At this moment, the door opened. An array of guards walked in and compassed Wade swiftly.
Wade's face darkened, and Emerald stared at the guard warily. They were all from the mayor's house. If they compassed Wade, it meant that it could be the order of one man only...
The forefront was in a suit. He bowed to Wade. "Lord."
Wade looked at him, "Secretary Spike, what are you doing here?"
Secretary Spike looked respectfully at him. "The president sent me here to take charge of Patrick Lewis's case."
Wade was silent for a while and said, "Please tell the President I'll handle the case properly. There is no need to bother you."
Secretary Spike looked at Wade and then Emerald. Wade frowned. "Please keep it simple and straight."
Secretary Spike sighed. "Wade, you are so... fearless just because you don't know the situation."
****
Wade looked serious and was about to say something when Secretary Spike interrupted him. "Mr. Mayor, this is an order from the President. Please don't put me in a difficult situation. A private car will wait for you to take you to the interstellar train. The President is waiting for you in Sky City."
His face seemed stiff. Secretary Spike turned to Emerald. "And this is?"
"She's my friend. She has nothing to do with this case. Let her go." Micheal said coldly.
"Yes."
Because Spike didn't want to displease Wade any further, she was only sent out of the Mayor's mansion. She looked up and saw the threat over the sky again.
It seemed that the planes had gotten bigger, which meant they were coming closer.
She had expected Patrick Lewis to have people from outside help him, bribe the guards, or maybe send a team of mercenaries to come to rescue him.
But this, this was more than she could ever imagine.
He didn't compromise or "escape." He let his army invade Hope City. According to Wade, they would even blackmail them.
She doubted that maybe Wade Sterling wasn't the one who had found and arrested Patrick Lewis, but the mercenaries intended to make trouble with the alliance.
What was he planning?
With those thoughts, she pulled up her collar, put her hands into her jacket pockets, and walked into the crowd.
Meanwhile, in the Mayor's mansion, Secretary Spike, who had always done things properly as the First Secretary of the President of the alliance, went secretly to the underground jail after sending the Mayor to the interstellar train station.
Even though he had heard many things about Patrick Lewis, he was still very surprised when he saw him in person.
In the shabby underground prison, two men were sitting calmly on the floor like they were having a vacation. The taller one must be Patrick Lewis. He looked glacial and exalted instead of rough and rude as Spike had expected—no wonder he could pretend to be Kenzo Lane for so long without being suspected.
Spike was worried because he knew that many mercenaries over the sky were not just for saving Patrick. But why on earth had they come here?
He discreetly showed his ID, but Patrick still looked calm. Spike even apologized accidentally to the commander of the mercenaries when the assistant behind Patrick started to list their demands.
"We are going to settle down in Galaxy Eternity." He seemed to talk about some insignificant object. "So you can give us Freedom City."
"Um...."
"The reign, law, and the standing army of the alliance can remain the same." Harvey continued. "It will still be the territory of the alliance as long as you don't bother us."
"I need to report to the President."
"Suit yourself."
"By the way, can I ask why you chose Galaxy Eternity and Freedom City?" Secretary Spike didn't understand. He heard that the mercenaries owned many planets. Why did they have to make a big fuss to occupy this planet?
Then, the commander, who had been silent, started talking.
"I like this galaxy." Patrick said flatly," and Freedom Planet had the biggest storage of molybdenite in the range of 100 light-years."
"How will we fuel the vessels if we give the molybdenite to you?" Secretary Spike gritted his teeth. They had come here for the minerals.
However, he didn't notice that Patrick Lewis only put the minerals in the second position.
"You can buy from us." Patrick said, "In fact, Freedom City is already under our control. We just don't want to grab and keep."
This is grab and keep!
Secretary Spike left the cage in a depressive state as if he was the one in prison. When he forwarded their exact conversation to the President on the phone, the supreme ruler of the alliance on the other side fell into silence.
"Did he say that he likes Eternity Galaxy?" Lucas Sterling asked coldly. "The villains are blackmailing us blatantly. Tell them that we don't accept any demands. If they don't retreat, we'll kill Patrick Lewis."
With this firm attitude, Secretary Spike told the army to contact the mercenary vessels in space directly and send the threat privately instead of going to Patrick Lewis.
However, the leaders of the mercenaries quickly answered them with dominance, just like their commander.
"Kill him then." They said, "If you kill our commander, we'll all be promoted by a certain level. Pretty good. But we never accept threats and will use a nuclear bomb to destroy Hope City if our commander gets hurt. What? Do you have more nuclear bombs? It doesn't matter. We only need to blow up Hope City."
Half an hour later, the President finally sighed and gave Secretary Spike a new order, "We can give them Freedom City and let the mercenaries go there. But if the Zerg declare war against us, they should come to our defense as a priority. Besides, they should acknowledge their loyalty to a human in public."
When Secretary Spike met Patrick again, he was not worried at all. Patrick raised his eyebrows. "Your President is smart. Deal! You have three months to move the citizens before the mercenaries take over the planet."
Secretary Spike watched respectfully as the toughest prisoner ever stepped out of jail. After he saw the Cheetah fly to the sky, the eight space fortresses leaped and disappeared simultaneously. He finally felt relieved and went back to report to the President.