But if Bruce betrayed Patrick, why did he involve her in the betrayal?
Upon the thought of Bruce's personality, a clue chain occurred to her---Harrison had left the mercenary and joined the army for his family. In spite of his rudeness, he was always telling the truth. If he wanted to rescue Patrick, he would directly resign his office and tell the Federation instead of some "confidential channel for conspiracy."
So---
Did Bruce trap Harrison to betray him? She looked at the "feeling guilty for betraying Harrison" Bruce beside her and the serious Wade.
The situation becomes complicated since Wade seems to believe the two evil guys.
But it made sense for Bruce to deceive Harrison. Why did he come to Wade regardless of the danger? Did he want to break the prison?
The answer surfaced when they went back to the hotel.
The two went back to the hotel, pretending to be a sweet couple. When they stepped into the room, Emerald shrugged away from him. He checked the room around immediately. After ensuring there was no detector, he was relieved.
"You are indeed loyal to him." She said coldly.
Bruce smiled, "Commander wants to force Harrison to rebel; it's only a matter of time."
Emerald thought for a while and understood the "Commander" was Patrick.
"What are you doing here?" she threw a pack of food to him, "do you want to break him out of jail?"
He glanced at her, "You're so funny." She felt confused.
He wolfed down the food and burped. Then he said, "We received the information the first day when the Boss was captured. You don't need to worry... I am here to rescue you."
"Rescue me?"
"After what you said on the phone, Wade will not let you off. If I don't come here, you will always be suspected." He said, "Save your words, 12 o'clock the day after tomorrow, come with me to the military wharf and leave with my cheetah."
"...To where?"
"To our space fortress."
In the next few days, Emerald led an uneasy life. She understood that Patrick would escape, but it would be earth-shaking. And with his special identity, should she leave with Patrick or stay in the alliance?
However, Bruce was obviously calmer. Except for sleeping on the floor in her room, he played games in the room and said nothing about how Patrick would break out.
But on the agreed day, Wade sent someone to find Emerald early in the morning.
"We'll see each other at the wharf at 12 o'clock." Emerald left in haste with the words.
When she arrived at the mayor's office, she found Wade preparing the material to declare Patrick guilty. He asked Emerald if a lawsuit was needed. Emerald thought for a while and said no.
"I hate him indeed," she said, "but nobody wants an open trial for that."
Wade stared at her. "You are always straightforward, and I never thought you were actually so traditional."
At this moment, the phone on the desk rang. Wade didn't ask her to leave but directly picked it up.
"Father." His voice was waveless.
Emerald shrank. The President of the Alliance? Mr. Lucas Sterling?
However, Wade just kept quiet and frowned. In the end, he told his father affirmatively, "He is guilty and deserves to be punished. I swore to protect the supremacy of the alliance's law. Father, I will never let him off."
After hanging up the phone, he kept silent for a while and then looked at Emerald.
"This is the first time my father scolded me." He smiled. "He told me never to offend the mercenaries and never make trouble for him. But I refused."
"Lord, I also want to ask why you are so persistent."
He looked at her firmly. "You don't know that since my childhood, I knew the resources were limited. The poor lead miserable lives, but the essential resources in the nearest are always occupied by the mercenaries; before, if the mercenaries committed a crime, the judges always let them off. Emerald, if everyone only considers himself, then how can we keep justice? And the alliance's law will exist by name only."
Emerald was silent for a second, then said. "You are right. You were the righteous and innocent hero; he was just a sinful and dirty bandit."
Around 11 o'clock, she said goodbye to Wade and left his office quietly.
Along the narrow path beside the mayor's house, she walked fast to the outside. But she felt something unusual.
She turned around, seeing the guards all looking up to the sky in shock.
She looked up and was shocked, too.
The sky was blue and clean, except for the eight black dots appearing in the farthest sky.
At such a distance, they were so evident. There was no doubt there were eight space fortresses appearing in the atmosphere of Planet Hope.
There were only 15 space fortresses in the alliance. And now there were eight fortresses assembled on one planet!
The quiet dots looked so frightening and threatening. Her heart was beating so fast, and a weird idea occurred to her. In order to confirm, she turned around to Wade's office. The guard saw her go back again and didn't block her.
At the door, she saw Wade sitting on the chair quietly. The suspended LCD on the wall was on. Emerald knew the code below, which represented the picture transferred by the military space camera.
On the huge wall, the gigantic black fortress was so real. Every fortress was neatly covered with gun muzzles, dark and cold, displaying powerful force; inside the belly, a large number of Cheetahs and Snowbergs were hibernating.
Over every space fortress, a huge silver-grey cross shone in the sunlight.
She stepped to the screen, pointed to the cross image, and asked with a trembling voice, "What is that image?"
Wade took a deep breath and said, "The mercenaries."
"His force..." Was it so powerful? Emerald even couldn't believe what she saw.
Wade nodded. His voice was a little frustrated, "Other stars in the alliance have refused to dispatch troops. We only have three space fortresses."
"Then you should let him go." She said nervously.
"Not as simple as you think." Wade said, "The mercenaries didn't show up in the Eternity Galaxy for more than five years. This time, they came so boldly. How could they let go of the chance that easily?"