't know about them, but the question is, what did he want from you?"

"Gather data about those beasts and rescue some people." Looking at the reaction, Aiden had no problem in understanding that something is not right. He couldn't help asking, "Is there something wrong about the place?"

Lucas sighed as he massaged his forehead. It was clear that he was reluctant to talk about it, but he said it nonetheless. "This place was void of any life. At least looked from the satellite images when they discovered it."

"The federation had built around 10-12 strongholds for research and stuff."

Listening to him, Aiden felt that Lucas had something to hide from him. He asked, "Wasn't that place inhabitable in the first place? Why would they build up a stronghold in the first place? Wouldn't it be enough to build a research lab?"

It was the type of question that Lucas didn't want him to ask. His face was showing an expression that was telling Aiden that it wasn't a question he wanted to answer, but Aiden didn't have any intention of giving up.

"That is not important. What is important for you to know is that a few monster tides appeared a month ago and continued to swap across the land. And they had destroyed everything in the path."

"Almost 12 outposts, 7 research posts and two of the strongholds had been destroyed."

Aiden was curious, but unlike Lucas, he could already guess the answer. The connection to the other planes. As Mraz had said it might be a middle plane.

'But how can an inhabitable exo-planet have such a high concentration of mana?' Even if he wanted to know, he was sure that Lucas didn't know the answer.

Aiden, however, asked a question that Lucas should be aware of. "It was a stronghold. Laser, Teaser, particle disintegration missiles they had so many means to attack, yet…" Thinking about it Aiden was a little concerned, "Even if there is nothing, there should be the Zero-energy shield. How the hell can they destroy it?"

Instead of answering, Lucas sighed and said, "You understand how dangerous that place is, so you shouldn't think about going to such a place."

'Who wants to get back such hell again?' Aiden chose not to say it loud. He asked, "What is about the video?"

"Do you want to know who spread the video?"

"It is Elijah or Asher. That much I know." He had no confusion about it. "But what I want to know is, can you stop it?"

Lucas shook his head, "it is too late. It came out about five days ago and spread like a wildfire."

Without even Lucas telling him anything, Aiden knew that someone was fanning the flame. Otherwise, there was no way the upper echelon would let them leak that kind of data.

"Three days ago, there was an official statement that there was a case of virtual hacking and…"

"What do they want?" Aiden felt frustrated hearing it, "were they looking for a reason to punish me? They could do without leaking the video."

Looking at Aiden, Lucas felt a little sorry. He said, "The bad thing is that you can't escape the punishment anymore, but the best thing is that things are looking better for you."

"The council is angry about the entire thing and has softened their entire stance about you. They are willing to let you go for…" Lucas stopped for a moment and added, "with just fifteen years of imprisonment."

"However, if you are willing to hand over the data and help them to in a project about Earth, then they are willing to reduce the sentence to five years."

Lucas was hesitant about the whole topic. However, when he was checking Aiden's expression, to his surprise Aiden was calm.

After Lucas finished, Aiden asked, "Can you help me with my family?"

'Shouldn't you be worried about yourself first?' But he never spoke those intended words. "How do you think your parents would respond if the army to show up in front of their house after all of this mess?"

"You don't have to worry about that," After Aiden sent something over to Lucas, he added, "if you show this to my parents they would understand. I have talked to them."

"What?" Lucas was about to open the file but cried in surprise, "But, how?"

"The call had gone through." Aiden did not want to dwell on the subject and said, "Just let me know when you get in touch with them."

Looking at the back that was reaching for the door, Lucas asked, "what are you going to do about the punishment?"

Yet Aiden acted like he didn't hear it and left the virtual domain without responding.

"They were too dirty." Lucas sighed while sitting in the now-empty virtual room. Although Aiden did not understand all these kinds of dirty politics, Lucas had no difficulty in understanding what was going on behind the scenes.

'They just wanted to force Aiden and get on Aiden's good side at the same time.' Thinking about it Lucas sighed in his heart, 'They just want to show that they are just being generous, not giving his death sentence, even if he doesn't give them the data. And if he did…'

"It looks like his threats make them frightened," Lucas mumbled out loud and took off his helmet. The view of him changed back to his similar office.

However, someone was standing in front of him. With his face frowning, Lucas asked, "What's wrong?"

"The target had disappeared." Even if the man didn't say out loud, Lucas can already expect some terrible news. Yet, when he heard it, he couldn't control his temper and slammed his hand on the table.

"How?" he groaned. Even without Aiden telling him, he had already sent his men to watch over and protect Aiden's family and sisters, however…

"We don't know." Even when he was talking about it, it still confused him, "we had followed the girl to her hostel, and we retired for the night in front of the hostel, but she had never come out."

"What were you doing there? Sleeping? You can't even protect one girl?"

The man wanted to say something, but he knew all his words would sound like an excuse, and on the top of that, it is the truth that they had lost the girl.

"I don't want to know what you do or how you do it, but find that girl within 24 hours. Otherwise…" Lucas didn't end the sentence, and he wasn't needed to. The man left with a salute.

"Bastard. What do they want now?" Even if he cursed, he knew that it wouldn't change anything, yet he couldn't help.

He looked at the helmet he had taken off and put it on again. Soon he reappeared in the room with the large screen.

He quickly created a private domain and contacted Aiden. However, a similar response appeared on the screen.

[Because of error, the connection couldn't be established.]